The Discipleship Series: Recovering the Apostolic Pattern

Introduction: Why This Series Matters

We live in a time when Christians are surrounded by an ever-growing stream of content—books, podcasts, and articles—yet many still lack clarity and depth in their relationship with God. They also often lack the practical skills to make disciples, especially in the areas of evangelism and discipleship, within the very contexts where God has placed them.

The Discipleship Series is designed to meet these needs by returning to the way of Jesus and the apostles: grounding believers in the Scriptures, forming them in sound doctrine, and equipping them to guide others in the same way. This series matters because it provides a shared foundation for believers of all ages and stages—helping families and churches grow together into maturity in Christ, so that they may faithfully bear witness to him in the world.

At the same time, the series emphasizes transferability with a view toward multiplication. Its structure is designed to get people teaching large portions of Scripture faster. It helps men to disciple men, women to disciple women, and parents to disciple their children sooner rather than later. By turning learners into teachers more quickly, the series helps disciples internalize the truth and pass it on within their own households and communities. In this way, discipleship leads to multiplication, as every believer is equipped not only to grow personally but also to establish others in the faith.

What is Discipleship?

People often discuss discipleship from two perspectives. On the personal level, discipleship is the ongoing process by which a Christian progressively learns to follow Jesus in every area of life—bringing desires, thoughts, words, and actions under his lordship. As it relates to our ministry to others, discipleship is the intentional process by which we help others follow Jesus in their own settings and circumstances, walking with them as they grow in faith and obedience. In short, discipleship involves both growing as a follower of Jesus ourselves and guiding others to become faithful followers of Jesus as well. Following Jesus, therefore, requires careful attention to both our core responsibilities and our core purposes as defined in Scripture.

Our core responsibilities are the contexts in which we are called to live out our discipleship in everyday life:

Privately – cultivating habits of Bible reading, prayer, and personal holiness so that our hearts remain aligned with God and his Word.
In our Families – leading, loving, and serving those closest to us with Christlike humility, including parents, spouses, children, and extended family.
In our Local Churches – participating actively in the life of the church through fellowship, taking the Lord’s Supper, studying God’s Word together, praying together, and worshiping as a gathered body.
In our Neighborhoods – showing kindness, practicing hospitality, and sharing the gospel with those around us.
In Broader Society, including the Workplace – modeling integrity, diligence, and godliness in every responsibility, so that even in ordinary labor and civic life we bear witness to Christ.

Our core purposes remind us not just where we live out discipleship, but what we are striving for as followers of Jesus:

Godly Character – growing into Christlikeness as the Spirit transforms us from the inside out, producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Service – meeting needs with humility and love, imitating the example of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve.
Evangelism – bearing witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus and calling people to repent, believe, and obey him in every area of life.
Discipleship – coming alongside other Christians to help establish them in the faith, encouraging them to follow Jesus faithfully in the places where God has put them.
Worship – loving and valuing God above all else, offering our lives as living sacrifices to his glory.

These responsibilities define the spaces where discipleship happens, while these purposes define the goals we pursue in those spaces. In this way, discipleship is both practical and purposeful. It speaks to the ordinary, day-to-day details of how we live, and at the same time it directs us toward God’s purposes for our lives as outlined in Scripture.

Discipleship also must be intergenerational. Titus 2 shows older men teaching younger men and older women teaching younger women, but the vision extends further—whole households growing together. Parents are called to disciple their children, and adolescents must be drawn into the lives of older, more mature believers. Churches thrive when multiple generations gather around meals, encourage one another daily, and share life as one household of faith. The Discipleship Series provides structured content, but discipleship comes alive as families and congregations embody the way of Christ together.

The Challenges of Discipleship

Discipleship in our day faces serious challenges. Sermons, podcasts, videos, and books are readily available, yet many churches struggle to develop mature disciples. The issue is not a shortage of information but a failure to integrate it into a coherent way of life. Instead of being shaped by the unified teaching of Christ and his apostles, believers often absorb fragments from multiple sources, creating a patchwork spirituality that lacks depth, continuity, and resilience.

Some of the key challenges include:

Information without Integration – learning bits and pieces without seeing how they fit together and need to be lived out in the contexts where God has placed us.
Passive Consumption – listening but not necessarily engaging or obeying.
Fragmented Commitment – irregular attendance and divided priorities that prevent steady growth in community.
Non-transferable Teaching – content that is inspiring but cannot easily be explained or retaught to others—for example, a moving sermon that stirs the heart but leaves no framework for discipling a friend, a co-worker, or even a child.
Lack of True Learning – little opportunity to confirm that disciples can articulate and live out what they have learned.
Knowledge Divorced from Practice – a widening gap between belief and obedience in everyday life.

The Discipleship Series is designed as a balanced alternative. By combining expository teaching, interactive discussion, and summaries of major doctrines, it helps disciples move from passive consumers to active participants. Just as importantly, the lessons are structured for transferability—getting men teaching men, women teaching women, and parents teaching their children—so the faith spreads naturally from person to person and from generation to generation. In this way, discipleship becomes coherent, embodied, and multiplying.

The Apostolic Pattern of Teaching

In the first century, the apostles established churches in the Christian faith not only by visiting them in person but also by sending authoritative letters. These writings were studied and applied in households through dialogue, reflection, and obedience. For example, Paul’s letter to the Colossians was read aloud in the assembly (Col. 4:16) and then passed to neighboring churches, where families and small gatherings would discuss its meaning and implications.

Their approach was not random or fragmented but systematic and intentional—grounding believers in the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). Within months, new disciples in places like Thessalonica were already rooted in the gospel and taking that message to their region. Their method shows us that disciples are best formed not by scattered lessons but by immersion in the broad, coherent teaching of God’s Word.

Our series mirrors this pattern. Instead of relying on scattered topical lessons, participants are led through large expository units of Scripture. This allows them to see how the apostles themselves instructed their communities and provides space to study, discuss, and apply that teaching together. The result is a discipleship process that is coherent and grounded in the way the apostles discipled New Testament churches.

A Modern-Day Catechism

The Discipleship Series functions as a modern-day catechism—not in the sense of rote memorization, but as a systematic way to ground believers in the apostles’ teaching. Unlike traditional catechisms that rely solely on a strict question-and-answer format, this series balances structured exposition of Scripture with interactive discussion.

Each lesson is crafted to:

Anchor participants in large passages of Scripture that are representative of the apostles’ teaching in a given area.
Summarize essential doctrines and practices.
Press truth into the everyday contexts of family, church, neighborhood, and broader society.
Prepare participants to teach these truths to others.

Structured exposition ensures clarity, while interactive discussion ensures ownership—so that the truths of Scripture are both understood and internalized. The aim is not merely to convey information but to produce transformation—truth that is understood, retained, lived out, and passed on.

The Two-Part Framework

The series unfolds in two complementary sections that together provide both foundation and breadth:

Foundations of the Faith – covering essential groupings of teaching, such as Becoming a Christian, Our New Life in Christ, and Private Disciplines for Christian Growth.
Representative Books of the New Testament – studying large sections of Scripture (e.g., Matthew 5–7, Acts, James, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Peter, 1 John) to expose believers to the breadth of Jesus’s and his apostles’ teachings. We do so because one of our underlying goals is to align ourselves with the ministries of the apostles.

Together, these provide both a strong foundation and broad exposure to how the apostles discipled their communities.

Discipleship in the Household of Faith

While The Discipleship Series is a vital tool for grounding believers in sound doctrine, it is only one piece of the larger puzzle of Christian formation. The New Testament presents discipleship not merely as a program but as a whole way of life. The series is meant to serve as a springboard—an intersection point—where teaching connects directly to the practical contexts of everyday life.

Privately – believers commit themselves to prayer, reading Scripture, and cultivating holiness, taking what they learn in the series into personal devotion.
Daily – Christians encourage one another (Heb. 3:13), applying the lessons in real conversations, accountability, and mutual exhortation.
Weekly – the church gathers around the Lord’s Table, shares meals, prays together, and reflects on the Word, reinforcing what is studied in the series through corporate worship and fellowship.
Intergenerationally – parents disciple their children, and older believers guide the younger (Titus 2), ensuring that faith is transferred across generations. Adolescents, especially, need to be drawn into the patterns of prayer, study, and service alongside more mature Christians.

In other words, the series provides the doctrinal backbone, but discipleship comes alive only when households and churches embody the way of Christ in their ordinary rhythms. Without these lived expressions, the lessons risk becoming abstract. With them, the teaching of Christ and his apostles becomes visible, tangible, and transferable—making the series not an end in itself but a springboard into the shared life of God’s people.

Conclusion

The Discipleship Series helps churches recover the apostolic pattern of discipleship—rooting believers in the foundations of the faith, immersing them in the NT documents, and equipping them to live and pass on the apostles’ teaching. It is, in essence, a modern-day catechism—holistic, discussion-based, and designed to form lifelong disciple-makers who embody the teaching of Christ and his apostles. At the same time, it must be joined to the wider life of discipleship: more mature believers teaching the next generation, Christians encouraging one another daily, and communities living out the gospel together. Our prayer is that this series would serve as one faithful means by which God raises up resilient, multiplying disciples in our generation and beyond.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

What comments and questions do you have about the diagram at the top of the page?
Which of the challenges listed (information without integration, passive consumption, fragmented commitment, etc.) do you most identify with right now? Why?
How might studying entire books or large units of Scripture (rather than isolated verses or topics) change the way you see and live the Christian life?
Why is it important that discipleship be transferable—men with men, women with women, and parents with children? What step could you take to practice this in your own context?
In your household or church community, what rhythms (daily and weekly) could make discipleship more of a lived reality rather than just a study program?
How do knowledge and obedience stay balanced in your life, and where do you sense God calling you to grow next?