Successes and Slip-ups In Disciple Making | Justin Gravitt

The podcast begins with an introduction to the mission of Discipleship.org, emphasizing the importance of Jesus-style disciple making as a central focus for churches. The hosts highlight their aim to connect and partner across denominations and organizations to foster this mission. Justin Gravitt and Roy Fitzwater from the Navigators Church Ministries are introduced as key voices, with a focus on their work to help local churches develop a culture of disciple making, inspired by Jesus' example.

Justin Gravitt shares the history of the Navigators, founded in 1933 by Dawson Trotman, considered by many as the father of modern disciple making. The story of Trotman’s commitment to sharing his faith nightly and his example of self-sacrifice in rescuing a drowning woman highlights the spirit of service and intentionality that characterizes the organization. The Navigators' focus has always been on relational, Evangelistic disciple making, with a legacy of emphasizing personal evangelism, spiritual disciplines, and the importance of active, intentional discipleship.

The core of the discussion centers on Navigator Church Ministries’ role in helping local churches become disciple-making communities. Justin and Roy explain their approach, which involves coaching pastors to develop their own disciple-making skills, cultivate a disciple-making culture within their church, and send out mature disciples equipped to evangelize and disciple others across the nations. They describe a deliberate, multi-layered process involving leadership development, cultural change, and empowerment of everyday believers to make disciples in their daily contexts.

The speakers reflect on past mistakes made by the Navigators, such as performance-driven expectations and overlooking the centrality of the local church. They emphasize the importance of humility, partnership, and unity in the body of Christ against the common enemy, which they identify as Satan. The challenge of uniting churches from different denominations and avoiding a performance or checklist mentality is discussed, with an emphasis on shifting towards authentic, heart-level transformation and relational discipleship.

Justin and Roy describe a three-circle process for cultivating a disciple-making culture: developing disciple-making leaders, embedding a culture of reproduction within the church, and sending disciples out into their communities and across the world. They detail how a church's leadership team is coached over three years to develop a shared vision, clear pathway, and measurable progress toward making mature disciples. The focus is on creating a clear pathway for spiritual growth tailored to each church's context and on empowering laypeople to see their everyday surroundings as opportunities for disciple making.

The podcast highlights upcoming workshops at the National Disciple Making Forum centered on relationships—getting real, going deep, healing relational pain, and equipping those who are less relational. Justin and Roy stress the importance of developing genuine personal relationships, healing relational wounds, and helping non-relational believers become involved in discipleship. They advocate for an outward-focused, relational approach that models Christ’s love and truth in real-life contexts.

Roy Fitzwater shares how churches should define a disciple based on biblical character, knowledge, and behaviors, emphasizing a personalized pathway for spiritual growth. He discusses the importance of a clear, reproducible pathway rather than a menu of disconnected options. The goal is to produce maturing, reproducing believers who understand core truths, develop character, and are equipped to disciple others in their unique contexts. The emphasis is on intentional, relational disciple making that aligns with biblical models.

The hosts conclude with encouragement and practical resources, including an ebook that illustrates a fictional process of developing a disciple-making church. Justin and Roy emphasize that everyone can be a disciple maker, regardless of spiritual giftings, and encourage churches to take tangible steps to start or enhance their disciple making efforts. They invite listeners to engage with Discipleship.org's offerings, including courses, articles, and upcoming events like the National Disciple Making Forum.