A Disciple-Making Movement in Your Churchნიმუში

The Equipping Myth (Teaching = Training)

The equipping myth is ultimately the number one myth that renders disciple-making strategies ineffective and produces a deficiency in leaders. It’s the fatal assumption that teaching equals training. The church has an abundance of teaching environments but very few training environments.

Teaching environments cultivate passive learning. They are teacher-initiated and information-driven. They’re great at raising awareness of new ideas but not at fostering deep understanding. Examples of these environments would be sermons, lectures, reading, and videos.

Training environments cultivate active learning. They are student-initiated and application-driven. The goal of these environments is to strengthen understanding of existing ideas through practices. Examples of these environments would be practice, receiving feedback, and teaching others.

Jesus leveraged both of these types of learning in his movement. He taught to the crowds, but he also trained the disciples. One is not better than another. But one is not enough. We need both—your church needs both, your people need both—if we’re to multiply disciple-making leaders.

If you take a closer look at Jesus’s ministry, the Scripture only records him preaching to the crowds in three places: 1) the Sermon on the Mount, 2) his teaching before the miracle feedings of the 5,000 and 4,000, and 3) the Olivet Discourse. Outside of that, Jesus devoted most of his energy and effort to training twelve men to become disciple-makers.

However, even though Jesus spent the majority of his time training the few, the North American church has flipped the model. In most cases, local churches spend the majority of their time teaching the masses. And that’s a problem, because we cannot seek to lead a movement like the one Jesus started if we divorce ourselves from the method he used.