We appreciate your interest in discipleship! At Spotswood, this is a very important part of our DNA. We believe Scripture teaches us that once a believer becomes mature spiritually, the next step is to multiply.

The first step in the discipleship process is a clear definition of a disciple. The word “disciple” means “learner or follower.” A disciple is a learner or follower of Christ. Our goal at Spotswood is to develop multiplying Christ followers. The process of discipleship is modeled through the life and ministry of Christ.

After spending years teaching and training His followers, He challenged them to multiply with these words found in

Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all thatI have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

David Platt, in his book Follow Me, writes: “In Jesus’ initial call to four men standing by the Sea of Galilee, we see that the inevitable overflow of being a disciple of Jesus is making disciples of Jesus. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men’(Matthew 4:19). This was a promise: Jesus would take His disciples and turn them into disciple-makers. And this was a command: He would call each of His disciples at the end of Matthew to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey Him (Matthew 28:19-20).

From the start, God’s simple design has been for every single disciple of Jesus to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples until the gospel spreads to all peoples on the planet. “The power of discipleship is amazing. If one evangelist were to reach 1,000 people every day with the gospel (that would be incredible!),it would take him/her 15,000 years to introduce the entire world to Jesus. But if one disciple maker were to disciple just one other person for a year, growing her to be a disciple maker; and if in the second year the two of them each discipled one other person, growing them to be disciple makers; and this pattern were to continue year after year, with each disciple investing in a new disciple, the entire world would be introduced to Jesus and be personally discipled in just 37 years! 15,000 versus 37.

This is the power of multiplication! At Spotswood, our desire is to prepare our members to be multipliers.

We have created a tool called Grounded, that equips believers as they disciple others. You can learn more at www.spotswood.org/discipleship. If you would like to be a discipler, or would like to be discipled, please complete the form on this site. If you have any other questions, please email us at discipleship@spotswood.org.