The importance of clarifying definitions.

I had a conversation with a youth pastor recently about The Emerging Leaders Program. He asked a question that caught me a little off guard, but alluded to what I think is a bigger problem more broadly.

Perhaps the questions shouldn't have caught me off guard, perhaps I should expect it more often than not...

He simply asked what is different about what we do and what others do, when referring to the terms disciple, disciple-making, and discipleship...they seem to be readily used as interchangeable terms...

So what's different between what you are saying and anyone else?...

The premise is simple because, as this youth pastor correctly identified, we have a lack of commonly understood definitions. That is not to say definitions do not exist, but we so often use these terms to mean slightly different things, which have, in turn, diluted the word entirely of its original meaning. Or, as was the case with my Youth Pastor friend, we use them interchangeably, essentially seeing every different term as just a different word that means the same, such as 'begin' and 'start'. So, when I was sitting there talking to this Youth Pastor, he was unsure what I was referring to whenever I said 'disciple-making'. Was I meaning discipleship, evangelism, mentoring, perhaps even leadership development...Was I meaning something that was program-oriented, lifestyle-oriented, missional or any number of other words that are floating around there that could be used in his mind, interchangeable?

Interestingly enough, a study completed in the USA in 2020 (which I understand is not always translatable to the Australian context and is a little old, but in this case, I feel there are significant similarities) found that there is a lack of commonly understood definitions. In fact, they said,

"There is not a clear, compelling and commonly understood set of basic definitions for terms such as discipleship, disciple, and disciple-making".

Some of the basic terms to describe the mandate of a Christian's life have been lost in the church...

Let that sink in for a moment...

It's crazy!!

Some of the basic terms to describe the mandate of a Christian's life has been lost in the church.

Think about the difficulty this presents when speaking about the great commission or what it means to be a follower of Jesus. How about when you are preaching in your church on a Sunday and encouraging people to be 'true disciples'...as opposed to what?...

Recently, I ran some training that focused on equipping people to live a lifestyle of disciple-making. It's called MyFriends, and not many people turned up. I could reflect on a whole lot of reasons that this may have been the case...But I was left wondering if the messaging was lost in translation...if perhaps the words and encouragement for people to attend was not effective because people didn't really understand what it was that they would be attending and what it would equip them for?...

Another example is when I attended an event that had a panel of leaders discussing how to engage and raise up the next generation in the church. One of the church leaders on the panel told the group of younger leaders that his philosophy of the most effective way to do discipleship was through leadership development...

To say that I was left a little disheartened and disappointed was an understatement. But again, it highlighted the interchangeable use of different terms, in this specific case, to a larger group of younger leaders who are desiring to learn and grow in these ways.

Not only are these, and other reasons, demonstrative of the problem, but this makes it incredibly difficult to assess the effectiveness of our churches without any prevailing definitions.

This brings into focus how we are assessing the effectiveness of our local churches, as I'm really not sure, and sometimes just completely confused about how people are assessing whether their church or ministry is healthy and effective or not.

But that is for another day.

Interestingly, the same study also found that pastors and leaders were overly optimistic and overrated their effectiveness in their assessment of discipleship, personal disciple-making and the presence of a disciple-making culture within their churches.

Pastors and leaders where overly optimistic and overrated their effectiveness in their assessment of discipleship, personal disciple-making and the presence of a disciple-making culture within their churches.

I know, shock and horror, right?

Or perhaps there's a general nod as you continue reading.

So, coming back to the original question posed by the youth pastor, my assumption was that he knew what disciple-making meant; his assumption was that I was simply throwing in the popular term of the time to catch his and everyone else's attention. The reality is that he was thinking about discipleship, or the journey of a person, once they have chosen to accept Jesus as their Saviour. I was referring to disciple-making,

Helping disconnected unbelievers develop a relationship with Jesus, grow in their faith, and be trained to repeat the process with others.

So, where does that leave us?

Can these simple terms that we use in the church all the time be clearly articulated consistently across the entire church body?

I wonder if you were to ask those in your ministry or church to define each of these terms, what would they say?

Would it be consistent throughout your community, or would you have largely differing perspectives and understandings?

So when I say

• disciple,

• discipleship,

• disciple-making, and

• disciple maker;

To what do you think I refer?

I encourage those who are brave enough to write their personal understanding of these terms, let others in your team do likewise, and then let us know what the outcome was when you shared it together.

Maybe you will struggle to even articulate these terms, maybe you will find that you essentially write the same thing for all of them, or perhaps you will be able to easily and clearly articulate them. But until you sit down and write them down, how will you know if you understand these common terms correctly or not?

Which resonates with you the most?

• I have a clear understanding of each of these terms.
• I have a clear understanding of some of these terms.
• I have some concepts, but use these terms interchangeably.
• I would struggle to write a clear definition for these terms

Click here for a link to the study "National Study on Disciple Making in USA Churches: High Aspirations Amidst Disappointing Results"

This article was written and created by Andrew Hodgson © 2025.

Published by The Emerging Leaders Program, 2025.