Welcome to The Journey Workshop Online—a practical training hub designed to help churches and individual believers return to the New Testament pattern of one-on-one discipleship that multiplies disciple-makers.Journey was built in the context of church planting and can begin with an unbeliever, a new believer, or a seasoned Christian, guiding each person through clear, Scripture-rich lessons that develop confident witnessing, genuine spiritual growth, and the ability to disciple others.As you explore the sections below, you’ll see a simple, biblical strategy that emphasizes shepherd-led leadership, a first-century ministry model, effective lessons, and faithful step-by-step multiplication—so your ministry can move from maintaining to reproducing.

“In the first six months, we saw twice as many people receive Christ than all of last year.” — Pastor, New England

1. The Purpose of Journey

Time
It takes 33 to 45 meetings to complete all 10 lessons. Journey has 10 lessons, with the final lesson completed in one meeting, as it’s a celebration of meeting together and graduating the disciple to have their own disciple.Cost
Journey Discipleship books cost $19.95 or less, with lower prices when more are ordered. You can order a set of samples to see every page of Journey, its supporting materials, and the Student Journey discipleship lessons.Highlights
Lesson 1 is all about Salvation, and when it’s completed, tools are put into the disciple’s hands to help them witness effectively, immediately. The disciple is trained to intuitively witness to “water cooler questions.” Every lesson in the Journey is supported by websites and training.Lesson 2 on Assurance has a unique Bible study method called Daily in the Word, in which the disciple reads, writes, and says the Scriptures. This is our number one positive feedback.Lesson 5 is about discipleship and calls disciples to commit to becoming disciple makers. Lesson 5 also contains stewardship. Every time a disciple completes that lesson, offerings increase.Lessons 5 through 9 contain discipleship training modules. This ensures that the disciple has been trained properly. You can order a set of samples to see every page of Journey, its supporting materials, and the Student Journey discipleship lessons.Discipleship and Multiplication
Discipleship is all about multiplication. Even the root of the word disciple comes from the word for mathematics. These charts show you what we have seen...Starting with 10 disciplers and 10 disciples who take 10 months to complete Journey, and the average we see is 80% completing, but let’s figure the worst-case scenario that only 60% graduate to have their own disciple, you will have 16 disciplers after 10 months who will have their own disciple.

Starting with 10 Disciplers

After a year and a half, you have 26 disciplers even with 60% are not ready.Then after…
3 years, 66 disciplers
6 years, 168 disciples
8 years, 1,100 disciplesI’ve also included the witnessing that we do with our disciplers and disciples. We ask that they give out the Gospel at every opportunity, but seek to share the Gospel completely in a conversation at least once a month. Journey is all about winning people to Christ and the more that hear the Gospel, the more who will trust Christ.Starting with 10 disciplers and 10 disciples, and accounting that the disciple will grow in their witnessing with their discipler, a Gospel conversation is given to…150 souls in 10 months with 10 disciplers and 10 disciples
406 souls in a running total after 20 months with 16 disciplers and 16 disciples
2,520 souls in 3 years
11,177 souls in 6 years
46,636 souls in 8 years

If you are starting with 25 disciplers and disciples:

164 disciplers and 164 disciples in 3 years
419 disciplers and 419 disciples in 5 years
2,749 disciplers and 2,749 disciples in 8 yearsAnd you can see the thousands witness to on the chart.

On more chart where you start with 50 disciplers and 50 disciples:

328 disciplers and 328 disciples in 3 years
839 disciplers and 839 disciples in 5 years
5,498 disciplers and 5,498 disciples in 8 yearsIs this possible? Yes and it is happening.We’ve seen the multiplication and the fruit is real, and the results are being measured.Here’s what you can have in your ministry…Start discipling with Journey, and in 8 to 10 months, you'll have real spiritual multiplication starting in your ministry.You’ll see more witnessing and new converts spiritually cared for daily.Here’s what is next…Carefully go through each section of How to Multiply Disciple-Makers, keeping in mind what is possible for those who are faithful.Multiplication is not accidental. It comes only when each step is taken; subtracting any part stops the multiplication.

2. Definitions

Our definition goes further.Our definition is that discipleship is training a disciple-maker.That means you may have to carry out many, if not all, of the activities we just listed, among others, to multiply a disciple-maker successfully.We define a disciple as someone who learns from God's Word through a disciple-maker to become a disciple-maker.And a disciple-maker is a trained discipler whom the pastor has confidence in to take care of and train a new or young believer to become a disciple-maker.And one-on-one discipleship is the key.We created the Journey discipleship lessons to enable this biblical strategy, which we will look at in a few minutes.Let's continue to our next subject.

3. Shepherds are required

The sheep will not multiply correctly without the shepherd overseeing their care, protection, feeding, and intentional multiplication of disciples.A shepherd is needed to pair the sheep together properly for multiplication.And the pastor best knows who each discipler should disciple, who should meet with whom.Also, a biblical pastor will be a pattern to follow, as we see in 1st Peter 5:2-3.This means that the pastor and all assistants to the Pastor must disciple one-on-one so that the church can have them as a pattern to follow.Plus, the difference in vision and guidance will be a difference maker in leading by example. Do not delegate this ministry; participate in it; you are a disciple of the Lord as well.Reproduction and multiplication are important to the Lord. A shepherd knows that.But ultimately, Jesus says Do you love me? Then it comes down to obeying the Lord, multiplying His lambs to sheep and then more sheep, from a heart where He is first.Instead of building “your” ministry, multiply His sheep.Remove this step, and the math breaks down.To multiply disciple-makers, biblical leadership is needed, and a disciple-multiplying ministry must have a pastor with a vision for spiritual multiplication deeply rooted in his heart, as a shepherd.Now let's look at the next point.

4. Be a First Century Ministry
_{not a Medieval Church}

And then we see something unusual. Ephesians 4 writes…Some Apostles
Some Prophets
Some Evangelists
Some PastorsBut then the Bible does not say “some” Teachers.Why? Because the great commission in Matthew 28 sends us all to “teach all nations” and to “teach them to observe all things” or we can say disciple them.So, anyone not called to full-time service as a pastor or a missionary does have a calling as a teacher, a disciple-maker, a one-on-one teacher, like a tutor.And Pastors and church planters are instructed to be “apt” to teach.So the Bible teaches that if you are not called to be a missionary or a pastor, you are called to be a teacher or a disciple-teacher.Most people fear public speaking, but in one-on-one discipleship, you only need to speak to one person at a time, and you are both growing together.So then look, in verse 12, the Bible tells us that the purpose of the missionaries, pastors, and teachers or disciple-teachers is for the “perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ.”To perfect the saints (believers) is to add what is missing. Why? So that they can join all of us (missionaries, pastors, teachers) in the work of the ministry.What is the work of the ministry? Is it attending, giving, and serving? Everywhere you find the word ministry in the Bible, you see that there is a person who has the Word of God, and that person is transferring it to someone else.And it is important to know that serving is not the same as ministering.In most churches, you do not need to know much about the Bible to serve. In fact, you do not even have to be a Christian to be able to serve.A medieval ministry model tries to get everyone serving. That is their primary strategy.Serving and helping the church run smoothly is important, but that is not the purpose of the ministry, as we see in Ephesians 4.A biblical first-century church sees people trust in Christ, and matures those young believers (lambs) to be able to minister the Word of God. Not just the Pastor, leaders, and 5% of the adult church members.It is a church where the missionaries, pastors, and disciple-teachers work together to place the Word of God in believers, mature them, and multiply disciple-makers to join them in the ministry.There is one more characteristic of a first-century ministry and it involves your priorities and motivation.Is “perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry” optional for you? Or, do you take the Word of God seriously? Ephesians four starts with the Apostle Paul imploring us to take our calling seriously.Can you picture Jesus asking you If you love Him?If right now you can say yes that you love the Lord, then what did He want for His sheep? His sheep.Ultimately it comes down to whether you will do what the Lord wants or not, whether you take the Scriptures seriously or not as His disciple, no matter what the results are.So a first-century ministry model is where the pastor/shepherd loves the Lord and the Lord’s sheep and has matured adults in his ministry to lead people to Christ and to bring the new believers to spiritual maturity under his care for multiplication.And the Journey discipleship lessons were designed to help guide you to a New Testament first-century pattern of ministry. The strategy is built in.Without this step, the mathematical outcome cannot be reached.So we are talking about how to multiply disciple-makers, and to do so you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, and you to need to be a first-century ministry.Now let's look at the next point.

5. start right

Many of the activities and ministries that are subtracted can return in the future, even stronger, as you have additional workers and trained disciplers.The point is that one-on-one discipleship should be in your church schedule.And next, let's notice the word “daily” in these Bible verses:Acts five forty-two reads, And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.And in Acts 16 verse 5 the Bible reads, And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.So I encourage you to pray and work to make your one-on-one discipleship ministry to where discipleship is happening every day of the week.But for that to happen, you have to carefully follow each step.In another lesson, detailed steps are provided for starting, training, and beginning.So we are talking about how to multiply disciple-makers, and to do so you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, you need to be a first-century ministry, and you need to be careful to start right.Let’s continue.

6. Use Effective Discipleship Lessons

All of these elements, and more, are present in the Journey discipleship lessons. We can send you a set of samples so you can see for yourself.
Multiplication occurs when this step is faithfully taken.So we are talking about how to multiply disciple-makers, and to do so, you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, you need to be a first-century ministry, you need to be careful to start right, and you need effective discipleship lessons.Let's continue.

7. Keep Discipleship one-on-one

4) Disciples will ask their real questions. The real needs of the new or young believer will surface in the privacy of one-to-one meetings.Many new believers will ask their discipler a question about the Pastor's message because some words are new to them.The safety and privacy of a one-on-one setting encourages disciples to ask questions they might not otherwise pose.This leads to more Bible study and a deeper understanding of the Scripture for both the discipler and the disciple.Disciplers do not need to worry that they cannot answer every question a disciple might have.Disciplers are instructed to say, I will prepare an answer for you, or the answer is coming in a future lesson.What a blessing that a new or young Christian can learn the Word of God in privacy and security.


5) Disciples and disciplers can find their own time to meet.This is how you can have discipleship taking place 7 days a week. And when you get to that point, your multiplication is about to explode.


6) A discipler can have more than one disciple, with the Pastor’s approval, but they meet with each one individually.Remember, if you add even one extra person instead of keeping it one-on-one, it hurts multiplication.Do not have couples disciple couples, groups, or any other arrangement; failure is assured.You might think you can do more faster with a group, but that is what is being done, has been done for years and years, and Christians are becoming less and less each year. It does not work.The results you’ve seen in the mathematical tables will not happen.Remember, one-on-one discipleship with Journey is for the purpose of training a disciple-maker. That requires a one-on-one relationship.If you want to know more about why discipleship must be one-on-one, you can select the lesson that takes a deeper look into the biblical and practical reasons.So we are talking about how to multiply disciple-makers, and to do so you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, you to need to be a first-century ministry, you need to be careful to start right, you need effective discipleship lessons, and you must only disciple one-on-one or multiplication will not happen.Now let's look at the next point.

8. Plan for some to drop out

3) Israel in Zechariah 13:9.
The Bible says, And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.


4) We see that Jesus also tested His followers.
The Bible says in Luke 9:23.And he (Jesus) said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.


5) Jesus intentionally thinned large crowds.
We see two times when Jesus intentionally reduced the huge crowds following Him. His hard teachings were meant to sift the true followers from the crowd.


6) The first time is in John chapter six.
A large crowd near Capernaum assembled and Jesus explains in verses 26 that many were following Him because they were filled from the loaves of bread, and not because of His miracles!Then in John 6:54, to the large crowd, plus His disciples, Jesus said they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life.And the Bible reads in John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.He intentionally reduced the crowd to the faithful.


7) The next time came later in His ministry in Luke 14.
The Bible reads in Luke 14:25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.Why did Jesus reduce the crowd? To make sure the Gospel multiplies into every generation through faithful disciples.Jesus explains that His ministry is like building a tower and making sure you have the materials to build it, meaning He can complete His work with faithful disciples.He also explains in Luke 14 that His work is like a ruler going to war to make sure He can win and not surrender, meaning this spiritual war will be decided by having faithful disciples.


8) The Journey discipleship lessons carefully help you properly train the disciple.
And the Journey discipleship lessons have strategic places where we evaluate the disciple.The reason to evaluate the disciple is that we are training them to be a disciple-maker who will have their own disciple.We want the disciple to grow spiritually. We want the disciple to develop perseverance and resilience to prepare for trials and spiritual warfare.We want to strengthen their faith and perhaps prepare them for full-time ministry if the Lord calls them.


9) Not everyone is ready to "move forward" spiritually today, and it becomes easy to see this when meeting one-on-one.
And there are two key indicators that it might not be the right time for a disciple: number one is an inconsistency in meeting and two, failing to do their Daily in the Word assignments, which is explained in the lesson two.In such cases, we pause meeting with the disciple and arrange to pray together periodically, reassuring them that they can resume when they're ready.Or they drop out on their own.Everything is done with utmost care and kindness.This way meeting one-on-one allows you to focus on those who want to grow spiritually, which saves time, and helps us reach the goals that are possible.


10) Not all those who "drop out" are lost causes, as many may rejoin as God continues to work in their lives.
Remember that John Mark from the book of Acts, who, after initially quitting, was later faithful and wrote one of the Gospels.Because of the strategy and checkpoints in Journey, you will be able to focus on those who want to move forward for the Lord, those who want to grow spiritually, who want to do God’s will.So to conclude this topic let’s remember the rich young ruler in Mark 10.He fell on his knees and said to Jesus, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?Jesus told him to keep the commandments, to which the young ruler replied that he had.Then the Bible tells us that Jesus loved him and told him to sell everything, give to the poor to have treasure in heaven, take up the cross, and follow Him.The Bible says the rich young ruler … was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17-22 The offerings the young ruler could give did not matter to the Lord.Did the Lord’s strategy of requiring only faithful disciples work? Well, the Roman Empire hunted, tortured, and killed Christians, but it was replaced by the steady multiplication of disciples.And all of history is divided by the birth of Christ—before His coming, B.C., and after His coming, A.D.Some have called Him the man who split time. Even your own birthdate is determined by the birth of Our Lord."All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”
_{Pastor James Allan Francis, The Real Jesus and Other Sermons (1926), “One Solitary Life”}So, to multiply disciple-makers, you need a biblical shepherd as the pastor, you need to be a first-century ministry, you need to be careful to start right, you need effective discipleship lessons, you must disciple one-on-one, and plan for some to drop out because you are focusing your time only on those who are ready now to move forward spiritually.In the same way math demands precision, discipleship requires obedience; alter this policy, and multiplication fails.Now let's look at the next point.

9. Plan for multiplication

They can disciple people you will never have time to disciple.They can lead people to Christ whom you will never know.They can teach a class you’ll never have time for.They can care for a new believer, and you can rest knowing those believers are being cared for.They are spiritual fruit that the Bible speaks of.They will train disciples who will reach people you will never reach for Christ.They may be called to other cities—or other countries—to disciple where you will never go.Let’s look again at the multiplication goals. You can see why it is imperative to follow the plan we have been discussing; each element is necessary for multiplication. This is not a new plan, or my plan; it is the original plan.Remember what’s possible with faithfulness:

Starting with 10 Disciplers

Starting with 25 Disciplers

Starting with 50 Disciplers

If you carefully follow the procedures in the Journey discipleship lessons, avoid shortcuts and leave nothing out, and remember that the purpose is to train disciple-makers, you can look forward to…Winning more people to Christ
Caring for new and young Believers
Multiplying disciple-makers
Needing more outreach
Helping other churches start their one-on-one discipleship ministry
Training ministers in your own ministry
Sending missionaries to win, disciple, and plant churches
Planting churches from your church directlyIn other words, you will have a first-century ministry.So, the question is, can you see it by faith?Can you catch a vision of multiplication?Can you see that you are also the Lord’s disciple?Can you see that the greatest resource for any ministry is the people in the pew every Sunday?In conclusion, the way to multiply disciple-makers in your ministry is to have a biblical shepherd as the pastor, be a first-century ministry, start right, use effective discipleship lessons, disciple one-on-one, plan for some to drop out, and plan for multiplication.I think the Christians I envy the most are those who were saved in one of our disciple-multiplying churches. They've been discipled and have their own disciples, and every week they hear the Word of God at a church meeting, and that's all they know.They don’t know about programs, curriculum, or the world’s largest pizza. They just see their ministry grow month after month and know the Word of God and God personally.This is the only Christian life they have ever known—simple, biblical, and first-century.John Honeycutt, Chuch PlanterVisit HowToStartJourney.com for the next step.

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