Jeremy Pryor: [00:00:06] This is what Jesus commanded us to do. Right before he left, this was his final instructions to us to go and make disciples.
Jeremy Pryor: And yet, nine out of 10 believers, if you talked to them and said, how are you making disciples? Have you made a disciple this year? they wouldn't know, how to do it and they would not be obeying that command. So we are in wide spread, deliberate disobedience to the direct command of Christ.
Jeremy Pryor: And when we say that he is Lord and he's king, and then we ignore the clearest command that he gave in [00:00:36] the New Testament, that just is, it's very confusing.
Jeremy Pryor: [00:01:06] excited to be able to talk to you all about. Disciple making this is a extremely important part of our, our faith. And, uh, I really, um, and I, I'm very neglected and, and for so many people, I think a challenging, confusing part.
Jeremy Pryor: So really excited [00:01:36] to share with you guys some, some of our thoughts, uh, that we've been working on through 1000 houses.
Jeremy Pryor: I'm gonna blast through some information for y'all. Our disciple making process is called Life on Life Discipleship. We do here at 1000 houses. So one, one KH 1000 houses is the kinda umbrella organization, um, that is, uh, doing coaching for those who wanna make disciples for, uh, anyone who wants to start like a, a house, church, or house community.
Jeremy Pryor: We have coaching for that as well, as well as, uh, those who want to do evangelism reach out of their [00:02:06] houses. But tonight we're gonna talk about, uh, the cohort that's launching around life, on life discipleship. So our plan tonight, uh, introduce ourselves real quick, which we've done. Brent Koff, who's on the call as well.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, he's a part of 1000 Houses. He is, um, the, uh, kind of assistant coach for the cohort that we're launching. So it'll be Brent and I'll be working with you guys. He's gonna be, uh, making sure all the logistics are handled, uh, walking through as you guys are working on your assignments. And so you'll hear a lot from Brent over the course of the three months.[00:02:36]
Jeremy Pryor: Um, what we're gonna do is I would like, the way I like to present our blueprint is to talk through. Um, the top 10 disciple making mistakes that we've noticed, that we're trying to correct, that we've made, um, virtually all of these. And so we wanna talk about them. Um, the 10 Distinctives of Life on Life and then how to work, uh, how, how you guys can get involved if you want to apply, be part of the cohort for three months, how that will work.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, so we're gonna end pretty sharp at nine. Um, uh, I guess it depends on what, [00:03:06] what time zone you guys are at, but at the hour. So we'll do this pretty quickly. Um, so if you guys have questions, we'll leave some time at the end for some q and a as well, so jump in there. Um, real quick, just to introduce myself, um, this is a little bit my, about my disciple making bio.
Jeremy Pryor: So Discipleship completely changed my life bet between my ninth and 10th grade, uh, year in high school. Um, a man named Ed Kelly, he took me away on a, um, a retreat and agreed to spend six months discipling me. I didn't know what that meant, uh, but we got together [00:03:36] every single week. Um, and he, uh, walked me through a lot of the basics of the Christian life.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and I went from, I would say, a fairly confused follower of Jesus and very much drifting away from, I, I think my faith to being totally on fire for the Lord, uh, went back into high school my 10th grade year and, um, just was a completely transformed person. So it was, uh, it's very important to me, uh, part of my story and just how God really formed my DNA I've, I [00:04:06] still operate.
Jeremy Pryor: My faith is, is very much operating from a lot of the things that Ed imparted to me during those six months. Um, even, uh, at that kind of young age. My senior year of high school, I got mono and spent three or four months, uh, just, uh, exhausted as you are with mono sleeping basically 22 hours a day. Um, and so, and I was coming out of this fog.
Jeremy Pryor: It was like I was, I was very, very sick. Um, and [00:04:36] I started to read this book called das, which is a biography of a man named Dawson Trotman, who started a group called the Navigators. And Dawson was obsessed with disciple making, and he was one of his things, he, he was, when Billy Graham first was getting started, das was trying to help him figure out how to do discipleship for all those crusades.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, the navigators are primarily a ministry that started at least in, uh, in the um, uh, military. Um, there's a really interesting moment in [00:05:06] Dawson's life early on where he was discipling six guys and, um, and so one of them was in the Navy and the guy came to Dawson and said, Hey. Um, I, I, I, I just led this guy to Christ and I can't wait to introduce him to you and have you disciple him as well.
Jeremy Pryor: And Dawson's response to that was, um, no, you disciple him. And, uh, and they, and his, you know, apprentice said, oh, I can't do that. And Dawson said, if you don't, if you're not able to disciple him and give him what I gave you, everything I've done up [00:05:36] till now has been worthless. So that was like a turning point in the life of like the navigators where Dawson insisted on multiplication and this, the movement just exploded.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, so that, that impacted me huge as a senior. And so I organized a discipleship conference for my city. I brought together all these, you know, different people who were making disciples. Um, and that kind of started this idea that I, I, and I would say in a large part, I've been confused ever since, why this is not a bigger deal.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and we we're gonna [00:06:06] get into lots of details. I've got lots of. You know, ideas and theories about that. But, um, but I, I don't feel like I've ever gotten, kind of, gotten over the idea that there is, this is such an important, um, part of the Christian life. This is what Jesus commanded us to do. Right before he left, this was his final, um, instructions to us to go and make disciples.
Jeremy Pryor: And yet, um, nine out of 10 believers, if you talked to them and said, how are you making disciples? Have you made a disciple this year? Um, they, they wouldn't [00:06:36] know, um, how to do it and they would not be obeying that command. So we are in wide spread, um, deliberate disobedience to the direct command of Christ.
Jeremy Pryor: And when we say that he is Lord and he's king, and then we ignore the clearest command that he gave in the New Testament, um, uh, that just is, it's very confusing. Like, um, as Jesus said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say? So, um, so thank you guys so much for being a part of this 'cause.
Jeremy Pryor: This is why we're [00:07:06] here. You guys want to make sure you are obeying this command. Um, I want to obey this command. This is so important for the kingdom of God. So, um, now I would say, uh, the next part of my bio is just, um, kind of confusion on how, on the, how to do discipleship. I went from, um, very like almost programmatic discipleship where like one-on-one where I would meet one person and try to disciple them for a year to, uh, getting very influenced by kind of an idea that, oh, it's just organic.
Jeremy Pryor: You [00:07:36] just kind of do life together. And then disciples are kind of made by osmosis, um, back again to like, no, this is an intentional thing that you need to, like, decide to do with certain people. So, we'll, we'll talk a little bit about that. Um, I'm very interested in the disciple making movement, DMM um, three dm, all these different, uh, groups that have really tried to crack this code.
Jeremy Pryor: I think we really need to work together to learn, um, why this is working. But what we continue to see is that. These movements [00:08:06] explode overseas and tend to fail in the West. And so a big part of what we're gonna talk about during the course of this cohort is what are the tweaks that we need to do to some of these really, uh, powerful movements that are working all over the world to cause them to actually work here in our context.
Jeremy Pryor: And that is not an easy thing to solve. So we're gonna really work hard on trying to understand that. So, um, so we've, uh, wrote the Life on Life Blueprint, um, in order to try to address the problem of mul multiplication in the West. One of the questions that we're obsessed with at [00:08:36] one KH is any movement in a Western context that is, uh, consistently getting to the fourth generation.
Jeremy Pryor: So a disciple who makes a disciple, who makes a disciple, who makes a disciple. Um, and that's very rare in our context. There's something unique about Western Christian culture that sterilizes a disciple making. Um, it stops it from multiplying. And so we, we need to be really, uh, trying to figure this out.
Jeremy Pryor: And then, um, what I do now, my current disciple making practices, I take on. Two groups of apprentices per [00:09:06] year. My wife does the same thing. Our kids are involved as well. Um, so this is a, a part of something that we, we actively practice as a, as a family. So, alright guys, I'm gonna dive into the 10 top disciple making mistakes, starting with, um, underestimating the worship service dilemma.
Jeremy Pryor: So one of the problems I mentioned is that there is a, there is widespread disobedience when it comes to Jesus's clear command to go and make disciples. And I think one of the reasons is [00:09:36] that if you asked people, is there something that if you stop doing, would make you feel like you're not really a Christian?
Jeremy Pryor: In other words, you're not really following Jesus. And for 95% of Western Christians, the thing that would cause them to feel like they're not properly obeying Jesus is if they did not attend a worship service. Um, that week. So, or consistently, somehow the clear direct command to [00:10:06] make disciples does not rise to the level of, of causing us to realize that we're in disobedience.
Jeremy Pryor: But not attending a worship service does create that feeling for most Christians. I think this is, this creates a real dilemma for disciple making because what often happens is that people, um, whether they do it on, on purpose, and I think many pastors try to combat this problem as well. But, but generally speaking, uh, people believe there is a religious culture, [00:10:36] uh, that we are dealing with that says that attending a worship service is at some level the foundational essence of what it means to follow Jesus.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and we have to work through that intuition that we have. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with attending worship services. It's just odd that this. One particular practice has somehow been elevated to, to the primacy within our context. So much so that people often, once they are achieving that, [00:11:06] um, kind of sit back and become quite passive.
Jeremy Pryor: And so we're gonna talk a lot about that challenge. Um, another one that I mentioned is that there is a widespread belief that discipleship should be purely organic. Now, Jesus didn't practice it this way. He called individual people to be discipled. He named them. There were, there was at least a hundred people following him when he chose the 12.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, were given, uh, even the way that Jesus chose them, that he went to a mountain to pray all night and then called these 12 people. Um, and then of course, he [00:11:36] also had a group of three that he was very focused on. Um, but today a lot of people, uh, they just are like, Hey, discipleship. Just happens organically.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, it just happens naturally. You don't need to be intentional about it. Um, I do, I do not believe that that rises to the level of being true discipleship. Um, so we're gonna talk about that. We believe that's a mistake. Um, one of the huge challenges that we face is in our context in particular, people believe that you have to be.[00:12:06]
Jeremy Pryor: Um, at a certain level of maturity to make disciples. I, I told the story about Dawson Trotman and the first person he discipled and after, you know, discipling him for six to 12 months. Um, this, this man named Spencer, uh, Dawson, released him to begin the process of disciple making. Now overseas people, um, really take this on as well and, and feel comfortable making disciples.
Jeremy Pryor: But in the West we have. Um, almost a bias towards maybe if after I'm a believer for 20 or 30 years, I'll be mature enough [00:12:36] to, uh, pass on the, the lessons or, or the things that I've, I've received and disciple somebody else. This is caused, uh, that is the end of multiplication if the bar is that high. And oftentimes in the course we'll talk to, we'll talk about the challenge of, um, I think that the, the question we, we ask the wrong question.
Jeremy Pryor: Western people tend to ask the question, um, who's the best person that could possibly ever disciple? If I'm not at the very top of that list, I shouldn't be doing this. And I feel like that's [00:13:06] almost like asking, uh, before you have children, who's the best person that I know, or in the world that, you know, could father, could be a father.
Jeremy Pryor: Okay. I guess. Or a mother. I guess I'm not ready then. Right. And of course, if we did that, none of us would ever have children. Um, the, the amazing thing is God gives us children way before. You know, we're, uh, we're really, um, the most mature at this. And now that my fifth child is almost an adult, April, and I often, you know, joke that now we're ready to become parents.[00:13:36]
Jeremy Pryor: Um, so I think that it's really important that we dive into this, um, and encourage others to dive into the process of imparting what we have. And we're gonna talk about, you know, some of the ways that we can encourage each other to do this in a way that isn't following prey for this sort of level of professional expectation.
Jeremy Pryor: Uh, another one that, uh, that I think is so something that we resist at, um, in Life, on Life is a one size fits all curriculum. This is extremely tempting. Um, [00:14:06] I wanna talk a little bit in the 10 distinctives about why we don't do this, but, um, there, there are so many disciple making resources. Booklets books, things that, and so however, you're, you disciple people, they're likely going to disciple others.
Jeremy Pryor: And so, um, and so there's a, there's a, a lot, a lot of using, um, kind of out of the box curriculums for disciple making. So we'll talk a little bit about, um, how we think about those. Um, but that's one of the things [00:14:36] that, that we, um, we resist, um, in this, this blueprint. Um, another one is blueprints designed by full-time professionals.
Jeremy Pryor: So I talk to a lot of pastors. And oftentimes they will disciple in a way that works for their schedule, um, and at a level of intensity that they can sustain as a full-time pastor. The problem is, like I mentioned, how you've been discipled is how you're going to disciple. And so oftentimes, uh, it's very transformational experience for the disciple e for the apprentice, but [00:15:06] the blueprint itself is just unrealistic for the non-professional, um, person who has a very full and busy life.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and so oftentimes these blueprints collide. And so what might work, uh, for somebody who's in full-time ministry may not, that same blueprint may not be sustainable, uh, for the person that they're hoping will replicate this. And of course we're trying to get to the fourth generation. This has gotta work for a lot of people.
Jeremy Pryor: Another one is underestimating [00:15:36] multiplication problem. This is something we're gonna talk a lot about during the cohort. Um, it's extremely difficult and I mentioned that there, there are forces. Uniquely sterilizing the multiplication of disciples in our context and our culture. And so we, we take the multiplication problem in the West extremely seriously.
Jeremy Pryor: And a lot of the blueprint, and a lot of what we're gonna talk about is how do you get the seed in the fruit? Um, I think, Dennis, you're the one who says something about like making seedless seedless grapes. [00:16:06] Um, I love that analogy. Yeah. So we, we do have to do that a lot. Uh, we, we inadvertently make, um, uh, seedless grapes and so we need to, as Genesis one says over and over again, um, God emphasizes in the creation account, the, when he created everything, he put the seed in, the fruit, he put the seed in.
Jeremy Pryor: And so many disciple making it, it's, it's exceptionally. Um, tricky to put the seed and the fruit in our culture. We're gonna talk about why we can overcome it. We [00:16:36] believe that, you know, by working together and have some coaching and, and a and a thoughtful blueprint, we can, we can fix this problem, but we take it very seriously.
Jeremy Pryor: Another major mistake, um, that we see in a lot of disciple making in the west is not clarifying the high bar upfront. So when we, we invite somebody to, uh, follow us as we follow Christ to be discipled, we need to raise a high bar on day one. If you, if you beg [00:17:06] people to join your disciple making process, if you, um, if you make lots and lots of exceptions, if you, uh, communicate that, that this is something that you will endlessly bend or do anything to help them, um, become a part of this process, uh, and keep the bar really, really low in order to get people to say yes.
Jeremy Pryor: Then that's going to kind of compromise the entire process. Disciple making, um, is a high challenge, high bar process. Um, and [00:17:36] we, we cannot lower the bar and think that we're going to get, uh, the fruit, let alone multiplication of that fruit. So this is a, this is a mistake that we're gonna be talking a lot about as well.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, another one that I run into a lot is thinking that some other ministry that's not really designed to multiply disciples can replace disciple making. Probably the best example of that is small groups. So there's a problem that happens in churches that was, uh, discovered [00:18:06] and, um, very deeply investigated, um, over the last 20 or 30 years especially.
Jeremy Pryor: And that is that, um. Pastors discovered that if, if, uh, new parishioners, uh, new attendees of a, of a worship service or a church do not form two to three meaningful relationships within the first six months, they will leave out the back door of the church. And so, um, and trying to solve this problem, churches, uh, all over, [00:18:36] um, the, uh, the world have adopted small group ministries to, uh, close the back door and help people form meaningful relationships.
Jeremy Pryor: And most of these small group ministries are designed. Around, um, peer groups, finding friends really, and that, and it, it does work. And if you're going to have a worship service, then you really do need to pair that worship service with a dynamic small group ministry. Otherwise, people will flow right out of the worship service to the next church until they find some [00:19:06] friends or some relationships.
Jeremy Pryor: People need to be connected there. There's a huge problem with this strategy though, if you believe that it's going to replace disciple making. First of all, peer relationships, um, are the opposite of what we're gonna be describing as disciple making, where it's clear that there is a, there's a disciple maker and an apprentice.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and so that oftentimes violates the design of many small group ministries. Small group ministries, um, oftentimes will suffer from an aggressive multiplication strategy, whereas disciple making is. Is, it's [00:19:36] critical for there to be aggressive multiplication. There, there's a lot of tension between these two strategies.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, they, they can overlap, but they don't overlap very naturally. And, you know, nine, nine times outta 10 a church will default to what's best for small group ministry over what's best for disciple making, which is totally fine. And I actually believe that's the best route to go. I just think, you can't call it discipleship.
Jeremy Pryor: You have to separate these, these i, these, these ideas. And so we're gonna talk about that as well. And then, [00:20:06] um, the next one is not tracking the fruit. So we're going to, everyone, if you guys get involved in this and really deeply commit to the blueprint that we're gonna be presenting to over the next three months, then we want to spend the next five to 10 years tracking what happens with your disciple making movement.
Jeremy Pryor: Our hope for e every person that's going through cohort is not that you would make disciples, but that you would each of you start a disciple making movement. That if we look five, 10 years from now, we'll be affecting hundreds or thousands of [00:20:36] people. Um, that's very possible and that's why we have to design this very carefully from the very beginning.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, 'cause that's what we're, that's what we're after. But we need to actually track that and see, um, there's a lot of, a lot of people talk about discipleship as if. You know, if two people disciple, if one person disciples two people, those two people disciple two people and on and on and on. If you do the math, the whole world will be discipled in 30 years.
Jeremy Pryor: Right? That's just simple exponential curve. Um, but that doesn't happen. Why not? Because we don't actually discover that in [00:21:06] much of that simple math. There are, there are so many things that will, that degrade the multiplication effort. And if we don't track, we can't find those things and fix them. And so, um, so we really want you guys to help us figure out how to improve this blueprint.
Jeremy Pryor: Like, we don't believe this is done. We don't think we've cracked every code. We believe this is working, and we're gonna talk about some of the distinctives in a minute, but man, we need to be really hard on the data and we're gonna, we're gonna try to do that together. So that's one of the things that just 1000 houses as [00:21:36] a organization is very committed to.
Jeremy Pryor: As a ministry, we want to be tracking the fruit. And so we, we want to stay connected to you guys for the long term and see, I. How many of you, um, through your disciple making efforts, are actually seeing a movement start? Not just, uh, not, not just, so some, some one-off, um, growth happen. So those are the top 10.
Jeremy Pryor: Oh, last one. And this is, I think something I'm really excited for us to figure out, um, is we've gotta celebrate, um, the fruit. So you, you will only really get [00:22:06] people, um, to commit to things that, um, over the long term that are being lifted up and celebrated. And I don't know when the last time you've been to an event that celebrates discipleship or disciple making that, that describes the kind of transformation that's happening.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, we have to pull off these kinds of events. Um, our family's really committed to doing this every single year, bringing together people that are making disciples in our city. So if you guys are in Cincinnati, we'd love for you guys to be a part of that. But I, I, I really believe we have to figure this [00:22:36] out.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and this is another thing that 1000 houses wants to help you guys figure out, um, how to celebrate this. And that, I think is part of what's gonna create more of a citywide movement as opposed to something that's very isolated. Okay. So those are the mistakes that we're trying to correct through, you know, the cohort through the training, through the blueprint.
Jeremy Pryor: I hope you guys can see that with a lot of those mistakes, they're really easy to make. Um, and again, most of those mistakes I've been a part of making. And so part of the reason why, why, you know, if you might ask, why [00:23:06] go through three months of training, um, because I think those are really sometimes very difficult to overcome.
Jeremy Pryor: And so a lot of the, the training is going to be working to try to work through that. Now there's a lot of different disciple making blueprints out there, um, and a lot of them are very effective and are having, um, a ton of, uh, a ton of traction and fruit. And so it's really important that you guys understand, and we don't think, again, we're not the, we're not saying we're the best, we're the only.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, but we do think that it's really important for you to commit to [00:23:36] a particular blueprint because of all the challenges that I, I listed. Um, now I wanna walk through some of the distinctive of this blueprint so that you guys can be aware, okay? If we dive into this, what, what, what are we getting into?
Jeremy Pryor: What are the things that, that this is gonna entail? So here are some of the top 10 things that are kind of distinctive about this. Number one, we believe in what we call immersion, uh, events. These are getaways that you do with the people you're discipling. In the [00:24:06] West, we have a real problem with life on life discipleship.
Jeremy Pryor: The we do, we live with and what sociologists call like, like an atomized existence. So we tend to live in neighborhoods, um, and the, the, our neighbors are atomized in, in a way that they don't, you know, it's separate from where we work, which is separate from where we go to church, which is separate from our families.
Jeremy Pryor: And so we, in which oftentimes even separate from our friendships and our hobbies. And so [00:24:36] once you live your life in this way, it's extraordinarily difficult to, to take on an apprentice for, for them to actually see your life. And so there's a lot of tools we're gonna use to try to transition disciple making from being some kind of like, uh, curriculum that you're just teaching somebody to being a life transfer.
Jeremy Pryor: But one of the, one of the tools that is really effective at this, that I think we really need to take full advantage of is immersion events. And so we recommend two immersion events over the course of a [00:25:06] season of discipleship. One at the beginning and one at the end. These have a lot, they create a ton of traction in the disciple making process, uh, a a kickoff immersion event.
Jeremy Pryor: And what I do for mine, for example, is just a 24 hour getaway with the guys. I'm discipling. We'll go to a hotel somewhere, we'll go, you know, go, you know, camping. We'll do, um, we'll do some kind of immersion event. This is extremely helpful. Um, I learned this when I was a youth pastor that, you know, if I could get a kid to go to come to youth group for six months or go on one retreat, I would, I would pick a retreat [00:25:36] every time.
Jeremy Pryor: It would, it would change their life. We get closer relationally. Um, so I just, I think that in the west this is a really important tool. And then we'll talk a lot about how we use the sendoff immersion event. Um, and so, but these, these are, these are one of the distinctives of our blueprint. Um, one of the things that, that we do, I mentioned that we really need to clarify the high challenge.
Jeremy Pryor: We're gonna, one of the things you're going to do through this, uh, three months is you're gonna write an an email. To a perspective apprentice, and it's going to [00:26:06] outline the high challenge or high bar that is a part of your disciple making. You're gonna make these investments in them, you're gonna need, you know, they're gonna need to rise to, and, and agree to these, these specific, um, uh, things as well.
Jeremy Pryor: And so you want to give them, you know, fair warning. And I always tell people in the email like, look, I totally understand that this is not a great season. Um, I'd love a chance to get to, you know, to, to get, to engage with you in a [00:26:36] discipleship season. But, um, I need to know that this is the right timing and that you can put in these things.
Jeremy Pryor: So we're gonna help you guys write that. Um, one of the things that we're really hard on in this blueprint is it's defining discipleship. This word is incredibly slippery. It has been redefined radically in the last, uh, even just 20 years. So back when I was a senior in high school, if you talked about discipleship, like I did when I was reading Dawson's book to people generally in the church, [00:27:06] all of them had the same basic picture in their mind, which was, which was a process, you know, of somebody taking on an apprentice.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, this is no longer the way that people think. When you say the word discipleship, you'll, you'll oftentimes hear people say something like, you know, they, they have heard a great sermon, or they read a great book, and they'll say something like, that's really good for my discipleship. Um, it's not about this process, um, that's specific to what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 28.
Jeremy Pryor: It's just about growth in general. And, [00:27:36] um, it's really important to separate, and I like kind of words like spiritual formation. We have other words to, to describe, uh, growth in general. We really need to preserve discipleship. Uh, for what? And, and this is, we have a very particular criteria for how to define discipleship.
Jeremy Pryor: And the criteria is your definition of discipleship has to be consistent with what the disciples thought Jesus meant when he said, go and make disciples. If your definition of discipleship is not what those disciples [00:28:06] thought, then you've probably smuggled in something, uh, into the definition or you've redefined the word from its biblical context.
Jeremy Pryor: And so when we asked the question, what were the disciples thinking when Jesus said, go and make disciples? Um, well, Jesus had just spent three years taking them through an apprenticeship. And so what we think that they heard Jesus say was something basically fairly clear and simple, which is discipleship is the process.
Jeremy Pryor: Of taking on an apprentice to train [00:28:36] them in how you follow or obey Jesus. That's, that's what it is. It's, it's got those three elements. Um, it's a process that is training them, um, on, on how, uh, in, in, in, in the, uh, in an apprenticeship. So it's a particular kind of process, uh, which is defined by this word, apprenticeship, um, on how you follow Jesus or how you obey Jesus.
Jeremy Pryor: If it's not all three of those things, then I don't think it's consistent with what the disciples heard Jesus say. Um, now one [00:29:06] of the problems we have in our culture is that apprentice. We don't, we no longer educate through apprenticeships. Um, is common any longer. It's, it still happens, but it's, it's much more rare.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and so we, we believe that it has to be an apprenticeship, um, for it to be consistent with what Jesus was describing. Um, so I'll talk a little bit more about why I think that's so important. Uh, one of the things that's unique about our, um, our approach is that all of one KH has dedicated the idea of family on mission and not simply individuals on [00:29:36] mission.
Jeremy Pryor: So we're happy to have singles jump into life on Life and we will train them, but if you are in a family context as a husband and wife, then we would love for this to be a central part of the way your family is on mission together. So currently I'm in Denver right now. Um. Because April, my wife is, um, uh, is doing discipleship with, um, two ladies here in Colorado.
Jeremy Pryor: So one of the things that, so our family is constantly [00:30:06] supporting our kids as they make disciples. I'm, I'm out here supporting April as she's involved in a really intensive discipleship. Um, you know, four months with some ladies. They came and spent 48 hours at our house. Now she's flying to each of their houses.
Jeremy Pryor: They do tons of Zoom calls. And then they're gonna do a big, um, sendoff, um, immersion event in, um, in August. So, um, anyway, we, we want this to be integrated into your whole family's mission strategy. Um, and we we're very excited to do that. We see Genesis 1 28, which is [00:30:36] the, the mission given to the family to be fruitful and multiplied to fill, subdue and rule as being recapitulated.
Jeremy Pryor: In Matthew 28, when Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, these are the same basic call. So Jesus told the disciples to be fruitful, which is to make disciples, um, but not just to make disciples, but to make disciples who make disciples, which is the, to multiply, uh, to fill, which is to go to all the nations, to subdue, which is to teach them to obey everything and, uh, to, uh, and that he's the ruler.
Jeremy Pryor: The whole reason for this is [00:31:06] because Jesus is Lord. And that the whole commission started when Jesus said, all authority and heaven on earth has been given to me. So the mission given to the family and the mission given to the church are the same mission. Uh, one is the command to be fruitful and multiply through physical children.
Jeremy Pryor: And the other is the command to be fruitful and multiply through spiritual children. So everything you're learning about fathering and mothering you we're going to bring into the process of disciple making. Um, they, they are, they are a similar process. Okay? Uh, another thing we spend a lot of time trying to [00:31:36] do is help you guys find apprentices.
Jeremy Pryor: So we know this is a really difficult thing to try to figure out. Um, and so we, we, we've got lots and lots of strategies for how to find people who are faithful, available, teachable, um, that are ready to, to be, um, invited into a season of discipleship. So if you're looking at this saying, oh my gosh, I don't know anybody who might want to do this.
Jeremy Pryor: We're gonna spend a lot of time talking to you and coaching you how to, how to find apprentices. Um, there's a real balance in this blueprint [00:32:06] between training, uh, meetings and coaching. And so part of what we recommend is that you have trainings which are designed for kind of the disciple maker to be directly imparting lessons to the apprentice and coaching, which is where the, um, the, the disciple maker is reacting to, uh, teachable events or a teachable season, unique season in the life of the, um, of the Apprentice.
Jeremy Pryor: So, we'll, we'll talk you, we have tools [00:32:36] that are separate for, for both of these kinds of. Of, um, of, of equipping, of disciples. Um, we center on Jesus and in the gospels. And so one of the things we train you to do is to run a weekly discovery of Bible study in the gospels in order to directly make sure that we're not just teaching them to follow us, but we're teaching people to follow us as we follow Christ.
Jeremy Pryor: And so that's another key part of our blueprint. Um, we dedicate the final immersion event to multiplication. Um, this [00:33:06] was something we discovered as we, after we had designed this blueprint and started to use it, um, with multiple groups that we needed the immersion event at the end of the disciple making to be all about multiplication.
Jeremy Pryor: So, um, there's the, the kickoff events might look very different depending on who the disciple maker is. We recommend everybody do a pretty similar, um, uh, getaway for their sendoff event, um, in terms of content because of the unique problem of multiplication in the west. So we are [00:33:36] gonna walk you guys through how to design the kind of sendoff getaway that puts the seed in the fruit.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and this really works. So we're excited for you guys to learn, um, how to do that. One of the things that we, one of the reasons we are not, uh, using, um, kind of out of the box or a canned curriculum is because one of the, uh, distinctives of discipleship or apprenticeship is a bias for impartation over teaching.
Jeremy Pryor: So, um, one of the reasons [00:34:06] we call this life on life is that we think you can only give people what you have. You cannot impart faith into an apprentice's life in an, in an area where you are not actively practicing, which means it's very important that we identify the ways in which you are following Jesus, the things that you can impart.
Jeremy Pryor: And we don't want you guys to feel any pressure. To give any, uh, any teaching to an apprentice that you are not currently following, and it has not [00:34:36] transformed your life. You do not own that. You cannot impart what you do not have. And so we, we give you full permission to say, look, your disciple making effort is not going to give your apprentices everything they need.
Jeremy Pryor: That's okay. We wanna relieve you of that pressure entirely. Our blueprint is designed around the fact that people, uh, we would love to see people be discipled many times throughout the course of their, uh, their life as they mature, but that you should [00:35:06] only steward and impart to people things that you have that you own.
Jeremy Pryor: Uh, personally, in other words that you're practicing, um, and that have deeply transformed your life. So we have a way of like identifying what those teachings are and helping you design those as impartation. So when I'm doing a, when I'm doing a training, um, meeting with so many people, uh, with guys I'm discipling, it's very important that the way that, that I, I do that.
Jeremy Pryor: It's not, I'm not, I'm a, I can teach, [00:35:36] but I'm not primarily using my gift of teaching, uh, in kind of the way that I think about it, like giving a presentation like this I primarily impart, which is I tell them my testimony of how God transformed my life in this area, the scriptures that the Holy Spirit used to do this work in me.
Jeremy Pryor: And then there's a process where it's really a faith transfer that I'm going for. Um, it, and that that's a different kind of experience than simply here's some head knowledge that I've accumulated. Let me [00:36:06] download it to you. Um, we do not want, uh, that to be the primary means of how we disciple people.
Jeremy Pryor: And the last one I'll point out to you guys and then we'll, we're gonna do questions here in a second, is, um, one of things I love about the fact that you guys are doing a cohort with us is that when you disciple someone, everyone that you disciple will have access to life on life, um, cohort as well. So at any point you're like, Hey, um, they're gonna learn a lot from you.
Jeremy Pryor: And hopefully in a lot of cases they'll go like, oh, I get it. I can just, I think I could [00:36:36] replicate this, and we're gonna help train you how to do that. But if you ever talk to anybody who doesn't have a good blueprint, doesn't know how to make disciples, who make disciples, um, or if anyone that you've discipled need, wants additional training, we're here.
Jeremy Pryor: And you can just say, Hey. Three weeks sign up for the next cohort and you can get like much more detailed training on how to make sure that you know how to make disciples as well. So this, this makes this, um, a lot more passable as well. So, um, wanna show [00:37:06] you guys a couple of pictures of our process. So this is one image that has the entire blueprint in it.
Jeremy Pryor: So, um, basically what we do, and this is, this is sort of looking at a six month discipleship process, as I mentioned, um, kind of these kickoff getaways, 24 hour or weekend getaways, oftentimes there, those are like, you know, can stand in for, for six months worth of, um, of intensity. So we, we start with one and then there's four to six, uh, months of impartation.[00:37:36]
Jeremy Pryor: We have four tools that we're gonna train you guys in trainings, which is what I, I mentioned, you know, this is our, like a specific training with your group of apprentices. We recommend you do it in groups. We'll talk about that. Why coachings, which is one-to-one. Um, so, so like in a typical month where I'm discipling, I will do two trainings.
Jeremy Pryor: Uh, during that month I'll do one coaching, one-on-one with each of the three guys I'm discipling. I will usually invite them into one experience with me, like, come to Shabbat at my house or, you know, you know, [00:38:06] come to something I'm, I'm a part of. And then every week I'll jump on a Zoom call and do a discovery Bible study with them for an hour over lunch.
Jeremy Pryor: I do mine on Fridays. Um, and you guys are welcome to come and see that. So, uh, so this is, this is what we do. So we do the kickoff, um, where we really get to know each other. We do these four kinds of, um, of different tools that we wield during the four to six months. When we're discipling, we do the sendoff, which puts, puts, puts the seed in the, in the fruit, and at the sendoff getaway when [00:38:36] we're coming home, my goal is always to make sure that, that these, uh, the apprentices have our one click away, literally one click away from starting their own group.
Jeremy Pryor: So we can talk about how to do that, but it's really important that, that it'd be that detailed at your sendoff if you want to see the seed in the fruit, and then you can reflect and improve and kick off another group. All right, so who's the cohort for This is for anyone who's dedicated to launching a group in the next three months.
Jeremy Pryor: Now, it may, may take longer than [00:39:06] that, but if you're excited and you're like, Hey, what is it? You know, starting in July, August, September, you know, by September, you know, October at the latest, I think I could get a group launched. Um, then this is great timing to go through this. If you're like, eh, probably couldn't do it this year.
Jeremy Pryor: Maybe 2026. Um, yeah, it might be better to wait, uh, for the next cohort. We, we, we're gonna be launching these a lot of, but we want this to be as actionable as possible. Um, so what's involved in Life On Life? It's gonna take about an hour or two per [00:39:36] week, uh, for you guys to go through the videos and do the assignments.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, we're gonna do a coaching call at this time, uh, starting in two weeks. So every other Tuesday night from eight to nine on Zoom. Um, it's free. Um, we'll talk to you guys if you want to contribute to one kh, what that looks like. Um, and it's gonna last for three months, so we're gonna try and make this as simple and clear as possible, but this is fairly intense.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, if you join this, you are committing to watching the videos, doing the assignments, um, and showing up at those coaching calls. [00:40:06] Um, obviously if you, uh, can't make it, just let us know, but, but you're, that's the commitment that we want you guys to really do your best to, to keep. Um, and what, this is our whole kind of pathway for somebody who's trying to get a cycle making movement in their city.
Jeremy Pryor: So, uh, learn and launch are really the two parts of the stages that we're gonna be doing during the cohort three months. So we're, you're gonna learn and then you're gonna launch your first group, uh, then you're go, then you're going to work through the improve, multiply, and celebrate, uh, on your own. But we're [00:40:36] gonna give you guys equipping to, to how to do that.
Jeremy Pryor: So if you wanna apply, that's over at, uh, one kh.org/discipleship. So, thank you guys. I know that's a lot. Boom. We recorded this, so if there's, if you want like to. Uh, slow that down or re-listen anything. Um, we'll, we'll have this available and shoot this off to you guys, but I wanna pause for a few minutes.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, like I said, I've unfortunately, I've got another, uh, commitment in five minutes, so I want to ask if you guys have any questions, especially anything that like, ah, I need to know this [00:41:06] to, um, to decide if I can be part of the group. You can use this little hand raise thing that's really helpful for me to, to know.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and, uh, I would be happy to Yeah. Make sure that we get that question answered. So,
Speaker 10: hey, Jeremy, I have a question. Yeah,
Speaker: go ahead
Speaker 10: Joel. The push on like multiple people at once, like is that what, why, why the push on this? It sounds like that's pretty strong point of view there.
Jeremy Pryor: Yeah, so, and I, I, we've, we've walked people through, both people have tried one-on-one, people have [00:41:36] tried one on three.
Jeremy Pryor: Um. So most of the time what we've discovered is that there's, there's actually an advantage to three, just from a straight transformational perspective. It's, I think it's easier on the disciple maker. It's, um, I think it's, it creates a, a group dynamic. It's more consistent with how Jesus actually did it.
Jeremy Pryor: Um, and you know, 'cause he always did it his in groups. Um, and, but it does require you to do those coaching meetings one-on-one. 'cause you don't want to have, you want, there's a one-on-one dynamic. I think it's really [00:42:06] important to discipleship. Um, but I, and then obviously, you know, it's, it's better in terms of um, you know, doing three if you can.
Jeremy Pryor: So I think there's, so I, I, in this blueprint, we believe it, it is a, it's better to do, to do three with using this blueprint. I think it works better.
Jeremy Pryor: But this blueprint you could do with one. You certainly could. And so it would be up to, that's actually like, would not be a problem if somebody said, Hey, I want to do this blueprint, but want to do it with one. It would work with one. But so far, virtually [00:42:36] everyone I've coached who've done both said that it, it, they ended up feeling the group, the, the actual experience was better with the group.
Jeremy Pryor: So that, that's just kind of been our, our experience so far.
Speaker: I think we got time for one more question and then let you guys go. Anybody else got anything That'd be helpful?
Speaker 9: thinking of, uh, doing this with, uh, multiple little kids, have you seen, is it just better for like a certain age range of like kids and capacity, I guess, for people that would wanna do this? So [00:43:06] my, my kids right now are six, uh, four, three and six months. I've always been interested in doing this, but I have to be aware of like our capacity as a family.
Speaker 9: Do you see it just more when they get like at a certain older age that this is more feasible or people actually do it? Uh. I guess on their family dynamics.
Jeremy Pryor: Yeah, there's, that's a, that's a great question. Um, especially [00:43:36] for us, we, almost everybody that we know, that we disciple, I. Has like 4, 5, 6, 7 kids, most of them's young and, and are wrestling with this same question.
Jeremy Pryor: So, um, so there's one of two possibilities. One is that, that mothers and fathers of young children should wait, you know, for 10, 15, 20 years until their kids are older, before they start disciple making. Um, and I think a, a lot of, a lot of parents do that. My my belief is that this is the number one rhythm of the Christian life.
Jeremy Pryor: And so [00:44:06] if you're, if somebody says, look, while you're having young children, you shouldn't have any rhythms that aren't directly in your house with your kids, then okay. But I don't know anybody who thinks that everyone believes there are at least one or two rhythms that even a busy young mother or father should be part of.
Jeremy Pryor: So the question really is where does this fit in the, in the, in a stack of priorities of, of different things you're a part of. Um, and so my conviction is this is number one. This is what, what it is for our family. And so you have to decide. Every, every family has to decide where that fits though. 'cause you [00:44:36] can't, with young kids, you can't have four or five, six things you're doing, you do, that would distract from your, from your kids.
Jeremy Pryor: But it's okay to do, I think even very busy families in very busy seasons have, you know. One or two rhythms that they're, that they're participating in. Um, we just think this should be one of those one or two rhythms. Um, the other thing that I would say that's really important for young families to understand is that we, uh, as we disciple, um, apprentices, our kids are target [00:45:06] rich environments for our apprentices to disciple.
Jeremy Pryor: And so our kids have gotten enormous amounts of fruit from our discipleship. Like all of my kids have been discipled at di different seasons from people that are one or one, two, or three, um, discipleship generations removed from me or April. And so it, it ended up giving back a ton to our kids, especially as they got older.
Jeremy Pryor: It was like it was a massive game changer. Um, to have our kids discipled by multiple people who, um, who [00:45:36] had very different DNA than we did in a way that was, um, really, really helpful for them and their faith. So those are kind of the two things I would, I would say to consider. Um, um, and, and that's how we've, we've thought about this.
Jeremy Pryor: So, but yeah, it's certainly not easy to, uh, to do during that season.
Speaker 9: No, thank you for the thoughts and appreciate everything.
Jeremy Pryor: Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Alright guys, I'll let y'all go. So good to, to see you guys and yeah, excited to see, uh, many of you in the cohort. [00:46:06] [00:46:36] [00:47:06]
