The Disciples Made Podcast

Disciples Made
  • 4.9 (15)
  • Christianity
  • Biweekly

What if the Church stopped measuring success by how many people attend and started measuring how many disciples are being made? Welcome to The Disciples Made Podcast, where we help pastors, ministry leaders, and everyday disciple-makers move beyond addition-focused ministry toward a culture of intentional disciple-making and multiplication. Join Brian Phipps, founder of Disciples Made, and Jason Phelps as they explore what it takes to equip people to live Fully Alive in Jesus—growing in Christlike character, discovering and developing their calling, and multiplying their impact through others. Through honest conversations, practical frameworks, and real-world ministry experiences, we explore the leadership, environments, habits, and systems that help churches move from simply managing programs to multiplying disciples. Whether you're leading a church, developing leaders, or discipling a few people in your community, you'll find practical insights to help you take your next faithful step. Because the goal isn't simply more people attending church. It's more disciples making disciples. Learn more at disciplesmade.com.

  1. 6d ago

    S6 Episode 7: Measuring What Matters

    Your church knows how many people attended, volunteered, and joined a group. But who is becoming more like Jesus—and who are they helping follow Him? In this episode, Jason Phelps and Disciples Made founder Brian Phipps explore how leaders can recognize growth in character, calling, and disciple multiplication. Through the story of a hypothetical church member named Morgan, they show how intentional conversations can reveal transformation that participation reports miss. Our standing with God rests in Jesus. Assessments help us recognize evidence of His transforming work, celebrate growth, and discover where people need support. The score is a conversation starter. The person’s story is what helps us understand how to serve them. In this conversation: • Recognize growth in character through the fruit of the Spirit. • Help people discover and develop their calling in everyday life. • Understand when disciple-making becomes another generation of multiplication. • Use the MyImpact Equation—Character × Calling = Impact—to guide honest reflection. • Create a simple rhythm: one next step, the support needed, and a follow-up conversation. • Let what you learn shape environments that help people grow and equip them to help others. This week’s next step: Choose one person you’re responsible for developing. Ask where Jesus is changing them, where He is inviting them to contribute, and who they are helping follow Him. Agree on one next step and schedule a time to reconnect. Resources: Take the free MyImpact assessment and explore calling resources: https://dashboard.disciplesmade.com Watch the season and find the Disciple Multiplication Capacity Assessment: https://www.disciplesmade.com/podcast Share this episode with someone on your team and discuss one change you could make together. Coming next: We look inside Followers Made to explore how an intentional disciple-making environment equips people to grow and help others do the same.

  2. Oct 21

    S6 Episode 6: From Assimilation to Disciple Multiplication — Part 2 (Equipping People to Develop Others)

    When a faithful volunteer is ready to grow, do you give them more tasks—or help them develop someone else? In Part 2 of From Assimilation to Disciple Multiplication, Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps explore how you can help people move beyond participation into their calling as disciples who make disciples. Drawing on Ephesians 4 and the way Jesus developed his disciples, they discuss why equipping others belongs at the center of ministry leadership. They also unpack Explore, Develop, Influence—a way to describe growth in character, calling, and the ability to help others follow Jesus alongside your church’s existing connection pathway. In this episode: Why obedience helps people develop competence. How to encourage initiative while maintaining meaningful connection to the local church. The difference between managing volunteer positions and stewarding people. Why participation alone doesn’t tell you whether disciples are growing. How to build disciple-making practice into ministries you already have. Your next step Draw your church’s current pathway. Where does it end, and what development happens next? Choose one gap you can address through an existing ministry or relationship. For a broader look at your church’s disciple-making capacity, take the Disciple Multiplication Capacity Assessment. “Don’t measure your leadership by how many people you can recruit to ministry. Measure it by how many people you equip and release into theirs.” — Brian Phipps

  3. Oct 14

    S6 Episode 5: From Assimilation to Disciple Multiplication — Part 1 (Helping Volunteers Live Their Calling)

    What if someone stays connected to your church for 20 years—but never learns how to help another person follow Jesus? In Part 1 of “From Assimilation to Disciple Multiplication,” Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps explore how healthy church pathways can help people belong and serve while still ending too soon. Relationships, small groups, and volunteer roles matter. But how do those experiences develop people in character, awaken their calling, and equip them to make disciples? Through the “kitchen rights” analogy and practical examples from church life, Jason and Brian explain why volunteer roles should be starting blocks for growth. They also explore three ways people understand ministry: ministry for paid professionals, ministry through volunteer roles, and ministry throughout everyday life. This conversation will help you look beyond your volunteer roster and recognize the gifts, passions, relationships, and Spirit-inspired creativity Jesus has placed in your people. IN THIS EPISODE • Why healthy assimilation doesn’t automatically produce disciple-makers. • Where “Come, Grow, Go” can end too soon. • How serving helps people discover their gifts and grow in character. • Why someone’s calling can extend into workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and communities. • How releasing people into their calling can expand shared ownership of the mission. YOUR NEXT STEP Think of one person who serves faithfully in your church. This week, ask: “Where do you sense Jesus inviting you to use your gifts beyond this role? And how can we support you?” TAKE THE ASSESSMENT Take the Disciple Multiplication Capacity Assessment and use your results to start a conversation with your leadership team: https://www.disciplesmade.com/assessment KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING Share this episode with a pastor, ministry leader, or volunteer team leader. Follow the podcast for Part 2, where we’ll explore how leaders equip people, entrust them with meaningful responsibility, and help them become disciple-makers. Explore more episodes and resources: https://www.disciplesmade.com/podcast From prayer to people and pen to paper—let’s design for multiplication.

  4. Oct 7

    S6 Episode 4: Multiplication Takes Time (Building a Spiritual Family Tree)

    Making disciples is not the same as multiplying disciples. You can invest deeply in dozens of people, lead a thriving group, and become a trusted mentor—and still never move beyond one spiritual generation. In this episode, Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps unpack the four-generation vision of 2 Timothy 2:2 and explain why true multiplication begins when the people you disciple start discipling others. The challenge? Multiplication cannot be rushed. As Brian puts it, “Multiplication grows at the speed of maturity.” Jason and Brian explore why leaders can become stuck at the first generation, how the need to be needed can quietly keep leaders at the center, and why releasing people to lead is essential if we want spiritual children to become spiritual parents themselves. You’ll also discover why multiplication may appear slow at first, how Jesus prioritized depth before scale, and what has to change in your leadership when your goal becomes spiritual grandchildren—not simply more people depending on you.   IN THIS EPISODE • The four generations found in 2 Timothy 2:2 • Why making disciples is not automatically multiplication • The difference between spiritual children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren • Why multiplication grows at the speed of maturity • How the need to be needed can prevent leaders from releasing others • Why slow multiplication does not necessarily mean something is broken • What Jesus understood about depth before scale • How coaching replaces taking over as new disciple-makers emerge • The leadership shift from “Who am I discipling?” to “Who are they discipling?” • A practical exercise for drawing your own spiritual family tree   MIRROR MOMENT Draw your spiritual family tree. Start with the people you are intentionally helping follow Jesus. Then ask: Who are they helping follow Jesus? And who is beginning to emerge beyond them? Don’t count everyone you’ve ever influenced. Look specifically at intentional disciple-making relationships. If the page becomes empty after one generation, don’t inflate it. You’ve simply discovered the next design challenge.   TAKE YOUR NEXT STEP If you want to see multiplication happen in your church but aren’t sure how to move from your current culture to a multiplying one, Mission Mapping can help your leadership team get clear about where you are, where you want to go, and the shifts required to move toward disciple multiplication. Start here: https://www.disciplesmade.com/mission-mapping   NEXT EPISODE Are you building a leadership pipeline that produces volunteers—or a disciple pipeline that releases multipliers? They are not the same. This is the Disciples Made Podcast. It’s time to break the addition addiction and start designing for multiplication.

  5. Sep 30

    S6 Episode 3: The Power of Daily Habits (You Reproduce Who You Are)

    What if the habits shaping your church are really the habits shaping you? In this episode of the Disciples Made Podcast, Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps unpack why disciple multiplication starts with the leader before it ever becomes a church strategy. They explore the difference between simply engaging Scripture and actually abiding with Jesus, why repeated practices shape who we become, and how personal rhythms eventually become cultural expectations. You’ll hear why sermon preparation is not the same as personal abiding, why leaders reproduce more through what they embody than what they explain, and how healthy disciple-making becomes reproducible when people learn to hear from Jesus, respond in obedience, and help others do the same. In this episode: • Why you reproduce who you are   • How practices become habits and habits become rhythms   • The difference between preparing from Scripture and abiding in Scripture   • Why church leaders can spend time around the Bible without personally abiding with Jesus   • How personal discipleship becomes church culture   • Why preaching alone cannot create an abiding culture   • What makes disciple-making reproducible   • The question every leader should ask: What is my life currently reproducing? The goal is not to reproduce copies of ourselves. The goal is to help people develop rhythms of dependence on Jesus that form them into His likeness and equip them to help others do the same. This week, identify one rhythm Jesus may be asking you to strengthen—and start there. COMING SOON: BREAKING THE ADDITION ADDICTION This season of the Disciples Made Podcast is built around ideas from the upcoming book Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus. The book is being written for church leaders who want to move beyond simply adding more people, programs, and activity—and build cultures where disciples actually make and multiply disciples. Breaking the Addition Addiction is not available for purchase yet, but throughout this season we’ll be giving you an early look at the principles, stories, and practices behind the book. Learn more about Disciples Made and explore resources for disciple multiplication at disciplesmade.com. It’s time to break the addition addiction and start designing for multiplication.

  6. Sep 23

    S6 Episode 2: Designing for Becoming

    What happens at your church on Sunday morning? That question is usually easy to answer. But here’s the harder one: What is supposed to happen inside a person because they were there? In Episode 2 of Season 6, Brian Phipps and Jason Phelps unpack the difference between designing ministry for attendance and designing ministry for becoming. This season also gives listeners an early look at ideas from the upcoming book Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus. Worship services, classes, groups, student ministries, and serving opportunities can all accomplish their event objectives without necessarily accomplishing a formation objective. The deeper question is not simply, “Did people participate?” but, “Who are they becoming because they participated?” Brian and Jason explore the Disciples Made formation target: Character × Calling = Impact. Character is who we are becoming as Jesus forms His life in us. Calling is how we join Jesus in His work in the places and relationships where He has uniquely positioned us. When those grow together, disciples increasingly become people through whom Jesus impacts the world. In this episode, you’ll discover: • Why attendance and information are not the same as transformation • What makes an Intentional Disciple-Making Environment truly intentional • Why truth must move toward practice, obedience, reflection, and repetition • The difference between disconnected programs and a clear discipleship pathway • How the Explore → Develop → Influence pathway reflects the way Jesus formed His disciples Before your next leadership meeting, take your three most important ministry environments and ask: Who is this designed to serve? What are we hoping they become? How will we know transformation is happening? What is their next step? If you cannot answer those questions clearly, you may have an event—but not yet an intentional pathway. Coming Soon: Breaking the Addition Addiction Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus is an upcoming book for church leaders who want to move beyond simply adding more people, programs, and activity—and build cultures where disciples actually make and multiply disciples. The book is not available for purchase yet, but throughout this season we’re giving you an early look at the principles, stories, and practices behind it. Learn more and stay connected for future book updates and disciple-multiplication resources at disciplesmade.com. Breaking the Addition Addiction is a Disciples Made podcast hosted by Brian Phipps and Jason Phelps.

  7. Sep 18

    S6 Episode 1: You Designed This… or Inherited It?

    Vision Before Strategy Before Tactics You may not have designed the church you’re leading. But you can help shape what it becomes. Season 6, Designing for Multiplication, begins with a question every church leadership team needs to answer: What kind of person are we actually trying to form? Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps explore why choosing a curriculum, launching a program, or changing your groups cannot resolve an unclear vision. They lay out the order that guides intentional disciple-making: Vision first. Strategy second. Tactics third. This season also gives listeners an early look at ideas from the upcoming book Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus. IN THIS EPISODE • Define the destination: Fully Alive disciples growing in both character and calling • Explore the equation Character × Calling = Impact • Learn why culture change begins with a few leaders experiencing transformation themselves • Consider how Head, Heart, Hands, and Habits shape leader development • Examine whether your calendar, budget, and staff time support the disciples you hope to form YOUR NEXT STEP Take one sheet of paper and write three headings: • Vision: What kind of person are we trying to form? • Strategy: How are leaders becoming those people and helping others become them? • Tactics: Do our programs, calendar, budget, and staff time serve that strategy and vision? Bring those questions to your leadership team before redesigning anything. FIND CLARITY WITH MISSION MAPPING Need help finding clarity together? Mission Mapping helps your leadership team examine your current reality, clarify your disciple-making vision, and identify practical next steps. Explore Mission Mapping COMING SOON: BREAKING THE ADDITION ADDICTION Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus is an upcoming book for church leaders who want to move beyond simply adding more people, programs, and activity—and build cultures where disciples actually make and multiply disciples. The book is not available for purchase yet, but throughout this season we’re giving you an early look at the principles, stories, and practices behind it. Learn more and stay connected for future book updates and disciple-multiplication resources at disciplesmade.com. Follow the podcast for the rest of Designing for Multiplication. Next episode: Designing for Becoming—Intentional Disciple-Making Environments that help people grow.

  8. Season 6 Trailer

    Season 6 Trailer: Designing for Multiplication

    What if your church is getting exactly the results it was designed to get? Every calendar, budget, leadership system, ministry environment, and scorecard is already producing something. The question is: Is it producing disciples who can make and multiply disciples? In this trailer, Jason Phelps and Brian Phipps introduce Season 6: Designing for Multiplication—a practical season for pastors and ministry leaders ready to move beyond diagnosing the problem and start intentionally designing for a different outcome. This season also gives listeners an early look at ideas from the upcoming book Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus. Because churches do not accidentally drift into multiplication. Multiplication must be designed for. This season will explore how leaders can build systems, environments, habits, pathways, and measurements that increasingly form people in both Christlike character and Kingdom calling—and help them reproduce that life in others. IN THIS TRAILER Jason and Brian preview conversations around: • Why good intentions alone do not produce multiplication • What your calendar, budget, and leadership systems reveal about what you truly value • Designing for becoming, not merely attending • Why leaders reproduce who they are • The role of daily habits and abiding with Jesus in culture formation • Moving from spiritual children to spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren • The four-generation vision of 2 Timothy 2:2 • The difference between an assimilation pathway and a disciple-making pathway • Why churches need to measure spiritual vitality, calling, and multiplication—not only attendance and giving • What makes a disciple-making system genuinely reproducible • How leadership teams can begin mapping the shift from addition to multiplication THE BIG IDEA You do not need to eliminate attendance, programs, preaching, serving, or church growth. But those things must ultimately serve the formation, mobilization, and multiplication of disciples. Multiplication cannot simply be added to the end of your existing system. It must be designed into the system from the beginning. If you are a pastor, executive leader, denominational leader, ministry leader, or someone helping shape disciple-making culture, this season is designed to help you answer the question: “We see the gap. What do we actually build now?” COMING SOON: BREAKING THE ADDITION ADDICTION Breaking the Addition Addiction by Brian Phipps, Craig Watson, and Ed Wilgus is an upcoming book for church leaders who want to move beyond simply adding more people, programs, and activity—and build cultures where disciples actually make and multiply disciples. The book is not available for purchase yet, but throughout Season 6 we’re giving you an early look at the principles, stories, and frameworks behind it. Learn more and stay connected for future book updates and disciple-multiplication resources at disciplesmade.com. Follow the Disciples Made Podcast so you don’t miss Episode 1: You Designed This (...or Inherited It?) And if another pastor or leadership team is wrestling with how to move from addition toward multiplication, send them this trailer. It’s time to stop hoping multiplication happens. It’s time to design for it. It’s time to break the addition addiction.

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What if the Church stopped measuring success by how many people attend and started measuring how many disciples are being made? Welcome to The Disciples Made Podcast, where we help pastors, ministry leaders, and everyday disciple-makers move beyond addition-focused ministry toward a culture of intentional disciple-making and multiplication. Join Brian Phipps, founder of Disciples Made, and Jason Phelps as they explore what it takes to equip people to live Fully Alive in Jesus—growing in Christlike character, discovering and developing their calling, and multiplying their impact through others. Through honest conversations, practical frameworks, and real-world ministry experiences, we explore the leadership, environments, habits, and systems that help churches move from simply managing programs to multiplying disciples. Whether you're leading a church, developing leaders, or discipling a few people in your community, you'll find practical insights to help you take your next faithful step. Because the goal isn't simply more people attending church. It's more disciples making disciples. Learn more at disciplesmade.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Disciples Made
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    95
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Disciples Made Podcast

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