A Discipleship Model Based on the

Kingdom of God
Ronald and Carolyn Klaus
A Discipleship Model Based on the Kingdom of God Page 2

A Discipleship Model Based on the Kingdom of God

Ronald and Carolyn Klaus

1. Theology of the Kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God has become a theme that many Christians talk about and
claim they are working toward. But there is still a great deal of misunderstanding.
Our own understanding of the kingdom of God is as follows:
o Gods goal is not to save us so we can get out of this world and get to
heaven. It is that the power of the age to come has entered our present world
to bring it back to what God originally intended it to be, a process that will
culminate in Jesus return as King of Kings.
o God created us to be in harmony with him, with ourselves, with others, and
with the world. Salvation is the process by which He is restoring us to all four
of these harmonies as we become able to obey Him. To bring salvation to the
world God has undertaken three projects:
o First, He is creating a new humanity. He is at work now transforming us into
something like what we will be in the age to come. This transformation begins
when we put our trust in Jesus, continues throughout our lives to the extent
that we submit to the process of discipleship, and results in our becoming
more and more like Jesus in his character, mission, and effectiveness.
o Second, He is creating a new community, the city on the hill, a society the
world will be able to see that will give it an idea of what life will be like in the
age to come. This is at the heart of Gods strategy for evangelism. The
presence of such visible communities who are living the kingdom life together
validates our verbal witness.
o Third, He is engaging us in the old mission originally given to Abrahamto
bring blessing to all peoples of the earth. To introduce people to Jesus
involves helping them submit to his reign in all .areas of life, It involves
helping them recover harmony in their relationships with God, with
themselves, with one another, and with their environments. He doesnt just
save souls; he saves people in their totality. The Good News is that heaven
has invaded earth, and we are invited to partake of its benefits in the here and
now.
o We do not expect that these changes will be completed apart from Jesus
personal return to earth. Though Jesus has really begun to reign, powers
exist that do not yet acknowledge His reign, and their battle against His rule is
fierce. It will grow fiercer as the day of his returning grows closer. To belong
to Jesus is to participate in this battle. However, he will indeed return, defeat
those who oppose Him, and establish His victorious kingdom forever.
A Discipleship Model Based on the Kingdom of God Page 3

o This theology leads naturally to

An emphasis on discipleship, the process of transformation, as well as
on an initial conversion.
An emphasis on Christian community
A deeper understanding of power encounters with demonic forces
A wholistic view of the Gospel.
2. Interactive Small Groups: Built on this theology, the next element of our model is
the kind of small groups that are interactive transformational kingdom communities,
not just small church services or Bible studies. These groups have five main
activities:
o Cultivation of genuine Christian community as the groups become safe places
for personal sharing and living life together.
o Inductive Bible studies (not sermons or long teachings)teaching people to
think about it for themselves
o Prayer
o Mission, with every small group together reaching out to people in need in a
manner they decide for themselves.
o Accountability for personal growth as well as for ministry.
3. A Shepherding Network: Not all small groups are transformational, or even
healthy. The third element of our model is a network of shepherding relationships
o It is based on the Jethro model described in Exodus 18.
o Small group leaders are overseen by coaches. Coaches are overseen by
congregational coordinators. Congregational coordinators are overseen by
apostolic leaders, etc.
o Every leader at every level not only leads a small group but also participates
in another small group for his own benefit, where he receives pastoral care for
himself as well as training both through his overseer and also through the
peer relationships with other leaders on his level. This is also where he is held
accountable both for his personal life and ministry. No one leads alone.
o This ongoing training and mentoring makes it possible to mobilize new
leaders quickly. They dont need to know much to get started if they are going
to be continuously coached.
o Leaders rise to higher levels of oversight in this network by proven success at
their present level. Every leader begins by being an apprentice and being
trained for leadership at the next level. Leaders are not chosen based on
diplomas or by an election or by any means other than proven faithfulness at
their previous level of leadership. This is called emerging leadership.
A Discipleship Model Based on the Kingdom of God Page 4

o Monitoring and evaluation take place through the shepherding network. This
promotes rapid detection of problems and strategic planning.
4. Wholistic Ministry.
o From the very beginning of any outreach, we and our colleagues teach that
salvation involves not just restoration of harmony with God, which is
fundamental, but restoration of all 4 harmonies. It is important that this view
of salvation gets incorporated early into the foundation of a movement.
o When people grasp this early in their discipleship process they often create
their own imaginative wholistic ministries, often with very little further specific
teaching.
o We make sure that it has become normative for every person to be in a
discipleship group that is part of a well-functioning shepherding network
before we introduce more formal community development programs. If these
are not solidly established first, then wholistic community development tends
to replace them, rather than build on them. We try to do things in the right
order, as leadership of a movement can only assimilate so many new things
at one time.
o There are a variety of ways to start wholistic ministry including improvement
of health, sanitation, education, and other community projects. Determining
the beginning point requires sensitivity to the local situation and dialog with
the community involved.
o While economic development is only one of the possible starting points, as an
important key to other forms of community development it needs to have high
priority.
When people have more income they are in a better position to deal
with health care, nutrition, education, etc. because they have money to
pay for them.
With the poorest of the poor we start with self-help savings groups.
People form a group that meets regularly and begin receiving
training in money management and begin to save small weekly
amounts, which are held in a bank account.
When enough money has been accumulated, and the people
have learned to make simple business plans, they can apply for
loans from the groups savings fund to get the small businesses
started. Loans are approved by the group.
Loans are repaid at specified times with specified interest.
As the groups account grows, more and more loans, and larger
loans are made so that eventually everyone in the group
improves his or her financial position.
A Discipleship Model Based on the Kingdom of God Page 5

Various NGOs are being successful with such groups. Our

organization, Hope in View, is also starting to see some
success.
We hope to expand economic development to people who have higher
incomes to begin with, so that they can also improve themselves
economically.
5. Sustainability and Reproducibility
o We seek to help every Ethiopian ministry with which we partner to become
organizationally and financially sustainable from sources within Ethiopia.
o We are willing, when resources permit, to provide small amounts of start-up
funds, but only in situations where definite and realistic plans for sustainability
are in place and being implemented from the beginning of the plan.
o In addition to being sustainable, the effort must include a definite plan for
multiplication, including the development of educational materials and
provision of mentors for future leaders such as are provided through our
proposed shepherding networks.
o All these provisions also require implementation of adequate means of
monitoring and evaluation so that the long-term success of these efforts can
be determined and that problems and obstacles can be detected and
remedied early;