The Clear Pathway of Jesus: A Biblical Model for Disciple-Making

In the 1990s, “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets became a popular way to encourage moral decision-making. Yet there’s a profound shift happening today—from merely asking what Jesus would do to actually doing what Jesus did. This transition moves us beyond morality into understanding Jesus as a model for a pathway of discipleship and a pattern for church planting.

The Gospels and Acts aren’t just inspiring stories—they provide a blueprint for how the kingdom grows. When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, He wasn’t introducing a new concept but essentially saying, “What you’ve experienced with me, do with others.” He commanded His disciples to teach others to obey everything He commanded, not just know what He taught.

But how often do we actually follow Jesus’ clear pathway?

In Mark 1-4, we discover Jesus’ kingdom pattern unfolding. After His baptism and wilderness testing, Jesus began proclaiming the gospel throughout Galilee. Some responded to His message—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—following Him and learning by doing. Jesus then gathered these disciples, modeling ministry before them, and eventually appointed leaders from among them to continue His work.

This journey reveals the five parts of kingdom growth:

1. Entry into new fields
2. Sowing the gospel seed
3. Discipleship growth
4. Church gathering
5. Leadership development

The question remains: Does your discipleship pathway match Jesus’ model, or have you created something entirely different? Have you empowered ordinary believers to make disciples, or restricted this calling to professionals? Are you moving from lost to leader, or working backward from the pulpit?

The invitation is clear—rediscover the unobstructed pathway Jesus demonstrated. Join a community of practice to learn and implement this model together. Because when we follow Jesus’ pattern, we don’t just make individual disciples—we spark movements that can reach every tongue, tribe, and nation.

Moving from “WWJD” to “What Jesus Did”

Remember those iconic WWJD bracelets from the 90s? They served their purpose—calling a generation to moral choices by asking “What Would Jesus Do?” But what if we’ve been thinking about discipleship too narrowly?

For me I remember when this shifted:

“I began to shift my thinking from What Would Jesus Do? to I want to do what Jesus did. Not just in the place of morality, but coming to understand that Jesus is actually a model for a pathway of discipleship, for a pattern of disciple making and church planting.”

This represents a fundamental shift in our approach to following Jesus:

• From: Applying moral principles in modern situations
• To: Adopting Jesus’ actual methodology for kingdom expansion
• From: Creating our own models of disciple-making
• To: Reshaping our understanding based on Jesus’ pattern

But what exactly did Jesus do that was so different from our modern approaches?

The Great Commission as a Blueprint

The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is often viewed as a standalone command that appears at the end of Jesus’ ministry—something we must figure out how to accomplish on our own. But Jesus wasn’t introducing a brand new concept.

“All authority has been given to me… therefore you go.”

Instead of immediately establishing His kingdom reign, Jesus commissioned His disciples to continue what He had already demonstrated. Consider what Jesus was really saying:

• “What you’ve already experienced with me, do with others”
• “Teach them to obey everything I’ve commanded you” (not just know what I taught)
• “I’ve been modeling this process with you this whole time”

This revelation forces us to ask: Have we been viewing the Great Commission as a vague spiritual mandate rather than a call to replicate Jesus’ method?

The implications are profound. If Jesus spent three years demonstrating a specific pattern of kingdom growth, shouldn’t we be studying and implementing that exact model rather than creating our own systems?

What if the Gospels aren’t just inspiring stories but a practical handbook for how to make disciples who make disciples?

As we examine Jesus’ ministry in Mark 1-4, a clear pattern emerges—one that might challenge everything you thought you knew about church planting and disciple-making.

But what exactly does this pattern look like? And how different is it from our current approaches?

The Kingdom Growth Process in the Ministry of Jesus

Tracing Jesus’ Path in Mark 1-4

Mark’s Gospel provides a sequential model of how Jesus established His kingdom movement. It’s not just what He taught—it’s the specific pathway He followed. Let’s trace His steps:

• Abiding: Jesus begins with baptism, hearing the Father’s affirmation
  • Wilderness testing: Preparing for ministry through spiritual battle
• Entry and Gospel Proclamation: Entering Galilee announcing “the kingdom is at hand”
• Disciple identification: Calling those who respond with action (Peter, Andrew, James, John)
  • Ministry modeling: Taking disciples along to observe His modeling the work
• Gathering: Bringing disciples together (Peter’s house where “the whole town was at the door”)
• Leadership Development: Praying all night before selecting the Twelve

But what makes this sequence so significant? In Mark 4, Jesus reveals the answer through parables that explain the kingdom pattern:

“If you don’t understand this parable, how then will you understand all of the parables that I will share with you?”

Jesus emphasizes this is the key to understanding how His kingdom works. Through the parables of the soils and the growing seed, He reveals a process where:

• A farmer enters an empty field
• He sows seed
• The seed grows “night and day, he doesn’t know how”
• When the harvest is ready, he puts in the sickle

What would happen if we aligned our disciple-making efforts with this agricultural pattern Jesus described?

The Four Fields Model

From Jesus’ ministry and parables emerges a clear five-part kingdom growth process that can be visualized as “four fields” with leadership at the center:

Field 1: Entry

• Jesus constantly entered new fields looking for receptive hearts
• He searched for persons of peace (Luke 10) who would receive the messenger, message, and mission
• He focused on relational networks as pathways for the gospel

Field 2: Gospel Sowing

• Jesus shared the message mouth to ear (not through impersonal means)
• He used both the big story of God and personal testimonies (the demoniac, woman at the well)
• He equipped ordinary people to proclaim this same message

Field 3: Discipleship

• Jesus focused on those who were obedient and took action with what they received
• He taught simple ways to obey His commands
• He emphasized a discipleship of changed lives, not just accumulated knowledge

Field 4: Church Formation

• Jesus gathered disciples together as a new community
• This created the DNA of church that fully blossomed in Acts 2:36-47
• From these gatherings, the movement launched out to “every people and every place”

Leadership Development (Center)

• Jesus identified leaders who demonstrated faithfulness in action
• He followed a model-assist-watch-launch progression:
• Modeling the ministry pattern to them
• Assisting them as they tried it
• Watching them do it independently
• Launching them fully in Acts 2

But here’s the challenging question: How does this compare to our modern approach to church planting and disciple-making?

Contrasting Jesus’ Model with Modern Church Planting

The Typical Western Approach

Have you ever noticed that our modern church planting methods often operate in the exact opposite direction of Jesus’ model?

What do we usually do? We usually will find leaders that we think are trained, and then we will take those leaders that are trained, usually highly educated, usually through upper level education in seminary. And then we will have them go and start a church…

Our typical sequence looks like this:

• Start with trained leaders (typically seminary graduates)
• Form a church gathering (often through a “soft launch”)
• Begin discipling those who attend
• Hope they’ll eventually hear and share the gospel
• They may or may not ever enter new fields (workplaces, neighborhoods)

This inverted approach means we work backwards:

1. Leaders (Field 5) →
2. Church (Field 4) →
3. Discipleship (Field 3) →
4. Gospel (Field 2) →
5. Entry (Field 1)… maybe

But what if this reversal explains why we struggle to see the multiplication Jesus promised?

The Consequences of the Traditional Model

When we flip Jesus’ model upside down, several problematic patterns emerge:

Professionalization of Ministry

• Only trained specialists can do “real ministry”
• Ordinary believers become passive consumers rather than active disciple-makers
• The priesthood of believers remains an unrealized theological concept

Knowledge Without Action

• Discipleship becomes about information transfer rather than obedience
• Churches measure attendance instead of reproduction
• We create maintenance systems instead of multiplication movements

Diminished Gospel Impact

• The lost remain disconnected from authentic Christian community
• Relational bridges to non-believers are underdeveloped
• The church becomes increasingly isolated from the surrounding culture

Pathway Obstacles

What starts as a natural pathway like students walking across grass on a college campus to get to class becomes:

• First, a cement pathway (formalized and then institutionalized)
• Then, a pathway where only a few can walk (professionalized)

“What starts out as the students walking across the grass and taking bold steps to figure out how they’re going to get to class… becomes, first of all, a cement pathway, and then it becomes only a few can walk down this pathway.”

This raises uncomfortable questions:

• Who can and who can’t enter harvest fields in your church?
• Are your members equipped to share the gospel or only invite people to services?
• Who is permitted to baptize new believers in your context?
• Are you releasing everyday believers to fulfill the Great Commission?

The consequence is clear: what Jesus designed as an unobstructed pathway for all believers has often become a restricted route for religious professionals.

So how do we begin to clear the pathway and return to Jesus’ original design?

Overcoming Barriers to a Clear Pathway

Releasing the Priesthood of All Believers

The fundamental question we must ask is simple but profound: Who can and who can’t?

“This is always the question of the clear pathway. Who can and who can’t? Who can and who can’t enter and go into harvest fields that have not yet heard, neighborhoods and workplaces?”

Jesus consistently called unlikely candidates into His kingdom mission:

• Uneducated fishermen
• Tax collectors
• Former demon-possessed individuals
• Samaritan women with questionable reputations

Yet today we’ve created numerous barriers:

• Educational requirements that Jesus never demanded
• Ordination processes that limit who can minister
• Professional language that intimidates ordinary believers
• Complex methodologies that require expert guidance

Consider these questions about your discipleship pathway:

• Are you training believers to invite people to services or engage harvest fields themselves?
• Do your members believe they can make disciples, or is that only for “professionals”?
• Have you created artificial qualifications beyond what Jesus required?

Empowering All Disciples for Gospel Proclamation

Jesus’ approach to gospel-sharing was remarkably simple:

“He doesn’t do this through tracts, or some other media, it’s mouth to ear. It’s gospel proclamation, it is shared directly with people.”

Yet we’ve often complicated this process:

• We expect the evangelist or pastor to share the gospel
• We rely on professional presentations rather than personal conversations
• We emphasize inviting to events over sharing the good news

Ask yourself:

• Are your members equipped to share the gospel themselves?
• Can they articulate the kingdom message in simple terms?
• Do they feel confident to proclaim without professional backup?

Even baptism—a fundamental practice—has become restricted:

“In the Great Commission, Jesus calls us to make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Is that only for the pastor? Is it only for a few?”

In the early church, we see many examples of ordinary believers baptizing new disciples. Yet today:

• Many Christians have never baptized anyone
• Many don’t know how to baptize
• Many believe they need permission to baptize

Creating an Unobstructed Pathway

A truly clear pathway requires two elements:

1. Clarity – Understanding the biblical model Jesus demonstrated
2. Accessibility – Removing barriers that prevent ordinary believers from following it

Steps toward creating an unobstructed pathway include:

• Reexamining Scripture to identify Jesus’ actual model
• Identifying barriers in your current approach
• Simplifying processes to make them reproducible
• Training all believers in basic disciple-making skills
• Celebrating reproduction rather than just attendance
• Empowering action at every level of spiritual maturity

“It is to say that we need to get back to releasing the average everyday believer to do the Great Commission, to have a vision, first of all, that they are a part of the Great Commission, and then to learn to do the Great Commission.”

This doesn’t mean abandoning all structure or leadership requirements. Certain roles like eldership still require specific character qualities and skills outlined in Scripture. But it does mean distinguishing between:

• Biblical requirements vs. traditional additions
• Necessary complexity vs. unnecessary complication
• Helpful guidance vs. disempowering control

The question remains: Is your discipleship pathway truly clear of obstacles, or have well-intentioned structures become barriers to multiplication?

Next Steps: Learning and Practicing the Pathway

Don’t Study Alone: Join a Community of Practice

Understanding Jesus’ clear pathway isn’t something best done in isolation. I have learned:

“If you’re beginning to ask, is this biblical and how do I get started in this? […] I want to invite you to not do that alone. We’ve found that the best way to begin to identify this clear pathway or pattern in the ministry model of Jesus is to do it in a community of practice.”

Why is studying with others so crucial?

• Accountability to move from knowledge to action
• Collective wisdom in interpreting Jesus’ model
• Mutual encouragement when facing challenges
• Practical application through shared experiences

Without this community component, our study risks becoming merely academic:

“If we simply read it and just read it for the sake of knowledge, but don’t read it with the intention of practicing it and working it out with others, it’ll just be more knowledge.”

Examine Your Current Pathway

Take time to honestly evaluate your existing discipleship approach by asking:

• Do you have a clear understanding of your current “lost to leader” pathway?
• How does your pathway compare with Jesus’ model?
• Where are the potential blockages preventing multiplication?
• Are there steps that are overcomplicated or missing altogether?

Map out your current process for how:

• A lost person connects with your disciples
• They learn to be a disciple themselves
• They develop into a disciple-maker reaching their own networks
• They grow into a leader who reproduces the entire process

“What is your pathway? Do you have clarity of what your pathway looks like from a lost person getting connected with you and with disciples that you are working with to that lost person learning how to be a disciple, but then that person actually learning how to make a disciple of their lost friends?”

Start Implementing the Four Fields Model

Begin putting the biblical pattern into practice:

1. Enter New Fields

• Identify relational networks where you have connections
• Look for potential persons of peace who might be receptive
• Pray specifically for open doors in these areas

2. Sow the Gospel Widely

• Learn simple ways to share the gospel story
• Practice telling your testimony effectively
• Begin gospel conversations in your everyday interactions

3. Disciple Through Obedience

• Focus on simple commands of Jesus that can be immediately obeyed
• Create accountability for putting learning into practice
• Look for those who are faithful to act on what they learn

4. Form Simple Churches

• Gather new disciples in ways that are easily reproducible
• Teach the basic elements of church found in Acts 2:36-47
• Keep gatherings simple enough that anyone could lead them

5. Develop Leaders Through Practice

• Identify those showing faithfulness in action
• Use the model-assist-watch-launch progression
• Give increasing responsibility to those who prove faithful

Seek Further Training

To deepen your understanding and practice of the Four Fields model:

• Join upcoming training opportunities to learn with others
• Connect with experienced practitioners who can mentor you
• Study the Gospels and Acts with a focus on Jesus’ methodology
• Practice these principles in a supportive community

“What we’ve found is if you begin to discover this clear pathway of Jesus alongside of others in a community of practice, it’s much more likely you’re going to grow in your understanding and grow in your practice of it.”

Remember, the goal isn’t simply understanding a new concept—it’s implementing a biblical pattern that leads to multiplication. By following Jesus’ clear pathway, you can move from addition-based ministry to multiplication-based movements that truly fulfill the Great Commission.

Are you ready to rediscover and implement the clear pathway of Jesus?

Conclusion

The journey from “What Would Jesus Do?” to “doing what Jesus did” represents more than a semantic shift—it’s a fundamental reorientation of how we approach discipleship and church planting.

Throughout this exploration, we’ve discovered that:

• Jesus demonstrated a clear, reproducible pattern for kingdom growth
• This pattern moves from entry to gospel sowing to discipleship to church formation with leadership development at the center
• Modern church planting often reverses this order, starting with trained leaders rather than harvest engagement
• Following Jesus’ pathway requires removing obstacles that prevent ordinary believers from participating
• Learning and implementing this model works best in a community of practice

The implications are profound. When we embrace Jesus’ clear pathway:

• Every believer becomes a potential disciple-maker
• Simple, reproducible processes replace complex systems
• Multiplication becomes possible rather than mere addition
• The Great Commission becomes a practical reality rather than a distant ideal

The question now is not whether Jesus provided a clear model—He did. The question is whether we’ll have the courage to realign our approaches with His original design. Will we trust His methodology enough to:

• Release the priesthood of all believers
• Equip ordinary disciples to make disciples
• Focus on obedience-based discipleship rather than knowledge accumulation
• Develop leaders who reproduce the whole process

The goal isn’t to create more effective church systems but to rediscover and implement the pattern Jesus already demonstrated:

“Rather than him sitting down as king in that moment and beginning to reign and rule, which he certainly could have, he says that authority has been given to me, therefore you go.”

Jesus entrusted His mission to ordinary people and equipped them with an extraordinary process. By returning to His clear pathway, we position ourselves to see His vision fulfilled—every tongue, tribe, and nation standing before the throne in worship.

The invitation stands: Will you join a community of practitioners rediscovering and implementing Jesus’ clear pathway? The harvest is plentiful, and the model is clear. Now is the time to follow in His footsteps, not just asking what He would do, but faithfully doing what He did.