Ken Benjamin, Director of Church Relationships at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, maps the route from good intentions to transformative disciple formation.
By Ken BenjaminJune 2025
Confession: as a church leader, I always totally believed in the idea of ‘multiplying missionary disciples’, but I also found prioritising disciple-making was much easier said than done!
At the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC), our connection with thousands of churches has shown this to be a common experience. In our worshipping communities, we all know disciple-making is important – vital, even. But creating and sustaining a culture that prioritises discipleship for the whole of life is tricky. There are at least two key reasons for this.
Good intentions are only the start
Firstly, good intentions aren’t enough on their own. Church leaders are never short of tasks to complete. Their to-do lists are never totally done. There is always more work, in all aspects of pastoring and leading. In the day-to-day reality of church leadership, so often the wrong things shout for attention, whilst some of the most important things whisper.
Our people are called to be disciples in the whole of their lives. At LICC we emphasise this by talking about ‘whole-life discipleship’. Most often, their missional discipleship opportunities and challenges are found in the places they spend the greatest amount of time – beyond the gathered church, in daily work, leisure activities, with neighborhoods, friends, and family.
Despite that, our people won’t often call us about these aspects of their lives unless there’s an emergency. They’re much more likely to send a message about some aspect of gathered church activity. Inevitably, therefore, things like rotas and church services shout for attention, whilst everyday discipleship whispers.
Disciple-making has to be central to everything
Secondly, disciple-making doesn’t do well as a bolt-on. If we leave Multiply 2025 simply adding ‘multiply missionary disciples’ to our already too long to-do list, it’ll end up dropping off the list of priorities. Disciple-making is always important but never feels quite as urgent as the immediate needs of the next event coming up tomorrow.
As a to-do list item, disciple-making may feature for a while, but will never become a long-term emphasis in our churches. Or worse, we may drift into feeling as though we’ve ‘done’ whole-life discipleship because we ran a single series or event on it several years ago. We must view disciple-making as the thing, rather than another thing.
How Vital Signs can help your church
In response to these issues, LICC created Vital Signs – a major resource designed to turn up the volume on disciple-making and help us all move from good intentions to best practice.
It does that by offering 20 ways to move on from good intentions to effective disciple-making. They’re not 20 extra things for church leaders to do; rather, they bring a discipleship emphasis to the core things our churches already do. And so disciple-making is embedded rather than added – it is built into church life rather than bolted on.
First, the Vital Signs assessment tool helps you look at every aspect of your church life and simply ask, ‘Are we making disciples here?’ You can access it free at licc.org.uk/vital-signs. Jump in and answer 20 quick questions, and then receive free, detailed analysis of your strengths and areas for improvement. Leadership teams can get group scores which give even greater insight.
You’ll also be pointed to short videos that give practical advice from one church leader to another on how to improve each vital sign – both in areas where you’re already strong and areas with the greatest opportunity for improvement. Alongside all that personal insight, the Vital Signs book unpacks each sign in detail, helping you explore in more depth.
Embedding disciple-making in our churches might be easier said than done – but it’s so worth it. When we put people’s daily mission at the heart of all we do, we empower them to join in God’s redemptive work for all creation – right where they are.
