Written by Matt Boga, lead pastor of Reality Church of Stockton in California and managing editor of Gospel Centered Discipleship.
The church I pastor purchased a building near the end of 2024. Initially, we wanted to replace the baseboards, splash a new coat of paint on the walls, and move in. After all, we’ve been renting spaces for the last 18 years. But in God’s kindness, our congregation donated enough money to expand the project scope so we could do significant work and make this building our home.
It’s been 19 months since we put pen to purchase documents, and we’re only now getting ready to move. While this season has felt long, the contractor told us, “Your people won’t remember the extra months in 10 years.” What has felt unnecessarily slow is what it takes to do the necessary work we’ll be grateful for down the road. I’m convinced discipleship is no different.
In a recent article for TGC, I wrote about how to handle one of discipleship’s gray areas—whether it’s good for a church to shape its discipleship ministry around in-house video recordings or podcasts. Not all ministries are the same, so which practices should be avoided or pursued may differ from church to church. Yet there are overarching principles we all should consider before developing our small-group, membership-class, or discipleship-ministry plans.
In an increasingly fast-paced, impersonal world, my prayer is that this piece helps pastors like you to take your time with decisions like these. What may feel unnecessarily slow now may be what it takes to be a faithful gospel steward (1 Cor. 4:1–2). Ten years from now, you may be grateful you’ve taken your time.
—Matt
