“If there is a better way of doing discipleship, we will do it that way.”

In my years as a Christian leader, I have heard this phrase, whether it was my senior pastor, during church training, or during a conversation with fellow pastors in our movement.

For every mission God gives us, we have to have a model to execute the task. During the 90s, when I joined Victory, the model was doing seminars for young people. I saw thousands come to the Lord with that model. I would be riding the van with our evangelists and go to different places in the Philippines to do “Reasons to Say No to Smoking, Drinking, Drugs, and Sex” It was powerful. It is one of the primary reasons I am a pastor now because of my experience during that time.

During the late 90s, Paul Yonggi Cho’s cell group church exploded like wildfire in Asia. Many followed suit. We contextualized cell groups in the church and saw a rise in discipleship happen in our midst. The G-12 model came, and many followed. Through the years, models have come and gone.

The same happened in how we do church services, from the solemn “Catholic” feel of liturgy and hymns to Don Moen and Ron Kenoly. Remember the days when God is good all the time became one of the famous songs in churches across the Philippines. Finally, Filipinos were singing a country song! (Yeeha!)

Church models like (seeker-sensitive,  attractions, and missional) all had the same mission – to introduce people to the message of the gospel and the love of Christ.

“Don’t fall in love with a tactic and defend it forever. Instead, decide once and for all if you’re in a market or not.” – Seth Godin

Models change – the mission of the church remains the same. We have to know this dynamic of change. We can’t fall in love with the model that we neglect the mission. Go back to WHY we started planting churches. Go back to why you chose to path of full-time ministry work. Go back to what made your heart beat!