The Gospel You Preach Shapes the Disciples You Make

“The gospel you preach determines the kind of disciples you make.” – Bill Hull

I just started reading Discipology: The Art and Science of Making Disciples by Peyton Jones.  I was truly taken with his book on Church Planting, Church Plantology, one of the best on the topic, and now thoroughly enjoying his work on making disciples. His opening concept is that making disciples is different from discipleship.  In the church, we have confused the two and made them into one topic. Discipleship is the ongoing process of developing as a Jesus follower. Disciple-making is the intentional process of helping others become followers of Jesus. Jesus taught and formed the disciples in a discipleship process over the three years of His ministry and then commissioned them to evangelistically guide others to follow Jesus in a proactive mobilization effort that multiplies disciples.

But before we wrestle with the ins and outs of making disciples, we first have to deal with the gospel that we preach. I think Bill Hull is right that the gospel we believe and preach defines the kind of disciples our lives and ministries make.  I bumped into this firsthand when I studied a course under Dallas Willard.  He was talking about the Kingdom of God as the most frequent topic that Jesus dealt with during his earthly ministry. I had never considered that. The phrase “Kingdom of God/Heaven” appears over one hundred times in the Gospels. It’s the main subject of most of Jesus’ parables. The Kingdom of God frames the beginning, middle, and end of Jesus’ ministry. In contrast, my understanding of the gospel was more shaped by The Four Spiritual Laws tracts and other truthful but reductionistic explanations of the gospel. I realized my understanding of the gospel needed to deepen.  

Hull summarizes the gospel in seven elements: “There are four declarative statements: God’s kingdom is here, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus died for our sins, and Jesus was resurrected on the third day. These four statements form ‘the gospel proper.’ There are also three imperative responses that are critically connected to the declarative statements: repent of sin, believe the gospel, and follow Jesus (Mark 1:14-17; Mark 8:27-31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-5). Each of the seven elements find their origin in Jesus himself, and each element comes from a passage expressly stating it’s a gospel passage.” In essence, Jesus didn’t primarily preach “how to get to heaven,”but rather preached that God’s kingdom is here, and invited people to live under His rule now.

Hull also gives language to the types of gospel presentations that exist in the churches and pulpits across our land.

1. The Gospel of Sin Management
In this version of the gospel, Jesus forgives your sins so you can go to heaven all the while your day-to-day life remains largely unchanged. This gospel emphasizes personal forgiveness, avoiding “bad behavior,” and has little transformation expected. Churches that preach this gospel focus primarily on behavior modification, see little spiritual growth or mission, and have “disciples” who aren’t actually following Jesus.

2. The Gospel of Consumer Christianity

Here, Jesus exists to meet your needs for peace, purpose, success, and happiness.
This gospel focuses on personal fulfillment, comfort and blessing, and the church is seen as a provider of religious goods and services. This gospel produces passive church-attending consumers with low commitment and a faith centered on self rather than Jesus Christ.

3. The Gospel of Forgiveness-Only

The main goal of this gospel is to get you to heaven after you die. The focus then is afterlife security and “pray the prayer” assurance, neglecting present obedience to Jesus. This version of the gospel produces converts without discipleship, little urgency for mission or transformation, and a disconnect between belief and lifestyle.

4. The Gospel of the Kingdom 

In the gospel of the kingdom, Jesus is Lord and through Him the Kingdom of God has come to call people to repent, believe, and follow Him in every area of life. The gospel of the kingdom emphasizes the Lordship of Jesus, whole-life transformation, apprenticeship to Jesus (or in Willard’s words: “training for reigning”) and participation in God’s mission in the world. This gospel doesn’t just save people from sin, it reorients their entire life under Jesus and thus produces intentional grace-filled disciples, obedience and spiritual formation, and reproducing disciple-makers.

Again, “The gospel you preach determines the kind of disciples you make.” If you preach a thin gospel, you get shallow, passive Christians. If you preach a kingdom gospel, you will see transformed, reproducing disciples in the making. I am so glad I grew in my understanding of the Kingdom that Jesus preached and taught about and into which He calls me to dwell.

At Aspire, we are focused on making disciples of Jesus, healthy leadership, and reproducing churches. It is my conviction that the disciple-making journey starts with an analysis of the gospel we preach.

May the Lord deepen your understanding and appreciation for the beautiful realm that Jesus leads you into and may His love pervade you all the more!

-Kirk

Resources:

Hull, Bill and Ben Sobels. The Discipleship Gospel: What Jesus Preached—We Must

Follow. HIM Publications, 2018.

Jones, Peyton. Discipology: The Art and Science of Making Disciples. Grand Rapids:

 ​Zondervan Reflective. 2026 

Keasler, Keas. Kingdom Apprenticeship: Dallas Willard’s Formational Theology and

 ​Missional Vision. Downers Grove: IVP Academic. 2026. 

Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy: Discovering Our Hidden Life in God. San Francisco:

HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.