Drop Your Nets: The Call to Discipleship – Your Personal Discipleshift
Drop Your Nets: The Call to Discipleship (Church BASH)
Together Church | Pastor Brandon Werner
August 10, 2025 | Series: Your Personal DiscipleShift
SERIES INTRODUCTION
What a powerful story! I love to hear stories about how God changed a person’s life through relational discipleship.
This morning, we are going to start a new series that focuses on relational discipleship. The series is called: Your Personal DiscipleShift
God has a plan for His Church. He wants every person in the church to experience relational discipleship like you just heard in that video. He wants His Church to share a culture of love and trust where followers of Jesus can grow up together in spiritual maturity. He wants us to be in real-life relationships where we are becoming like Jesus and helping others become more like Him.
God changed my life through a personal, real-life discipleship relationship. Through relational discipleship, I came to understand the gospel; I learned how to overcome sin in my life; I grew in spiritual maturity; I learned to use what God had given me to serve Him; I developed the skill to be able to disciple others.
What I just shared with you has nothing to do with me being a pastor and everything to do with me being a follower of Jesus. If you are a follower of Jesus, God wants the same thing to happen in your life…
- He wants you to really understand the gospel and what God has done to transform your life
- He wants you to learn to overcome sin in your life and walk in freedom
- He wants you to grow in spiritual maturity and become more like Jesus
- He wants you to learn to minister to others and to use the gifts and talents He has given you to serve the Lord
- He wants you to develop the skill and go help others through this same process
At Together Church, we believe relational discipleship should not just be another program or ministry of the church, it should be the mission of the church and the engine that drives the church.
We believe that relational discipleship should be an equal opportunity for everyone. Whatever we do, we should make it our aim for every follower of Jesus to be able to find a discipleship relationship where someone is helping them grow in spiritual maturity and where they can help others grow in spiritual maturity.
The mission God has given our church sums it up cleanly:
We will create relational environment where disciples of Jesus are made.
As a whole, this is the unified direction of the leaders of our church. Now, to be fair, this hasn’t always been the case. Let me tell you a short story…
In 2009, our church was uncertain about our future. We had recently been through a season of conflict and division caused by issues related to our church structure and disagreements among our leaders. The church was declining. Some wondered if this local chapter of Jesus’ Church was coming to an end.
But God had a plan.
In 2010, God gave Pastor Jerry a renewed vision. The vision was encapsulated in a phrase: Who Will You Win in 2010?
This phrase was a call to shift our perspective. Instead of placing the responsibility to reach the lost and make disciples on “The Church” as a whole, this phrase called every follower of Jesus to take personal responsibility to engage in Jesus’ mission and purpose for their life.
It was a call to see yourself as a soul-winner; as a disciple-maker; as an agent of love for Jesus Christ on the earth. It was a call to adjust your life to know and follow Jesus and live on mission for Him.
For Together Church, this marked the beginning of what we call a DiscipleShift. In his book called DiscipleShift, Jim Putman defines a DiscipleShift as the intentional shift a church makes from a program-driven model to a relational, disciple-making model patterned after Jesus’ method.
2010 marked the beginning of our DiscipleShift at Together Church.
I wish I could say it was easy. Rough roads lied ahead…
- We were new and inexperienced to the idea of leading a church to have a culture where every person engaged in discipleship with both someone who could help them grow in spiritual maturity and with other believers they could disciple to help grow. There were misunderstandings and we made mistakes along the way.
- The church continued to decline for a season. Often, people leave for the same reason they came. In other words, as things change in a church, what they came for changes, and they lose interest and go somewhere else.
- At one point, our average attendance dropped below 100 people on Sunday mornings.
But through it all, we know God was working. We saw souls being saved. We saw baptisms. We saw people’s lives being changed. We saw believers discovering how to center their life on the mission of Jesus. We saw disciples of Jesus growing in spiritual maturity.
So, we pressed on, not worrying about numbers, but worrying about people. Wanting to see Jesus’ plan for His Church fulfilled: every person growing to be like Jesus in a loving discipleship relationship.
God has been blessing that plan.
In the last two years, we’ve seen over 100 baptisms! This year, we’ve hired a small group pastor to help us facilitate growth so there are more places for people to connect to relational discipleship. We’ve heard stories (like the one you just heard) of how God is using relational discipleship to change people’s lives.
And we believe God is just getting started.
2010 marked the beginning of a DiscipleShift in our church. Since that time, we’ve been on a journey so that discipleship is not just something we do, it is who we are.
But this series is not called Together Church’s DiscipleShift.
Our new series is called “Your Personal DiscipleShift.”
You see, what God is doing here all started with a personal call to the believer to drop what they were doing and to join God in what He is doing. Who Will You Win IN 2010?
This series echoes that same call. This series is a call for you to make a PERSONAL DiscipleShift in your life. It isn’t good enough for the leaders of a church to cast a vision for a DiscipleShift in the church. For God’s plan to be accomplished in His Church, every follower of Jesus must embrace God’s plan for them to be discipled and for them to help disciple other people.
What is Your Personal DiscipleShift?
It is a decision to drop everything in your life to follow Jesus. The shift is a shift away from your personal goals and ambitions and a decision to make Jesus’ purpose for your life the center of your life: that you would be His disciple and go win souls and make disciples of Him.
There’s a Bible story in Matthew 4 that really portrays this shift… it is the story of Jesus calling His first disciples to follow Him.
In the story, Jesus was walking on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He saw some men fishing. He called out, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!”
The men responded by dropping their nets and following Jesus.
Matthew 4:18-20
18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Dropping their nets is a powerful line in that story. Those nets symbolized their livelihood, their devotion, and their identity. These were fishermen! Those nets were what they knew.
But when Jesus called them to follow Him, they dropped their nets and followed Him.
Here’s what’s amazing to me – they didn’t even fully understand what it would mean to drop everything and follow Jesus. They had some hope – could this be the Messiah? They had some faith – God is working through this man. But they didn’t KNOW what it would mean to say “yes” to Jesus. Still, they were willing to risk it all. They shifted their life from who and what they had been before to make Jesus and His purposes the center of their lives.
Your Personal DiscipleShift is a decision to center your life on the mission of Jesus. It is a call to drop your nets and make His purpose for your life your highest aim.
And what is His mission? What is His purpose for your life?
It is clear in Jesus’ invitation. Jesus’ invitation to His disciples in Matthew 4:19 spells out the basic ingredients of what it means to shift your life to live as a disciple of Jesus…
- Follow Me
- And I will make you
- Fishers of men
A personal DiscipleShift is a decision to shift your life from whatever you’ve been living for to follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and to live as a fisher of men.
A fisher of men is a soul-winner, a disciple-maker, and an agent of love for Christ in this world. Learning to be someone who can go out and win people for Christ is God’s plan and purpose for your life. It is the reason that He didn’t just snatch you up to heaven the moment you were saved. He has left you here on purpose – so that you will be a fisher of men.
Jesus put it this way in Matthew 28…
Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus has called us to be disciples who make disciples. Like the phrase “Who Will You Win in 2010”, this call is a personal call to shift our lives to be disciples who follow Jesus, are changed by Jesus, and who live our lives committed to the mission of Jesus.
The job to make disciples does not rest on the church programs, church staff, and church leaders – God has called you to be His disciple and to go and make disciples.
Your Personal DiscipleShift is a decision to shift your life, drop your nets, and put Jesus at the center of everything…
- Instead of seeing your purpose as your family, you begin to see that God’s purpose is for you to disciple your family and help them become fully mature followers of Christ.
- Instead of your purpose being your job, you begin to see your job as a mission field where God wants you to fish for men.
- Instead of your purpose being your money, you begin to see that God wants you to use your money to win souls and be a team player in His Church to help people grow as disciples of Jesus.
- Instead of your identity being in politics or athletics or career or family, your identity is found in being a follower of Jesus.
In 2010, Together Church started a corporate DiscipleShift. Collectively, we decided that programs and lectures would not be the engine that drives our church. We decided to drop our nets and work as a team to change the culture so that we would be a church full of capable disciple-makers who could make disciples of Jesus.
But hear me well – your church’s decision to make a DiscipleShift cannot change your life any more than your parents’ faith can save you.
Are you following that analogy?
The faith of your parents cannot save you. Right? Your parents’ faith can be an encouragement to your faith, but their faith and decision to follow Christ cannot make you a Christian. At some point, you have to own it personally. If you are going to be saved by Jesus and changed by Jesus, you must make a personal decision to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
That is true of your salvation, and that is true of your purpose.
A DiscipleShift in your church cannot produce a DiscipleShift in your own life. At some point, you have to own this decision. You have to decide to drop your nets and follow Jesus. For Jesus’ mission for your life to become your chief purpose, you must decide to start Your Personal DiscipleShift.
Like our church, you may struggle at first. You will have things to learn. You won’t get it perfect every time. But Jesus promises He will be with you to the ends of the earth and until the end of the age. The work to make disciples is not by our might or power, but by the power and work of the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells in us.
The goal of this new series is to lead every follower of Jesus to make their own personal DiscipleShift in their life. To drop their nets and follow Jesus. To embrace the mission of Jesus and to adjust everything else in their life to follow Him.
Are you ready to do that?
CONCLUSION
Some of you are already there. You can point back to a time in your life when this purpose became your purpose. Since that time, you’ve been living with Christ at the center. For those in that position, press on for the prize of the upmost call of Christ Jesus! You’re here because you’re ready and fired up to go again together this fall – to reignite small groups and to work as a team to become like Jesus and help others become like Him! Perhaps you even invited some new people to join you today because you know we need others to join in the mission.
If that is you, let me remind you – because of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in you, you have what it takes! Relaunch! Press on! Continue to follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and live your life devoted to the mission of Jesus!
Some may have never started your personal DiscipleShift before, but you have heard the call this morning and you are ready to start right now. The call of Jesus to “drop your nets” became personal to you today. You feel the Holy Spirit nudging you to lay down your life and follow Christ – to repent of making yourself the center of your life and to chose to put Jesus at the center.
If that is you, amen! Give it all up! Lay it all down for His Kingdom and His glory! The exchange of your life for His is the best trade you will ever make. God has an incredible purpose for your life. That purpose is not found in the American Dream, it is found in the Kingdom Way! Surrender your life and follow Jesus today! Today can be the first step in Your Personal DiscipleShift.
There are others who are hearing me, but you are unsure. Maybe you don’t understand fully what this means yet. Or maybe you can’t see the vision God has for your life.
For the next several weeks, we will continue in this series called Your Personal DiscipleShift. It is a series about your personal decision to make the mission of Jesus the central mission of your life. To drop your nets and follow Him.
But if you’re unsure, could I just encourage one thing – one simple response – in your heart this morning? Humility.
You don’t have to understand it all to be obedient. When Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” those who heard the call showed humility. They dropped their nets. They didn’t have the whole picture yet, either. But they decided to go. They saw Jesus, and they said, “I don’t get it all, but I believe my life is better off with Him.”
You can do the same thing. You can decide to just start. It is process, a journey. Taking the first step can be a step of trust and faith. It is a decision to decide Jesus is worth any sacrifice because He is the light of life.
INVITATION
If you’re ready to start Your Personal DiscipleShift, what’s next?
Helping you answer that question and grow in this process is what our church is all about. Here’s what you can do right away…
- Join a small group.
- Join our church.
- Talk with a pastor.
- Come back for this series (five pillars of relational discipleship)
- Biblical Foundation is Relationship
- Intentional Leaders
- Relational Environments
- Reproducible Process
- Alignment and Teamwork
INVITATION TO THE LOST
Before I close, there’s one more person I need to address. In a crowd this size, there is always someone who is unsure about their relationship with God altogether. You don’t know where you stand with Jesus because you don’t understand what God has done so you can have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus.
Your personal DiscipleShift cannot begin until you know for sure that you have been made right with God…
PASTOR PERSONAL WELCOME / AFRICA UPDATE:
- Welcome! Introduce myself and family.
- BASH Purpose: A call for the Church to rally together to the mission of Jesus Christ.
- Africa Update
- 22 people from the US traveled (4 from Together Church)
- Hosted an 8-day conference called the LDI
- 328 participants from Tanzania joined us!
- 35 hours of teaching
- 3 days of personal evangelism and open air meetings, applying what we learned
- These nationals were an army of witnesses for Christ!
- In total, we saw 6040 decisions for Christ!
- We connected with over 24 local pastors and churches for follow up everywhere we shared the gospel.
- Most amazing part? These nationals are all going home to continue the practice.
- Not all of them are part of RSI, but all of them were there to train to implement these strategies at their churches and local communities.
- And those who are part of RSI are committed to have a Paul and a Timothy in their lives at all times.
- One Sunday I was gone, I was preaching in a Baptist…
- Incredible opportunity for the Kingdom and with my girls
- More to come, may be some illustrations in sermons