Let’s be clear: I am not a baker. 

However, my wife is a phenomenal cook AND baker. One thing I’ve learned about baking is that ingredients and instructions REALLY matter. While cooking can be a bit forgiving and leaves room for creative reimagining of flavors and textures as you go, baking is more precise. It’s essentially chemistry applied in the kitchen. Yale’s curriculum on the Chemistry of Cooking calls baking “the art of precision.” One of the reasons for this is in baking, ingredients don’t just contribute flavor—they perform specific functions. For example, flour is the foundation of the recipe and provides structure and texture; sugar sweetens but also attracts and retains moisture tenderizing the baked good; eggs affect the leavening process, the color, and the flavor; salt enhances the flavor of the other ingredients and balances out the sweetness… and so on and so forth. Too much or not enough of one ingredient doesn’t just change the flavor, it could alter the whole recipe. Too much flour and the cookies become dry and dense. Not enough baking powder and the cake won’t rise. Miss an ingredient and rather than having a slightly different-tasting bread, you may have a collapsed loaf that doesn’t even pass for bread! 

Ingredients matter. 

What you do with the ingredients matters. 

If the Modern Church Had A Recipe

As you already know but may have questioned, this is not an article about baking. While there are a few members of Journey Pastoral Coaching who are more than qualified to share recipes for macarons and killer sourdough bread, I want to discuss a recipe of a different sort. 

Imagine with me that discipleship in the modern Church was a baking recipe. What do you think would be the ingredient list? What steps would be included in the instructions? What would the end result look like? Feel free to mentally add/subtract as you read, but here is my take on a possible recipe for the Church today: 

First Rock Star Church of the Corporate Era 

4.5 stars (1,538)    1,141 Reviews        370 Photos

Description:

This is a new instant classic that promises to deliver bursts of flavor, guaranteed to be loved by all who try it. It can be ready in less than a year, from start to finish, and is assured to be a fan favorite at your next large gathering. While created in the west, endorsers guarantee this recipe should bring results any time, anywhere. Whip up a fresh batch of worshipers and be amazed at what you’ve managed to accomplish! 

Prep Time: 1.5 hrs on a Sunday Cook Time: 3 one-hour classes Total Time: < 1 year Yield: up to 6 services in one day!

Submitted by Pastors everywhere Updated on July 1, 2026

Ingredients

1 box of Sunday morning service (add more for larger servings)

¼ tsp of upbeat bangers, ⅓ tsp of moderate melodies, and ½ tbsp of slow, worshipful songs

1 cup of message, softened

3-4 spoonfuls of growth track classes

6-7 small groups

7 full-scale ministries (dependent on number of demographics represented)

1 large volunteer team

2 heaps of burnout

3 cups of excellence

Note: may add 1 ounce of prayer if desired

Instructions

1. Gather 1 large volunteer team and prepare them for service.

2. Pour the box of Sunday morning service as the base of the recipe.

3. Mix in ¼ tspn of fast songs, ⅓ tspn of moderate songs, and ½ tbsp of slow, worshipful songs. Stir up as needed.

4. Add in 1 cup of message, softened (too hard of a message may keep the cake from rising).

5. Whip ingredients until a light and fluffy texture is achieved. At this point things should start looking good! Make sure to add in 3 cups of excellence combined with 2 heaps of burnout.

6. Let sit. In a separate bowl add in 3-4 spoonfuls of classes and mix with 6-7 small groups and 7 ministries (add more as needed). This should produce the base of your discipleship.

7. Add this discipleship on top of your Sunday morning mix.

8. Enjoy!

Optional: Sprinkle with prayer for extra pizazz and serve!

Voila! You’ve done it! You now have the discipleship model for the First Rock Star Church of the Corporate Era. If you’ve got a really big party, be sure to add more Sunday services and consider launching new campuses using the same recipe. This instant classic won’t disappoint!

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

100 Calories  100g Fat 100g Carbs 0g Protein

Is This The Right Recipe?

While clearly satirical, I don’t think the above recipe is far from reality. I also don’t think the above recipe is all bad. It’s the one I grew up on, am most familiar with, and seems to be the most efficient of its kind. Sunday morning large gatherings are a good thing. Next-steps-style classes, volunteerism, and groups are helpful and needed. My intention is not to be overly critical of the Church or at all to shame those who are serving the Church. Many, if not most, of us who are leading Sunday-morning churches are pure in our motives and sincere in our desire to please and serve God. However, I do want to consider how the above recipe compares to the one Jesus gave His Church for making disciples. Are these the ingredients He called for? Do these instructions resemble what He laid out for us? If not, it’s possible we’ve created a recipe that results in not just a different flavor, but an altogether different kind of “baked good” than what Jesus intended.

What is the recipe we’ve been called to follow?

Let’s imagine we were to create a recipe for Jesus’ model of discipleship. What would it entail? It would be difficult to be comprehensive, but looking at Jesus’ lifestyle while ministering on earth, I imagine the ingredient list in Jesus’ disciple-making would include at least some of the following:

Ingredients

A clear call to “come & follow” (Mt. 4:19; 8:22; Mk. 10:21; Jn. 1:43; 21:19 )

A unified life modeling private devotion over public persona (Mt. 14:13; Mk. 6:31; Lk. 5:16; 6:12-13; Jn. 6:15 )

Public teaching and preaching about God’s Kingdom (Mt. 4:17; 13:1-52; Mk. 1:15; Lk. 4:43; Jn. 3:3-5; 18:36-37 )

Lots of storytelling (see Mt. 13; 18; 21; 25; Mk. 4; 12; Lk. 8; 13; 15-16; 18 )

Deeper explanations for committed followers (Mt. 13:10-23; Mk. 4:10-11 )

Correction and rebukes (Mt. 16:23; Lk. 9:54-55 )

Demonstrations of miracles (Mt. 4:24; 8:16; 9:35; 14:14; Mk. 1:34; 6:56; Lk. 4:40; Jn. 2:1-11; 6:1-5, 16-25; 11:1-44)

Commissioning of followers to go and do the same (Mt. 10:1-15; 28:18-20; Mk. 3:13-19 )

Note: need plenty of time to spend walking dusty roads together, sharing meals, asking and answering questions, attending synagogue services together, observing the Sabbath, and talking about life and the Kingdom of God.

Using this assortment of ingredients, what kind of instructions would Jesus give for how to bring them all together? Looking at what He told His disciples, it might look something like this:

Instructions

1. Follow Jesus in His way (Mt. 16:24 ).

2. As you follow, train others in Jesus’ way of life (Mt. 28:19 ).

3. Teach those you lead how to pray (Mt. 6:9-13 )

4. Help people go public with their faith. Tell them what Jesus’ commanded and then show them how to obey those commands (Mt. 28:20 )

5. Boldly speak about God’s Kingdom: how others can be a part and how to have life with God that starts now and lasts forever (Mk. 16:15; Acts 28:30-31 ).

6. Be a part of cultivating authentic Christian community (Acts 2:42-47 )

7. Pray for the sick to be healed and lead people into holistic freedom (James 5:14-15 )

8. Give freely what you’ve received freely (Mt. 10:8 )

9. Confess your sins to one another and forgive one another (James 5:16; Eph. 4:31-32 ).

10. Gather and share in the Lord’s Supper. Sing songs to God and about God, teach the Scriptures, and encourage one another (1 Cor. 11:23-26; Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16 ).

11. Use your giftings as a way to love others and encourage the community day-by-day (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12 )

The list could go on, but this sampling gives us an idea of what Jesus’ recipe for disciple-making consists of.

Reprioritizing the Right Ingredients

If we compare recipes, what differences and similarities do you see? What ingredients are missing in our discipleship model?

One of the biggest differences I’d like to point out is that the modern Church’s model of discipleship seems to be propped up by the occurrence of a Sunday morning large gathering, while Jesus’ model rested on the foundation of sharing life on a day-by-day basis.

In their latest “State of Discipleship” research, Lifeway Research found that over a third of pastors surveyed indicated that the weekly sermon is the most important strategy in discipling adults in their congregation (see chart below). While pastors and churches say, “Discipleship happens in the context of relationship,” our actions often betray us. The majority of the budget, staffing, calendar-priority, and programming is devoted to large-scale events and services rather than being at least equally distributed to more relational gatherings and life-on-life discipling contexts.

Volunteerism in the Church predominantly consists not in community care, evangelism, or mentorship, but in roles that are necessary to make a large weekend gathering possible. Nursery volunteers, welcome hosts, audio/video, music, safety, etc.—and many who volunteer in these roles consider this their primary Kingdom contribution. Ask someone about their church involvement and 9 times out of 10 they will point back to involvement in a Sunday morning service. The proof is in the pudding. Most churches rely on Sunday morning as the primary way to disciple people far more than any other avenue.

Twenty-twenty, the year of COVID, revealed this reality more than anything. When churches struggled to host large weekend gatherings, it was as if many churches lost their sense of identity. Without weekend services, the Church appeared crippled. Many churches shifted to online services, some leaned into their small group system, and many simply closed never to reopen. Many church attendees disconnected and never reengaged. It felt as if the Church not being able to gather in large groups on Sunday morning was a threat to the very existence of the Church. 

But it wasn’t. 

And it isn’t. 

Sunday morning gatherings are good. Weekend services are good. They are a part of the recipe. Jesus and His disciples went to the synagogue. The early Church worshiped corporately. History has not led us in this direction without reason. However, weekend gatherings were never intended to be the core ingredient of the way of Jesus. A 1.5 hr service(s) was never meant to be the backbone of the Church’s discipleship model. 

I’ve experienced Christian discipleship both ways. I’ve practiced discipleship as a Sunday service, as a set of classes; and I’ve practiced discipleship as taking people into my home to live with me while they get their life sorted out, as gatherings in people’s home to eat, pray, and worship; as discussions over coffee or wrestling with the difficult issues of life over the phone.

These models of discipleship are not mutually exclusive. They both have their place.

However, one is much more commonly practiced than the other in the Western Church.

There is an unhealthy imbalance that needs to be corrected. 

Getting Back to the Recipe Jesus Called For

So what are we to do? Cancel Sundays? No longer host large events or have church social media accounts, LED screens, and full bands? 

Maybe.

But I don’t think so. The answer is not to do away with Sunday morning and weekend services, but to put them in their rightful place. It is an important ingredient in training people in the way of Jesus. However, it is not the only ingredient– nor is it the most important ingredient. We need to know and believe that being the Church means more than showing up for music and a talk for an hour or so on Sundays. We must rediscover the Jesus-way of walking, talking, of living slowly and purposefully with people. We must relearn the art of prayerfully choosing a few and investing the majority of our time, energy, and attention in pouring our life into theirs. We must be okay with smaller stages if it means deeper transformation. 

I know this can be tough to hear. It may feel a bit like someone questioning the quality of your grandma’s beloved apple pie. This recipe has become so comfortable to us. We have so many good feelings and memories attached to it. We’ve savored the smells and tastes for so long it’s hard to imagine anything else. And when you’ve been doing something one way for so long and sacrificed so much to see it succeed it can be difficult to imagine any other way being viable or to consider that alternative options could be— dare I say, even better. 

If you’re hesitant to receive this, I understand. I’m a PK of 37 years and have served in the church for as long as I can remember. I’ve worked part-time as worship leader and youth pastor, and full-time as missionary campus pastor at a secular university, church planter and lead pastor, discipleship pastor, Bible college campus pastor and adjunct faculty member, and currently serve as an associate pastor at a wonderful congregation in Tewksbury, MA. I’m inundated with and wholeheartedly invested in the local church. And I feel the tension this kind of conversation brings.

Even as a pastor I still wrestle with how to stay engaged as a disciple of Jesus who makes disciples while in a demanding season of life and staying very busy in the current church model. My wife and I are raising a young family. I’m pursuing a master’s degree. We just walked through a bout of cancer with my daughter. I’m working full-time at the church helping lead our family ministry, writing sermons and attending meetings, facilitating groups and classes, helping with social media and marketing, and actively planning and participating in Sunday morning services and events. It is so easy to slip into church-career mode and an insulated family life. It’s easy to work on projects, build programs, and help lots of people with lots of problems, but still struggle to answer the question, “Who am I walking with in an intentional and consistent, life-on-life discipling relationship?” 

This kind of thinking is counter-cultural. This way is more difficult. It requires more of us. It requires more of the Church as a whole. It means getting messy— involved in the drama of people’s lives. It’s time-consuming. Walking with people where they are, going at a snail’s pace sometimes. Jesus’ way of discipleship is costly. It isn’t a neatly packaged twinkie or microwavable good. It is raw and requires a lot of mixing and kneading and rolling before anything edible appears. But it is what we are called to make. 

Exploring detailed solutions to this challenge and outlining a plan for change is beyond the scope of this essay and would require a “part two,” but the first step to solving a problem is simply acknowledging that it exists. We need to realize what we are producing isn’t what has been called for. We can’t have 99% of our recipe be large, event-based gatherings and 1% life-on-life discipleship and expect to get the same results as Jesus. We need to evaluate our measurements and see where we’ve been adding too much sugar and not enough flour, and where we’ve abandoned the recipe altogether and adlibbed our own ingredients. Jesus’ way of discipleship can’t be an add-on to what we’ve already got going on. 

Once we acknowledge this then discussions of change can begin. Then we can explore ideas of how to move forward. The best thing we can do now is start asking and taking seriously questions that challenge our current state. 

How can we move beyond a Sunday-centric discipleship? 

How do we create systems and structures that encourage organic growth— that encourage and enhance daily discipleship rather than hinder it? 

How do we cultivate an authentic, Christian community that shares life together over being mere surface-level Sunday acquaintances? 

How do we “preach to the masses” but ensure we are walking closely with those few we’ve been called to do life with? 

I don’t have all the answers. But I know these questions are worth asking. I know something has to change. And I know it is worth it. I’ve seen it; I’ve lived it. Jesus’ way of life and model of discipleship is worth the cost it takes to get us there. Ultimately, what we produce is not up to us— the end result is in God’s hands. But the ingredients we use and whether or not we follow the instructions given, that is our decision to make. 

Let us not be satisfied with anything less than the Jesus way. 

Bio: Josiah Smith is a third-generation pastor whose passion is to know Jesus and to make Him known. He holds a degree in Biblical Theology and is currently pursuing a M.A.T.S. in Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of Along the Way: A Beginner’s Guide to Journeying with Jesus in the Kingdom. With nearly 20 years of ministry experience as a church planter, lead pastor, and staff pastor, Josiah has devoted his life to proclaiming God’s Kingdom, equipping Christ’s Church, and helping disciples become disciple-makers. In addition to his love of teaching the Bible in a practical and understandable way, Josiah enjoys making music, playing sports, and adventuring in the great outdoors. Learn more about his ministry endeavors and follow him on social media at JosiahSmithOnline.com

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