Illuminating Disciplemaking with the P.R.I.S.M. Tool

As a local pastor seeking to cultivate a robust culture of disciplemaking in my church, I’ve wrestled with describing disciplemaking countless times over the past decade, with varying degrees of success. Most often, I found myself falling short in one area or another. Explaining the art of Jesus-style disciplemaking is a challenge! For those who have attempted to make a disciplemaker, you understand how complex it can be. It’s relational yet more than mere friendship. It’s instructional yet goes beyond simple information sharing. It is incredibly rewarding yet it comes with a cost. Like the abstract artwork of Wassily Kandinsky, there’s just a lot going on. 

Hard to Explain, Harder to Live Out

And if I’m being completely honest, I’ve not just struggled with explaining Jesus style-disciplemaking. I’ve also had an even more difficult time living it out. It can be easy focusing on one aspect at the exclusion of many others. For example, I’m a teacher at heart. I love to pass on all the information I can. And yes, Jesus was a teacher, a great one in fact.  But he was also much more than just a teacher. He was a friend. He was an evangelist. He was a servant. He was a role model. He was a disciplemaker. The list could go on. 

And so in my journey I was filled with questions like: How do I begin to get my arms around Jesus’ approach to life and ministry? How can I describe for people His many wonderful and yet different attributes as He made disciples? How do I adequately articulate and live out the tensions that He seemed to perfectly manage, like being fully present with an individual and yet also staying focused on the larger task of reaching the nations? 

Seeing Attributes of the Light Through a Prism

Perhaps we can take a cue from Jesus Himself. After all, who knows Jesus better than Jesus? In John 8:12, He describes Himself as “the light of the world,” a powerful and fascinating metaphor. While light itself is invisible, it enables us to see. That’s a profound theological statement in and of itself. This reminds me of what C.S. Lewis said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.” By claiming to be the light of the world, Jesus is not only inviting us to look at His radiance and marvel, but He’s claiming to be the reason in which we’re able to see anything at all. Isn’t Jesus brilliant?

As we press into Jesus’ light metaphor a little further, we come to discover light is actually polychromatic. It’s not just one color (or wavelength); it’s many, like Joseph’s amazing technicolor dream coat. The problem is that we can’t see them with our natural eyes. In order to see these magnificent variations, we need some kind of tool like a special lens or a prism. As we learned in science class, a prism works by dispersing natural light into its constituent colors. In other words, through a prism, we can distinguish the various aspects of white light. Without a tool like a prism, we would all miss the many wonderful nuances of light’s brilliance. 

And so as I thought about the many attributes of Jesus style disciplemaking, I came up with a list of what I thought were the primary aspects to Jesus’ approach. Like primary colors in a rainbow, these attributes are all foundational. If one were taken away, it would be glaringly obvious—again, just like a missing color in the rainbow. Can you imagine a rainbow without the color red? These attributes serve as the foundation to how Jesus approached His disciples. 

As I stared at this list of attributes, I realized the way in which I could distinguish these various aspects but also keep them together was through the acronym P.R.I.S.M.: Personal, Reproducible, Intentional, Sacrificial, and Missional.

By now, you can probably see(ital) where I’m going with all of this. Through our P.R.I.S.M. tool we are able to distinguish and illuminate the many varying aspects of Jesus’ approach to disciplemaking. Each aspect, like colors radiating out of a prism, has the potential to deepen our understanding and practice of disciplemaking.

The P.R.I.S.M. Tool

Let’s break down the P.R.I.S.M. tool:

P – Personal:  Jesus-style disciplemaking is deeply personal, involving authentic relationships and individualized care that meets people where they are. Jesus opened up His life to His disciples and made them more than just students. They were His friends. As friends, Jesus invited them into some of the most intimate moments of His life. 

R – Reproducible:  The aim of Jesus-style disciplemaking is to reproduce disciplemakers who will in turn make more disciplemakers. Everything that Jesus did with His disciples, from teaching techniques like storytelling and question asking to the way He approach relationships, was something that could be repeated and transmitted over and over again. 

I – Intentional:  Jesus had a clear vision for his disciples. From the very beginning, He was clear that they were not going to be the same after following Him because He was making them into something they had not yet become by themselves (i.e. more like Him). Disciplemaking according to Jesus requires purposeful planning and strategic efforts to guide others in their faith journey.

S – Sacrificial:  Investing yourself intentionally and relationally into others always comes with its challenges as well as costs. Lots of time, emotional energy, and saying no to other good things are all part of what it takes to disciple like Jesus. As in parenting, disciplemaking involves high-level selflessness and a willingness to put others ahead of yourself. 

M – Missional:  It’s always good to start with the end in mind. The ultimate goal of Jesus-style disciplemaking is to advance the Kingdom of God, which means reaching the lost and making disciples of all nations. It’s not enough just to be a disciple or even to make disciples. The world needs disciplemakers who make more disciplemakers. 

I love the P.R.I.S.M. tool. Through it we gain clarity and insight into the intricate tapestry of disciplemaking, transforming Jesus-style disciplemaking from a challenging concept into something more understandable, more explainable, and more achievable for disciples who are looking to make disciplemakers. P.R.I.S.M. can hold in tension seemingly conflicting aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry and enable us to emulate Jesus more effectively.

As we integrate these principles into our lives and ministries, we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the ultimate disciplemaker, fulfilling the Great Commission and spreading the light of Christ throughout the world. 

Feel free to use and pass on the P.R.I.S.M. tool to others as you see fit!