Groups Matter Podcast

If your discipleship plan depends on Sunday morning, you may be asking preaching to carry weight it was never meant to carry. Brian Daniel sits down with Mark Croston to define discipleship in plain terms: learning to follow Jesus as a follower and a learner. From there, we get honest about where churches drift, especially when we assume sermons alone will produce mature believers.Mark points to a sobering benchmark from Lifeway Research: the current state of discipleship earns a D grade. We talk about why that score does not mean leaders do not care, but it may mean our patterns are stuck in an older world where the church had more time, less competition, and more predictable rhythms. Today, people give fewer hours, attend less often, and carry full calendars, which makes small group ministry and relational disciple making more essential than ever.We close with practical pathways, including training intensives, bringing strategy back to the church field, and leadership cohorts built on honest conversation. T