One of our mottos at The 139 Collective is “No One Does Life Alone.” Typically, when in a group of Christians, if I ask the question, “Who is actively discipling someone else? I may get a few hands. But when I ask, “Who in this room has actually been discipled? you could hear a pin drop. Why is that? I truly believe that the last few generations of church leaders and still many leaders today are so focused on putting butts in seats and building bigger buildings that they’ve lost the understanding of The Great Commission where it says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples…”

This isn’t an indictment against the church, because I believe leaders typically start out with the best of intentions. “In order to get more people to hear the Gospel, I’ve got to have space for them.” While that thinking isn’t inherently bad, what happens is the focus shifts from vertical (let’s keep our eyes on God) to a horizontal focus (let me build my kingdom). It is so easy for leaders to grow proud and lose sight of what’s really important. The good news and the hope I’ve found is that this is beginning to shift! The Holy Spirit is changing current leaders’ hearts and calling out new ones who, I believe, will take us into the next great Reformation of the Church.

The truth is people were never designed to live life in isolation. Think about the Creation story and why God created Eve. We should be in deep relationships with others. We should feel comfortable sharing our hearts, our questions, and our lives with others. We should be surrounded by people who support us when life is ugly and rejoice with us when life just sucks!

So our goal is that every person connect to and involved with The 139 Collective and/or The Gathering would be actively discipling someone else and if they haven’t been discipled themselves, that they would enter into that process/covenant with another person.