Jesus told His disciples to make disciples, but for many churches, discipleship ranks toward the bottom of their priorities.
The third and final part of Lifeway Research’s State of Discipleship study examining the experiences and perspectives of U.S. Protestant pastors finds that other church functions often receive more attention. Additional discipleship research, focused on churchgoers, will release over the first half of 2026.
Previous releases have confirmed that pastors believe discipleship is a priority, but they aren’t actively evaluating their strategies to ensure churchgoers are growing as disciples.
Since only 8% of U.S. Protestant pastors are extremely satisfied with discipleship in their church, it’s not surprising only 11% of pastors believe their church does discipleship better than other functions.
“The thread we’ve seen throughout this survey is that pastors are not seeing the results they want when it comes to discipleship. While there are a lot of discipleship activities taking place, many pastors indicate there is room for more effort and intentionality,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
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What churches do best
Asked to choose which of six aspects of church life their congregations do best, pastors were least likely to say discipleship. Around 1 in 10 ranked discipleship as the church function they did better than all others.
U.S. Protestant pastors are most likely to say corporate worship was their best aspect (30%). Similar numbers of pastors report their church is best at building community (16%), serving others (15%), outreach and evangelism (14%) and prayer (13%). Discipleship (11%) is the church function least likely to be chosen as what a congregation does best.
Older pastors, those 65 and older, are the least likely to say their church does outreach and evangelism best (8%). Pastors at churches with attendance of fewer than 50 are the least likely to say they do corporate worship best (25%).
African American pastors are the most likely to say their churches are best at prayer (48%). Pastors with graduate degrees are most likely to select building community (19%), while those with no college degree are most likely to say discipleship (19%).
When asked to rank the six functions, with one being what they do the best and six being what needs the most improvement, corporate worship tops the list again with an average score of 3.07. Serving others (3.31), prayer (3.33) and building community (3.43) were also highly ranked by most pastors. Compared to its likelihood of being chosen as what the congregation does best, discipleship (3.69) moved up a spot in average ranking. Outreach and evangelism (4.17) was at the bottom of the list.
“As compared to other biblical functions of a local church, on average pastors say evangelism and discipleship need the most improvement,” said McConnell. “Improving discipleship and outreach will take significantly more effort and attention than these Great Commission mandates have received recently.”
Pastors were also given a list of 12 aspects of church ministry and asked which three their congregations put the most time and effort into. Three in 4 (74%) place corporate worship in their top three, by far the most likely choice. Discipling congregants falls in the middle of the pack.
Around a third rank serving others (32%) and weekly small group Bible studies (32%) highly. Close to 3 in 10 choose building community (30%) and prayer (28%), while a quarter point to kids ministry (26%) and discipleship (24%).
Other aspects are less likely to fall in pastors’ top three, including outreach and evangelism (13%), student ministry (12%) and women’s ministry (11%). Far fewer place a priority on men’s ministry (4%) and mentoring or micro groups (3%). Less than 1% say they aren’t sure.
Younger pastors, those 18-34 (31%), are more likely than those 50-64 (23%) and pastors 65 and older (21%) to say their churches put the most time and effort into discipleship. Hispanic Protestant pastors (46%) and pastors at churches founded since 2000 (36%) are the most likely to prioritize discipleship. Pastors in the Midwest are the least likely to say discipleship receives the most time and effort in their congregations (18%).
Roadblocks to discipleship
While few pastors say discipling members is what their churches put the most effort into, they point to numerous obstacles that may be holding their congregations back from making disciples.
Almost 3 in 4 U.S. Protestant pastors (72%) say people not making it a priority in their life is a roadblock to their church’s discipleship efforts, while almost 2 in 3 (63%) say people being complacent about their discipleship is also a hindrance.
According to pastors, other factors that hurt or slow a church’s efforts in making disciples include not enough disciple-makers (44%), not enough people interested in discipleship (39%), being busy with other church priorities (27%), not enough or ineffective training for disciple-makers (26%), difficulty casting a vision for discipling members (20%) and not enough time for discipleship (18%).
Few pastors say they don’t know where discipleship is lacking (7%), none of these is a roadblock (6%) or they aren’t sure (2%).
“The biggest obstacle to discipleship in local churches is motivation among members. This is not a new challenge, but it must be addressed,” said McConnell. “Setting clear biblical expectations for what following Christ includes and emphasizing this is something we do together are vital to help believers embrace it.”
Aaron Earls is the senior writer at Lifeway Research.
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12 Responses
I was a part of a Church planting fellowship for 35 years. The three most important things to the organization that “we the church” were to be doing was: 1- Evangelism, 2 – Discipleship, 3-Church Planting. Every conference was about these three activities and why doing these made us a new testament church. Unfortunately, we labeled every other church and denomination out there that was not doing this as luke warm. We were the only ones doing the hard work while the rest of the Christian world was asleep at the switch. It sounds great, makes you feel better than everyone else at the home school co-op that go to all the other churches in town. But as I look back now and see that the organization fell into church planting by accident during the Jesus movement. It was not their idea, not there plan, not their purpose until it organically happened as an outgrowth of people loving Jesus!!
Then it became the LAW.
Evangelism, Discipleship & Church planting were literal idols we worshipped as we patted ourselves on the back. No one was ever taught what their identity in Christ was. We were just worker bees doing the work of God and obeying every word our Pastor said…no questions asked.
Paul said he labored more than anyone…by GRACE. It was not a work of man or of the flesh. Grace empowered him to do what most would not ever be able to endure.
Even good things can be manipulated and turned into a hammer to bludgeon people.
Discipleship comes out of hunger by the one discipling and by the disciple. Not by the law of the organization.
I find it interesting or telling that corporate worship is perceived to be well/better done than some other areas. Modern worship has taken over; for many it’s kind of the point of being ‘christian’ now. It makes people feel good and apparently makes a lot of pastors feel good too or feel like they’re getting something right. But are churches really ‘doing’ corporate worship well?
Maybe it’s that overemphasis on corporate worship; maybe it’s the shallowness of the modern worship they do so ‘well’, that is inhibiting discipleship? Maybe it blinds churches (pew sitters and pastors alike) into feeling good about themselves when it could actually be the element they’re doing most poorly at or that is misleading or misdirecting them?
Maybe if they realized that their off-the-wall corporate ‘worship’ was also as bad/unhealthy as the other areas studied by the survey, they’d be a step closer to improving in the other areas?
man, that is spot on.
If one can look at the concert / worship – hearing an American Idol knock-off band and look around see no one in the congregation singing (especially the men) and call that ‘doing well’ then their metric is way off
Yes, though things like music have a place, the prerequisite for approaching God and offering him genuine worship, is faith in His divine sovereignty accompanied by moral character and day to day ethical behaviour.
“The earth is the Lords and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? They who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to an idol or swear by what is false.” Psalm 24
A truth that this Website site directly & indirectly emphasises for both clergy & laity.
“Almost 3 in 4 U.S. Protestant pastors (72%) say people not making it a priority in their life is a roadblock to their church’s discipleship efforts, while almost 2 in 3 (63%) say people being complacent about their discipleship is also a hindrance.”
Which came first, the church-goers who don’t make discipleship a priority in their lives, or the churches that are filled with people who aren’t serious about being disciple of Jesus? Or are they simply coincident, with neither preceding nor causing the other?
My point is that I sympathize with both the church leadership and the attendees. It’s not as if Jesus said that being his disciple would be easy or comfortable.
Is it a coincidence that the thing pastors say they do best is also the main event used for church fundraising?
Is a coincidence that the two leading roadblocks to discipleship are essentially pastors pointing a finger at the people in their congregations and saying they are to blame. It’s not the pastors fault for not encouraging or providing discipleship; it’s the fault of the people in his congregation for not being interested in it.
Maybe these statistics would be different if churches weren’t designed to provide passive “christian” entertainment in exchange for an admission fee creatively labeled a tithe.
Very well said. I find it interesting that they believe they do worship well, but I see it differently. I see them having constructed an entertainment venue cloaked as worship. I believe many pastors are missing the mark and have prioritized aspects towards the ultimate goal of growth and music or shall I say a prep-rally concert is a great magnet in attracting the younger demographic.
The church is teaching that works do not apply, and as long as you have grace you, are sinless, and have salvation. So, why would anyone place having to do any extra work helping those God, Jesus have declared as in need:
MT 25:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
The pastors call corporate worship their best aspect. I suspect these pastors are misguided in their own minds. Now if the worship metric to be achieved is based on Sunday morning light shows to include fireworks shooting out of the floor, prep-rally environment with worship “pastors” dressing in the latest GQ hipster fashion (my favorite being stocking caps indoors while leading the congregation) with meditatively manipulated worship music with repetitive choruses delivered with crescendos where you can predict the very moment hands will be raised to such unbiblical lyrics as “my weapon is my melody”, wait…what!?, or another fan favorite, “You didn’t want heaven without us, so Jesus, You brought heaven down”. And or the volume so loud it drives away senior and elderly adults and bothers my 10 yr old compounding her already sensory overload with the needless chaos disguised as essential elements to attract a targeted demographic and to meet the mark of modern “corporate” worship. Seriously, how did we even get to the point where surveyed pastors think they are hitting the bullseye in worship? Just because they are doing it at 1st Church of MegaMillions doesn’t mean it’s right. Maybe consider 1. Reverence in Worship 2. Sing to God in worship, not just about God 3. Theologically sound in lyrics (worship in spirit and in truth) 4. Music that is easy on the ears for all to include seniors adults, not just the 18-45 demographic. 5. Be still and know l that I am God. 6. Avoid celebratizing worship leaders (nearly impossible as it is the segue into high dollar worship events netting millionaire worship leaders. By the way worship is not an event; it’s what we do.
Very intriguing survey. It really is a huge indicator as to what is prioritized.
I think we’ve found a real solution to the problem this report exposes. Most pastors I talk with agree—discipleship is the weakest area in the Church, not because of a lack of desire, but because there’s no simple, reproducible way for *ordinary people* to actually live it out. That’s exactly why we built Ordinary Movement.
We help men and women grow in intimacy with Jesus, build intentional relationships, and multiply into new leaders and groups. It’s not another class or curriculum—it’s a discipleship process that can live inside the local church without adding staff or complexity.
We’re now seeing multiplication reach 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th generations—leaders discipling new leaders who go on to make more disciples. It’s a movement, not a semester.
If you’re looking for a model that turns sermons into multiplication, you can see more at ordinarymovement.com
“Reading through these comments, I’m struck by how many people feel discipleship has been sidelined by programming and performance. If pastors say they’re not seeing results, what would it take to shift from activity to transformation? What does accountability look like in a culture that values convenience?”