Few Pastors Believe Discipleship Tops Their Churches’ Efforts
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.
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 one 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 four (74%) place corporate worship in their top three, by far the most likely choice. Discipleship falls in the middle of the pack.
Around a third rank serving others (32%) and weekly small group Bible studies (32%) highly. Close to three 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%).
Discipleship roadblocks
While few pastors say discipleship 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 three in four 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 two in three (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 discipleship (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.”
Younger pastors, those 18-34, are among the most likely to say a discipleship roadblock in their church is not enough disciple-makers (50%), being busy with other church priorities (47%), not enough or ineffective training for disciple-makers (42%) and not having enough time for discipleship (35%).
Pastors 65 and older are among the most likely to say their church is hindered by not enough people interested in discipleship (44%).
Pastors at churches with attendance of 250 or more (37%) and 100-249 (32%) are more likely to say they face a roadblock of not enough or ineffective training for disciple-makers.
Those leading churches with 250 or more in attendance are the least likely to say they’re hindered by not enough people interested in discipleship (19%) or difficulty in casting a vision for discipleship (11%).
For more information, view the complete report and visit LifewayResearch.com/Discipleship.
Aaron Earls is the senior writer at Lifeway Research.