A few weeks ago, I had some discussions with friends about discipleship and the process of helping followers of Jesus become mature in their belief, doctrine, and practice of their faith in Jesus. As we talked a familiar discussion transpired that I have had with pastors and leaders all around the world: Why do discipleship programs and material work well in one place but not in others?
In a 2024 survey of 1,500 Christian leaders across the globe, they were asked whether new believers in their context are adequately discipled. Only 5 to 15 percent said yes. Between 20 and 30 percent said there is effectively no discipleship happening at all.
Resources, courses, pathways, and models have never been more accessible. Yet many Christians around the world still do not feel equipped to carry out our Lord’s command to make disciples.
The answer may not be more resources. It may begin with rethinking the definition of discipleship.
Why does so much of the existing material work beautifully in one place (mostly the west) and feel almost unusable somewhere else?
The answer may begin with what we think discipleship actually is.
What are we trying to do?
The Greek word for disciple is mathetes and it describes a learner or apprentice who follows a teacher closely in order to become like them. In the ancient world, disciples did not simply absorb content from their teacher. They shared life with them. They watched how the teacher lived, listened to how they spoke, and gradually allowed the teacher’s character and priorities to reshape their own. Over time, they did not only know the teacher’s ideas. They bore the teacher’s image. And then they passed that life on to others.
When Jesus called people to follow Him, He was not enrolling them in a course. The Son of God didn’t invite others into absorbing His cultural preferences. He didn’t prescribe monocultural progression bars to achieve sanctification. Jesus invited them, as unqualified as they were, into a transformative relational apprenticeship. His disciples walked with Him, asked questions, wrestled with confusion, and slowly began to understand the kingdom of God. His life shaped theirs. And then their lives shaped others. Discipleship was never meant to end with me. It was designed to move through me into someone else.
That is the heart of what Jesus commanded in Matthew 28. Not gather crowds. Not transfer information. Make disciples. Multiplicative, relational, life-on-life formation.
Discipleship is complicated because humanity is diverse.
Somewhere along the way, we in the west quietly drifted from that center. We replaced the apprenticeship model with approaches that each capture something real but miss the whole. A focus on written information alone can produce smarter sinners but not transformed ones. A focus on community relationship without intentionality can produce warm friendships that never move anyone toward maturity. A focus on multiplication without formation can produce something closer to viral marketing than genuine life-on-life growth. And an emphasis on obedience without heart transformation can produce rule-followers rather than people who actually know the Father.
Each of those instincts contains something true. None of them alone is sufficient. And when we export an incomplete model across cultures, we should not be surprised when it does not travel well. We need the global and culturally diverse body of Christ to help round out our view of discipleship.
Are we aiming at different goals?
There is a second and deeper reason why discipleship materials struggle to cross cultures beyond the complexity of making disciples. Even when people share the same broad goal of helping others grow in Jesus to lead others to grow in Jesus, the cultural assumptions underneath that goal can be remarkably different.
The Three Colors of Worldview framework helps name what is happening. People shaped primarily by an Innocence/Guilt worldview tend to ask: What is right? What is the rule? Who is accountable? Discipleship in this frame focuses on correct belief, moral behavior, and personal responsibility before God. It is often the world from which much English-language Christian publishing emerges.
But someone shaped primarily by an Honor/Shame worldview is asking different questions entirely. What brings honor? How do we protect dignity? How does this decision affect the family or community? For them, the goal of spiritual maturity may be less about individual moral accountability and more about becoming a person whose life brings honor to God, family, and community.
And someone shaped by a Power/Fear worldview is asking something different still. Where is power being used or misused? Who is vulnerable? What will reduce fear and create life-giving influence? For them, discipleship may be less about rules or reputation and more about moving from fear toward trust, from unsafe power toward the protective authority of God.
This is not simply a matter of communication style or application. These are different core instincts about what the goal of spiritual formation actually is. A produced resource may speak clearly about right and wrong while missing honor and dignity entirely. It may call people to bold personal action while ignoring the fear created by unsafe authority structures. It may celebrate individual growth while overlooking community consequences.
The material is not necessarily wrong. But it may be answering only one set of questions, while presenting those answers as if they are the faithful response for everyone.
The reason discipleship material from the west (mostly I/G) doesn’t travel well is it answers questions only a minority of the world culturally cares about.
Stephen Pardue observes that most theological books and commentaries are written primarily by and for North American Christians, even though they represent a little more than 10 percent of the global Christian population (1). When one cultural location carries such a strong publishing voice, its assumptions about growth, discipleship, and spiritual formation can begin to feel universal. As the materials travel the world and end up in hands and homes of global Christians, the problem travels as well. Someone reads a chapter and says, “I agree with the principle, but I cannot apply this in my family.” Or, “If I speak that directly, I will destroy trust.” Or, “This would dishonor my parents.” The advice is not necessarily wrong. The process is simply incomplete.
What discipleship looks like in the whole of life
There is one more place where our discipleship models often fall short, and it crosses every cultural context.
Whole-life discipleship has to engage the real places where people are actually being formed. And every one of those places is culturally shaped. “Career” does not mean the same thing everywhere, nor is it of equal value. Money carries different weight and meaning across cultures. Family obligation, rest, ambition, and what it means to flourish are all filtered through cultural lenses. A discipleship model that does not account for this will keep producing the same incomplete formation, regardless of how faithful the content is.
The goal of discipleship is to multiply Jesus-shaped lives, not the cultural biases we (unknowingly) hold.
What Intercultural Agility offers
So what changes when we bring intercultural agility into the room?
It changes the posture before it changes the method. Before asking, “What does this person need to do?” we begin by asking, “Who am I in this moment? Who is the person in front of me? What is happening between us relationally? What is the cultural context we are navigating together?” That shift moves us from assuming to discerning. From prescribing to describing. From exporting answers to asking better questions.
It also helps us slow down before we name a solution. Many of the deepest challenges in spiritual formation are not simple problems with clear solutions. How do I honor my parents and still become an adult? How do I speak truth without destroying trust? How do I forgive without pretending nothing happened or losing face in my community? How do I belong to my community without losing integrity? These do not fit neatly into five steps. They require discernment over time, walking with people through the complexity rather than handing them a map from a disconnected culture and expecting them to find the way alone.
Intercultural agility does not replace the truth. It does not soften conviction or make discipleship less demanding. It allows truth to enter real human complexity with wisdom. It creates the conditions where life can actually be shared rather than merely transferred.
The goal was never culturally informed Christians who understand worldview frameworks. The goal is men and women becoming more fully formed in the image of Christ, walking with others, and passing that life on. Cultural wisdom is not the destination. It is what allows the journey to happen well across every culture, language, and context where Jesus is still calling people to follow Him.
And He is still calling.
Perhaps the better question, then, is not only what content people need. Perhaps it is also worth asking: what process will help people discern faithful growth in their own context? Not only, what is the right answer, but how can this truth be embodied in a way that brings honor, does what is right, reduces fear, builds trust, and forms people into the kind of disciples who make disciples?
That is what Jesus commanded. Disciple making was always meant to travel.
1) Stephen T. Pardue, “How to Engage Theology from the Majority World,” The Gospel Coalition
Published May 18, 2026
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