Leadership: Invitation and Challenge
Let the teacher be gentle, yet strict. St. John Chrysostom
Gregg’s Reflection
ChatGPT integrates Invitation and Challenge into a definition of discipleship:
Discipleship is the process of following Jesus Christ, learning from Him, and becoming like Him. It involves an intentional, relational journey of growing in faith, character, and action, guided by the teachings and example of Jesus. This journey is shaped by invitation and challenge—two key dynamics that Jesus modeled:
Invitation is Jesus’ warm, relational welcome: “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19). It is an open, grace-filled call to belong, to know God’s love, and to receive spiritual nourishment and guidance in community.
Challenge is Jesus’ call to transformation and commitment: “Take up your cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). It is a summons to change, grow, and step into greater obedience, often stretching us beyond our comfort zones.
Both invitation and challenge are essential in discipleship. Without invitation, we can feel excluded, judged, or burdened by expectations. Without challenge, we can become complacent, stuck, or consumer-oriented. Together, they foster a healthy, dynamic relationship with Jesus that leads to spiritual maturity and active participation in God’s mission.
The basic elements of discipleship are invitation and challenge. (See my post on Discipleship here.) In the Lutheran church where I was baptized as an adult, and my faith was formed, I encountered high levels of invitation and very little challenge. The chart down below describes that quadrant as a Cozy/Chaplain Culture.
The challenge with this quadrant is it produces consumers. Ever heard someone say, “I just haven’t been fed lately.” In that model, it is the pastor’s job to feed you, You take no responsibility for your own spiritual journey. And, I also saw how we delegated our children’s religious development to Sunday School teachers. Richard Rohr teaches,
God has no grandchildren—only children. Each generation must experience God directly, not inherit their faith secondhand.
My own direct experience of God was pretty minimal as we reared our children. Sending them to Sunday School and hoping they could inherit faith secondhand was pretty naive as I think about it now. I wonder how many kids of baby boomers went to Sunday School, but did not continue involvement in church as adults? I’ll be the numbers are legion.
As I began working with Lutheran pastors in the 80’s and 90’s I found that most of them had gone through Seminary when forming them as Chaplains was the norm. Many of the people called to ministry were Myers-Briggs Feelers who fit the role very well. What was missing was the idea of Pastor as disciple-making leader and equipper.
Jesus spent 80% of his time with the three and the twelve. Most pastors I’ve met do not live that kind of rhythm. To create time to disciple leaders, to pour your life into them so they might disciple others, takes a significant investment of time. What will you prune to create the bandwidth for discipleship in your life?
My father, on the other hand, was great at challenge, but brought no invitation. What we see in Jesus’ life and ministry was that he always loved people (invitation) before he challenged them to let go of unhelpful habits and grow up spiritually. That was the way he mentored his disciples, moving from invitation to challenge, back and forth, time and again.
Discipleship requires Invitation and Challenge. It’s not just helpful, it is a requirement. I learned this first by studying the 3DM model of life on life discipleship. Years ago, I went to a 3DM Discipleship and Mission workshop. They introduced these two primary dimensions. They showed how Jesus taught the Disciples through a constant process of invitation and challenge, illustrated here.
Your church resides in one of these four quadrants today. Where there is High Invitation and Low Challenge, you will have a Cozy/Chaplain Culture. The product of that culture will be consumers. Where Low Challenge intersects with Low Invitation you will have a Bored Culture, whose product is apathy. I’ve seen many declining churches in this quadrant. There is hardly a spiritual heartbeat left, but the remnant still remains.
Where there is High Challenge and Low Invitation, you will find a Stressed Culture. The product of that culture is Discouragement. But, where High Challenge intersects with High Invitation, a Discipling Culture emerges. Disciples are the product. And, where done well, the product is disciples who can go and make disciples.
The black arrow is the pathway from Cozy/Chaplain to Discipling Culture. You cannot get from there to here without going through the valley of the shadow. As the pastor begins to shift time and focus to discipling leaders, the rest of the congregation will feel your withdrawal from the things you prune away. That results in a shift downward towards Low Invitation. So, as you move to bring challenge where there was none before, you will find yourself in the bottom right quadrant before the breakthrough.
These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls. Some will turn away. Some will leave. But, those who remain will increase their commitment. It is easy to turn back from the hard path at this point. Mike Breen says,
Discipleship is meant to be simple, but hard. We have made it complicated, but simple.
This will be gut check time. Persistence and perseverance will be required. Continuing on the path will bring breakthrough, and the opportunity for real and healthy change.
I got to live into it at City Church Eastside where I was part of men’s discipleship groups. They practiced High Invitation/High Challenge, and I saw many young people quite committed to discipleship and embracing their own spiritual journey.
So, let’s wade into Invitation and Challenge and how it can change your life and church. Blessings.
Journaling Prompts
Which quadrant best describes my current church or ministry culture—and why? Where in my life or ministry am I offering high invitation but low challenge?What fears or obstacles keep me from bringing more challenge where it’s needed? How can I prune my schedule and priorities to make space for real discipleship? Who in my community can I pour into deeply, as Jesus did with the three and the twelve.
Scripture
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Matthew 4:19, Invitation followed by challenge to mission.
Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20, High invitation to follow; high challenge to obey and replicate.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:23, Invitation to relationship; challenge to sacrificial commitment.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14, Jesus embodies both invitation—grace—and challenge—truth.
The Christian faith is contagious. If we are to endure as Christians, it must be through apprenticeship-observing more experienced and well-formed Christians, following their moves, taking up their way of life, inculcating their virtues. Through such observation and imitation, we take up the practices of faith and come to embody those practices for ourselves. The church must look for ample opportunities for its members to be observed by and to observe one another as we mature in the faith.
From the Renovare Study Bible notes to 2 Timothy 3:10
Many Christians seek to cultivate those disciplines and practices that enable them to live the Christian life more faithfully. Scripture reminds us that the Christian faith is not only something we believe, but something we practice. Our beliefs are meant to be embodied in our lives. The world is quite right in assuming that if the way of Christ is true and life-giving, it ought to be able to look at our lives and see that way personified in what we do and say.
William Willimon, RENOVARE Bible introduction to Titus
Apprenticeship to Jesus in the fellowship of his people is the only assured path of life under God. On that path we move from faith to more faith, from grace to more grace, and are able to walk increasingly in holiness and power.
RENOVARE Bible Notes NT p. 481
Ancient Writing
Let the abbot so temper all things that the strong may have something to strive after and the weak nothing to flee from.
St. Benedict of Nursia, Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 64. Invitation with challenge.
The good shepherd should so temper zeal with kindness that he neither neglects to correct the faults of his subjects nor is too harsh in his correction.
Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, Book II, Chapter 6
Let the teacher be gentle, yet strict.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 15
In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.
John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love. Here, John speaks to the deep invitation to enter into the presence of God’s love, where one can experience healing and transformation. He invites us into intimacy with the Divine.
To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing.
John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book I, Chapter 13. This is a profound challenge to let go of attachments and ego-driven desires to find true union with God. John challenges us to embrace detachment and radical surrender.
This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road.
Martin Luther, Defense and Explanation of All the Articles. This quote reflects the invitation to enter the journey of discipleship—grace makes us “belong” in the process of becoming more like Christ.
Modern Writing
Discipleship is simple, but it’s hard. We have made it complicated, but simple.
Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture
Jesus built a discipling culture, not a worship service culture.
Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture
Invitation and challenge are the key tools of a discipling culture.
Mike Breen, Building a Discipling Culture
High invitation without challenge produces a consumer culture. High challenge without invitation produces a stressed culture. Only when both are present does a discipling culture emerge.
Steve Cockram, Building a Discipling Culture, with Mike Breen
Imitate those parts of me where you see Christ; the rest, don’t imitate.
Steve Cockram, Personal teaching shared in 3DM contexts.
The creative act is an invitation to participate in the dance of life itself.
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 10
A great artist balances the tension between discipline and freedom.
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, p. 85
Challenge refines us; invitation draws us in. The balance of both creates the possibility of transformation.
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls.
Jim Collins, Good to Great, p. 125
The most effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards of performance on a team is peer pressure.
Patrick Lencioni, Five Dysfunctions of Team, p. 213. Lencioni elevates peer-to-peer accountability as the highest form of challenge: not a top-down mandate, but mutual commitment grounded in trust.