Discipleship Dream-Team
Five Simple Patterns That Still Make Disciples Today
Before Laura and I were married, a family friend prayed over Laura and I that we would have a ministry modelled after Priscilla and Aquilla in Acts 18. As a result, they have always been an encouraging example for us as we think about a life of disciple-making.
Priscilla and Aquilla are a remarkable couple; one of the very few biblical examples of a positive marriage relationship and the only one in the New Testament for which we have any real material insight.
As I’ve reflected on them as a couple, it has struck me that many of the themes I often write and teach about have parallels with how scripture speaks about this couple.
I’m convinced it was not their great talent, but their faithful devotion to some foundational principles over the long haul that yielded so much fruit. These are the exact principles we’ve been teaching in our church for years, and I share them as encouragement as we all work to make disciples who make disciples.
Work as a Team
Every time Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned, they are mentioned together. They worked as a team in ministry, business, and life.
Because disciple-making is an all-in activity that affects every part of our lives, who we marry is of huge importance. Without a doubt, the most important team member for most people is the person we marry.
Often, Christians have focused on making sure someone dates and marries “a Christian.” But that’s not a very helpful metric.
The goal should be to find a spouse who deeply loves Jesus and His Church. It’s pretty hard to go wrong if we find a spouse who loves Jesus and loves serving His people.
First Things First
Priscilla and Aquila arrived in Corinth, we can assume, as refugees. I’m sure they could have treated many things as more important than opening their lives to Paul.
But the job they worked and the city they lived in were never the point. The point was always to make disciples and serve the church.
We see this in the way they moved cities multiple times (Rome → Corinth → Ephesus → Rome → Ephesus). There is every indication they continued to serve Christ faithfully in each context.
Keep first things first. Career, vocation, schooling, and even family can end up taking precedence over the mission and purposes of God. By seeking first the kingdom, we can trust that all these other (good!) things will be properly ordered.
Embrace Hospitality
In every place we read about Priscilla and Aquila, they are engaged in ministry in their home — over many years, in many cities. Clearly, they were intentional about opening their lives.
Making disciples is really not that complicated:
Find someone who doesn’t know Jesus that well.
Invite them into your home to study Scripture.
Repeat until you die.
Receive the “well done” from your Father.
For this reason, I genuinely believe the church needs to recover hospitality as a requirement for anyone who wants to serve in church leadership.
Disciple Head and Heart
Priscilla and Aquila intentionally take Apollos aside to help him better understand the implications of the gospel. More specifically, the text indicates he was missing the empowering role of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1–7 provides the natural explanation for the Apollos interaction in 18:24–28).
Apollos had great knowledge, but it seems he was missing power and lived experience.
In our world — especially with the advent of AI — knowledge is cheap. Authentic experience is priceless.
Discipleship has never been about information transfer. Making disciples is about walking with people so they can know the full power of the gospel themselves through a life-on-life encounter.
Love Your People
Priscilla and Aquila are on the short list of people Paul thanks at the end of his life in 2 Timothy. He specifically thanks them for risking their lives for him.
Perhaps the most radical thing we can do in our cultural moment is choose loyalty. Choosing to love our friends — and keep choosing them over the long haul — is as counter-cultural as it is rare.
Yet we all crave deep, lifelong friendships.
The only way to have lifelong friends is to keep loving the people God has given us — today, tomorrow, and the next day — choosing to walk together in mutual submission to one another.
The Point
In all of these things, it turns out that Priscilla and Aquila simply made disciples the same way Jesus did. Do you notice that every one of these patterns is first modelled by Jesus Himself?
Work as a team.
Keep first things first.
Embrace hospitality.
Disciple head and heart.
Love your people.
Maybe that’s the point. If we want to make disciples of Jesus, we should probably just do what Jesus did.
Serving as a couple is amazing: both of us cover each other’s weak points, therefore strengthening the impact on mission compared to walking individually.