Raising the bar on disciple-making
My willingness to be co-vocational while not calling others to do the same was rooted in a kind of prideful exceptionalism and I needed to repent.
During the eight years of working co-vocationally in the software industry—while my wife built her career in publishing and public relations—we saw our church grow from about 15 people in one city to around 400 across four cities. Yet, we never drew a salary from the church and continued to work our jobs despite the growth.
At the time, we grappled with a pressing question: how do we scale to even more cities? Where would the next generation of leaders come from? While we had embraced the co-vocational life, and a few of our leaders had as well, we had yet to adopt it as a primary strategy for everyone.
I distinctly remember a lunch meeting with Kelly and Ed Kang from Acts 2 Network—an incredible co-vocational church planting movement with global influence. During our conversation, one offhand remark from Kelly completely reframed my thinking. With grace, care, and a depth of experience I couldn't argue with, she said, "Robin, you’re just being proud."
She was absolutely right.
What she meant was that my willingness to be co-vocational while not calling others to do the same was rooted in a kind of prideful exceptionalism. I had convinced myself that I had some special capacity that others didn’t.
Earlier, I had wrestled with the Lord about where our future leaders would come from. He had placed a clear call on my heart: they would emerge from within our church. But I was stuck on how. That conversation with Kelly opened my eyes—I had been the obstacle in my own thinking.
And yet, nearly every church already operates with co-vocational leaders. Worship leaders, youth ministry directors, elders, deacons—many serve faithfully while holding full-time jobs. Co-vocational ministry isn’t a foreign concept in the church world, yet it often feels foreign when applied to senior leadership. Why is that?
One of the greatest barriers to raising and releasing leaders in the church is the exceptionalism of existing leaders. Whether we admit it or not, we often carry an unspoken belief that we have a unique calling, special capacity, or distinct anointing that others do not.
The solution is twofold:
Leaders must stop placing themselves on pedestals—especially in their own minds.
We must raise the bar for everyone to make disciples. There can be no passive bystanders in the Great Commission.
This is the essence of what we call the everyone value—the conviction that making disciples is not reserved for a select few but is the calling of every believer. The responsibility of church leadership is to equip and empower others for that mission (Ephesians 4:12).
What has made our movement unique is not our theology, structure, or culture per se. It is the relentless expectation that everyone makes disciples. If someone follows Jesus in our midst, the expectation is that they will live a co-vocational life. That might sound intense, but shouldn’t every believer be given the opportunity and encouragement to make the greatest Kingdom impact with their lives?
Here are a few cultural practices that help us embody this everyone value consistently:
We design discipleship pathways that lead toward co-vocational ministry—typically a 4–5 year journey in practice.
We avoid honorific titles for leaders (e.g., Pastor Robin). I’m just “Robin.”
Our leaders serve alongside everyone else—cleaning bathrooms, providing meals, doing dishes, and engaging in frontline ministry.
We discourage passive church engagement by ensuring everyone is actively involved in a House Church (Simple Church), where ministry happens in community.
We prioritize the schedules of co-vocational leaders over full-time team members—holding meetings and planning sessions on evenings and weekends to accommodate work schedules.
The bar for salvation is incredibly low—there is nothing we can do in our strength or ability to reconcile ourselves to God. Praise Jesus that He does the heavy lifting.
However, the bar for discipleship is incredibly high. Jesus calls us to lay down our lives. As church leaders, we must never grow weary of living out that call ourselves—and calling others to do the same.