Follow Forward with Jeremy Koeries

Adapted from a conversation with Jeremy Koeries on the Follow Forward Podcast

Welcome to the second instalment of the Follow Forward blog series, based on Season Two of the Follow Forward podcast.

Dallas Willard wrote:

“Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church. It is not the much-discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians. These are only effects of the underlying problem.”

What if the Church’s greatest challenge isn’t declining attendance, limited resources, or ineffective programmes? What if it’s not even the moral failures of its leaders? What if it’s that we’ve forgotten how to make disciples?

A Faith That Becomes Your Own

Jeremy’s journey into disciple-making has its roots in his home community of Ocean View. As the only child of committed Christians, he made a childhood confession of faith and was quickly drawn into active church involvement. However, his faith became truly personal when he was nineteen.

“When I was nineteen, I recommitted my life to Jesus. And from then on, I feel like I began to follow Him as a disciple.”

Leadership Begins with Serving

As Jeremy’s faith grew, so did his desire to serve. This began through working with at-risk youth and children. Although he recognised that this was not his primary calling, it provided a foundational lesson.

“The Lord was using that season of my life to teach me to lead and to lead through serving.”

His work in underprivileged neighbourhoods continued through the creative arts. As young people committed their lives to Jesus, Jeremy recognised the urgent need to intentionally disciple those who were being saved.

These were formative years of “learning to serve, learning to lead, learning to be and make disciples.”

A Holy Discontent

The foundation of servant leadership became instrumental in Jeremy’s discipleship journey and would undergird his approach to ministry as he stepped into church leadership.

And yet, there was still a holy discontent.

“I found that we had come to a place in the church where we’re doing all these amazing programmes. But I felt like the ministry of the church had now fallen into the hands of the leadership, and the success of the church depended solely on the leadership.”

This reality troubled him deeply. It is a challenge reflected in many churches, where it often seems that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. While true discipleship should lead to the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5), equipped for works of service (Ephesians 4:12), Jeremy observed that ministry and everyday life had become compartmentalised, compromising the Church’s witness.

Out of this tension, Jeremy sensed a transition away from local church leadership and into a role that would enable him to address this challenge more broadly.

Shifting Paradigms: J-Life Africa

Jeremy began to examine the discipleship model of Jesus.

“We don’t see silos in the life and ministry of Jesus.”

This journey eventually led him to join J-Life Africa, a movement committed to equipping the Church to make disciples.

“For us, disciple-making is an overarching term that includes winning the lost, growing believers, and multiplying leaders.”

At the heart of their approach is a desire to shift the paradigms through which Christian leaders view ministry. Mindsets need to move away from centralising ministry around a few people and towards mobilising all believers to become effective disciple-makers.

“A lot of our challenges are paradigmatic. Mindsets actually hinder us from being and making disciples.”

This can be a long journey, but Jeremy believes that intentional investment in disciple-making produces lasting fruit. Disciple-making is not simply about people completing Bible study courses. It results in transformed people who, in turn, transform communities.

Your Future is the Future of the Church

Have you ever considered that our lack of disciple-making may be the elephant in the church that is preventing us from truly transforming society?

• Are you a disciple of Jesus who is committed to making disciples?
• If you struggle to answer that question in the affirmative, what steps could you take to begin addressing it?
• Perhaps exploring the resources and training offered by J-Life Africa could help shift your paradigm.

Jeremy is not content merely to train others in disciple-making. He recognises that he must also “remain a practitioner.”

And his example is one worth following.

The future of the Church will not be shaped primarily by larger events, better programmes, more sophisticated strategies, or even more charismatic leaders. It will be shaped by ordinary followers of Jesus who choose to become disciple-makers wherever they live, work, and serve.

*To find out more about the Follow Forward Podcast, click here.
To listen to Jeremy’s interview, choose your preferred platform: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.