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319. What Most People Miss About Discipleship

30m 48s

319. What Most People Miss About Discipleship

In this episode of *The Impossible Life Podcast*, co-hosts Nick Surface and Garrett Unclebok discuss the mindset shift needed to redefine what it means to be a godly man. They challenge the common stereotype of a passive, nice Christian man, pointing instead to the bold, servant-hearted, and sometimes confrontational example of Jesus and biblical figures like Abraham, David, and Moses. The core theme is discipleship, which they argue has been reduced to a mere educational program in many churches, where less than 10% have a men’s group. Discipleship, they emphasize, is not about checking a faith box or consuming content like a YouTube tutorial; it is a relational, holistic process rooted in the rabbinical tradition of learning by spending time with a mentor. They stress the importance of weekly gatherings (not monthly) and moving beyond curriculum-driven approaches to foster genuine transformation. The Mighty Men group, which attracts 400–500 men weekly, is offered as a model of this relational discipleship, focusing on discussion and community after messages. The hosts encourage listeners to capture the heart of discipleship—making it about relationship and consistent practice, not just knowledge—to fulfill the call of Matthew 28:19-20 to make disciples.

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Let me tell you what I believe. Your weakness is not your technique. Yes, yes! Don't think you are. No you are. The Impossible Life Podcast? Yes, sitting on a winning lottery ticket. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks. This is the Impossible Life Podcast. Because Nick and I are attempting to live impossible lives. What we know is that nothing is impossible. So instead of using Impossible as an excuse to not try, we'll use the pursuit of Impossible as an accelerant for greatness. If something's never been done before, that just means it's unexplored. If they tell you it's too hard, it's just waiting to be simplified. Impossible is a default label used by uncorragious people, unwilling to take a risk. The real truth is this. The solution to any Impossible task starts with this question. If I had to, what would it take? Welcome to another episode of The Impossible Life Podcast. I'm your co-host Nick Surface and I'm looking across the demand who used to introduce himself as E raised to the power of I times pi plus 1 equals 0. That's right friends, the former Navy Sue. Garrett Unclebok, a man whose native tongue is mathematics. Do you know that equation? My chance? Yes, you were reading it off. I was trying to think if I knew what equation you're referencing and I don't. It is Euler's identity and it is known as one of the most beautiful equations because it references multiple disciplines and brings them into a perfect hole. I had to go deep into some AI prompts there too. I had no idea that it was even existed. I just thought that considering it's because I was talking to somebody and his native tongue was mathematics as well. I was like, you'll get a lot of well with Garrett. The world is mathematics. I will say mathematics is my language. However, there are people far more advanced in me at mathematics. I live in the basics of math and it's gotten me really far, really just to see life through algebraic lands. But algebra is basic math. You speak math at a high and educated level for actual usefulness. There's people who speak at a level where you can talk to 20 other people about that. I mean, plenty of folks that make me look dumb at math. Which is good. It's going to be kept humble. I don't ever pride myself on math although I am strong with the basics. At addition subtraction, division, multiplication, we're all good. Anyways, so today, today, man, tools and tactics, this is discipleship basics. I'm going to put a little asterisk by basics because the basics are not what you think. So stay tuned. This discipleship, obviously, I don't think I really need to explain the importance of that. But one of the things I feel like I've said probably 50 times in the past couple of weeks to people when I talk to them about the podcast, because we get to talk to all sorts of people, which is a blessing, especially me handling all our coms on emails and DMs and all that sort of stuff. One of the things I always say to people is like, look, the vision of this, of why we start this, is the change of mindset of what it means to be a godly man. When we look at the world today, if you think about Christian man, we've talked about this a lot. It's a guy who wears khakis. He's maybe a little bit nicer. He's usually pretty feminine. He's not going to be a guy that's going to ruffle the feathers or do anything that's going to really shake things up. But he's a good guy. He's a nice guy. And that is not what it needs to be a godly man. We open our Bible and reread about the ultimate godly man, which is who we're following, which is Jesus. He was a man who challenged authority, who lived with bold conviction, who loved people well, who served them. He demonstrated truly the father's heart and all that he did. And he brought the glory of God's excellence into every place he did, which sometimes offended people. Oftentimes, it challenged the leadership. He was a strong man. He was a man who loved and served. And I just think that what we see and what we know to be true are very different. And so the way that we're going to do this isn't by Garrett. And I just have, you know, we want to reach as many people as possible with this podcast, not so that we can be famous because honestly, who cares about that. But so that we can see people understand that God's made men to be more and that they answer the call and they fall after him. If you, if you just think about men in the Bible, I'm certainly not glamourizing, killing and combat or murder. But if you just want to juxtapose, you know, the type of man you're talking about versus some of the men in Bible, Abraham trained up armies. When he written, rescued a lot, fought against armies. It doesn't talk about any specific man, but Abraham led men in combat. Okay. David, lots of combat. Moses. Now Moses murdered someone. And then Moses, you know, I would say was the messenger or carrier of the place Elijah killed hundreds of prophets himself by hand. These were violent men. These were not your, these were not your normal soft men. Yeah. I mean, you left out the whole of judges. It was a very, you're right. It was a very normal. I'm hitting, I'm hitting, I'm hitting the big names that people might not think about as violent people. Yeah. And, and anyways, so it's a whole different understanding of strength for sure. So anyways, the point is, like we, we know what I always say to people is I'm like, Garrett and I are, you know, we're going to the disciples. Many people as we possibly can. But if it, if we can't, there's no way we accomplish that vision just because it's like, hey, things went really well. You, we need other men to understand that it's going to happen whenever they take the power of a transform life. And they're not, and they're relationship with Christ and they start discipling other people. Like we, they you have to be discipled and have people who go out and make disciples. I mean, this was Jesus in, in Matthew 28, 19 to 20, is therefore go and make a disciple of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always at the very end of the age. And we all know that. Like when you say that, everybody's like, yeah, yeah, discipleship. And when we look at churches today, I think there's been a real shift in what discipleship kind of the subconscious understanding of what that means. Because first of all, I have not been able to corroborate this stat and find a source, but anecdotally, I believe it's true that like less than 10% of churches in America have a men's group, which is just wild to me, considering that our faith was. We certainly have a lot of great anecdotal data points via mighty men, where we're in Dellsford, Worth area, which is, you know, A capital, if not the capital of churches. You can go, you know, one mile from a mega church to the next mega church. Million great places to go to church in this area. And the mighty men, we have guys come in all the time. And I wouldn't reference any of these because I don't want to sound derogatory, but these would really be churches. I'm referencing it. Hey, that's a great church. That's a great church. Guys come in all the time from these other great churches, and they're like, well, we don't have a men's group. I'm aware these places don't have men's group, and it's it's sad. And really discipleship has changed a lot. What discipleship originally was was you were, you know, discipleship means student, and you were a student. Subscribe to a teacher or to a mentor. And this was your person, and you followed him around. And this is where you learned. And today education is very, you know, biblical education, spiritual education, kingdom education, very much has followed the flow of what formal education looks like today. And I don't mean formal education like university. I mean formal education like YouTube, which go get whatever you want. You'll learn the class. Hey, YouTube's great. It's a powerful tool. I love that. It's like, hey, I want to fix this, you know, appliance I bought, and I'm not an appliance fixer. I can just look up a YouTube video, and there's a demonstration of someone doing the exact same thing that I need to know. It's a powerful tool, but that's not the way that we're meant to, you know, it's great for fixing your blender, but that's not the way that we're meant to live our lives of following Christ, which is. And let me just do a YouTube class to answer this question that have a problem with. And that's going to that's going to be the epitome of my education is problem solution, problem solution. You're going to miss the holistic lens that you're supposed to have from being a I love the movie reference movies on the show all the time. I love the movie karate kid, right? Because what is Mr. Miyagi? Mr. Miyagi spends all of his time on the basics. It's wax on wax off. He paints the fence. It's up down, it's up down. And once he can do that, he's like, learn these basic things. Then I can teach you how to fight. And it's very much the same with discipleship. So we're going to cover some of those those basics. And then we're going to take it a little bit further. But if you just look at discipleship is like, well, I know how to respond to people ask me why I believe in God that that's great scripture says that you should be able to make make an account for your faith. I know how to respond to the gospel or answer the gospel and walk someone through it. That's great. You're supposed to know how to do that. You should know what the essentials are. That Christ is the son of God that he lived a perfect life that he died and rose again. And that his blood coverer sense you should understand some of these things. These are some of the essentials for sure. But discipleship is so much more than that. It's not one of the things I say to people when they come to mighty men because after they've been there for a little while. while they're asking me, semi-dumfounded, of why is this so different? And I tell her that discipleship is more than an education program. You could theoretically go get your masters of divinity and have no evidence of a transformed life. Fact of that, those folks, there was a guy at SEAL team three with me who after we had talked about things for a while, he told me he said, "You know, I went to seminary and I was shocked when he told me that." - Really? - Zero evidence of that in his life. - Man, you know, so it's interesting 'cause you did say that discipleship is a student and you talked about that take what you want mentality. One of the things that I think will make a lot more sense when you read scripture 'cause is the rabbinical thought process. In Judaism, like we think about it now, like school came into being, I believe in just after the industrial revolution, like at the time of the early industrial revolution, I wanna say it was like in the late 19 teens, early like 1920s. And the thought process of, let's get formal education, have people come into a place, learn from somebody, and if you look at it, it mirrors a lot of what factories were back then and that's kind of what they were training people for. That's another thought process. If you rewind to the times of Jesus' times, I know this from Pastor Josh, the rich people would hire a philosopher to come in and teach philosophy to their kids, but most people couldn't afford that. So you learned by getting around somebody else who was doing. - Everyone else, they didn't hire someone. They told their kids, they just go follow the smart person around. - Right, or you're gonna learn the family trade. That's typically what it was and a rabbinical thought process was, come be with me. When you read, if you read John chapter one, after John says to his disciples, look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, they go up to Jesus and they ask him something that doesn't really make sense for us modern day. They go, where are you staying? Nowadays, he'd be like, hey, teach us. We wanna take your class or whatever it is. Back then it was like, where are you staying? Jesus goes, come see. And so then they go with him to the house and they spend time with him. That was because the rabbinical thought process was you go and spend time around rabbis and you get trained up in their way of thinking. Paul was part of a Pharisee of Gamalil, which was basically meant he had trained under Gamalil. How did you train by being around them? You went and did whatever they did. And that was their thought process. So when he say make disciples, we have such a different context. Yes, it's a student, but the way they learn back then was way different than how we learn now. And there's a lot that can be missed because of what you said. Because in an education thought process, my daughter says it to me all the time. Dad, I'm never gonna need this. And I go, hold on, you don't even know what's coming down for you in life. So you're not qualified to make that statement, but actually you're right on this case. And on other ones I'll say, no, you're wrong. You really need to pay attention to this. But the point being like, we have that, why just want what's useful to help me reach a desired outcome. AKA, give me the stuff to do. I'll go do it and we'll get there as fast as possible because we're outcome based. And that's where I think we miss so much of this. - Yeah, so many men are just looking to, and I'm glad that they're taking this first step, but it's a lot more than that. They're looking to check the faith box. And again, I'm certainly not hating on other people's programs. I think it's great. What I am gonna highlight is that I think there's more. And I've where I see so many programs out there, and what it's like, hey, this is our men's program, and faith is one of our boxes. We're gonna teach you about business and faith. We're gonna teach you about fitness and faith. We're gonna teach you about, how to have a great marriage and faith. And I think it's wonderful all these programs. And people are looking for, they want something that is faith based, but essentially the faith box just becomes a check box in your life. And that's not what it's meant to be. Cry, what did Christ say? He said, I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life. Everything starts and ends with me. I'm the beginning and I'm the end. And that's really what faith is supposed to be in your life. So it's way more than just an education program. It's way more than just a curriculum. It's way more than just hearing messages. I remind guys, remind people all the time when they come to Mighty Men. Hey, look, I know I'm a good speaker. There's way better than me. You can find all of them on YouTube. That's not what Mighty Men's about. You didn't come here to hear me. You came here to get discipled. You came here for the relationship. You came here for what happens after the message. Because if you come to a Mighty Men message and ever message with the question, here's the question. Here's why I've given you some food for thought, given you some staples, some things to learn. Now go discuss this in your group. And there's leaders in each of those groups that are gonna help walk you through a process, be there to answer questions, help you grow. And so let's jump into some of that, some of the basics of what discipleship is supposed to be more than just education. We'll get back to the episode in just a minute. If you're thinking about buying a home right now or even the next six to 12 months, the best move you can make before scrolling listings is to get your numbers right. 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So when the right house hits the market, your position to win. - Yeah, I mean, you summed it up like you often do. As just like, I think the basics, whenever I talk to people, they would, this covers everything, is just weekly Bible-based gatherings. Right? Like that would be sort of, okay, we're gonna get together at this place in time. We're gonna study some scripture. - That has to be the question. - You know, a lot of people have hard time just with that. I have a lot of folks across the country who they see might even, they reach out to me and say, hey, how do we do that? And I go, well, it's really simple. We started, we just started about 20 of us meeting every Saturday and they go, well, we're gonna meet every other Saturday. Or we're gonna meet once a month. And I tell everyone, I said, you haven't started until you start meeting weekly. So whatever process you gotta go through with yourself or with some other men, that's great, but the process has not begun for you until you meet weekly. Yeah, like what if you went to, what if you went to the gym a few times a month? Nice work. Right, that's exactly right. Exactly right. That's one of the things that we stress all the time. Now, we get this question a lot, G, and I want you to, 'cause we always send it. But like, and this is comes from the thought process of how people do education today. Education is we have a building, we have some students, we have a teacher, what's the curriculum? Here's your curriculum. And that's like, and then everybody puts all the trust if like, oh, this is a really good curriculum. This is a much better curriculum. People ask us in my opinion, 'cause they see what we're doing. And they say, oh, like, what's your, do you guys, what's your curriculum? Do you have a handbook? And we do have a mighty man handbook. And we'll send it to people. And I think a lot of times people think that by getting our handbook, they'll know what we do so they can go out and repeat the exact same thing. And once again, here are our hearts. We're not saying like, oh, look at what we've done and we can train everybody else. That is not what we're saying. What's unfortunate to me is that we have one of the largest men's groups in America that meets on a regular basis on a Saturday. I say unfortunate because it's four to five hundred guys. And I think in America, we should have a lot bigger groups than that because I know there's churches that are like 20,000 people. You know what I mean? Like I'm thinking about some of the places out there that have so many meetings. But anyways, I say all that to say, we want people to capture the heart of this and I want to remind you guys, I don't want this to sound like, oh, look what we've done. We know we're in process. We're following Jesus. But we have some fruit at this stage. And so we're trying to open other people, hopefully give you guys some more insights that you can capture it and run. So the curriculum thing, gee, because we send it to people. I send it to people all the time. - Yeah, people get asked, what's the curriculum? How are you guys doing that in Mighty Men? And I don't have a formalized written curriculum. There are certain programs and courses that I've gone through and I've written at this point over 250 messages. But really my curriculum is, it starts the same way that my message is end, I'm answering the question. And the question that I'm always answering from Mighty Men, when I write messages from Mighty Men is what is a Mighty Men? Not what is a Christian, not what does it mean to be saved? We talk about that at the beginning of every Saturday. Hey, your life is not just you getting saved. Otherwise, Christ would have raptured you up the moment you prayed by prayer, right? You're here for a reason. God is a plan for your life. How do I follow that plan? How do I become the man that God's called me to be? That's the question that we're always answering. So it's very growth initiated. It's very growth oriented. And that's really what discipleship is supposed to be in our lives. It's a student process. The word student means what you used to mean way more than it means today. Today's student, they think student means inferior. Really what student means is learner is grower. Someone who's walking a process of, I was here and I'm going to get to this place. And that doesn't come just from hearing messages where that comes from. Let me just nail down the basics really quick and then I want to go on to some other things. The basics that, We've highlighted for a discipleship process is weekly Bible-based gatherings. You've got to have, you guys have to come together every single week, study scripture. Then there's going to be reading and studying scripture. And there's group discussion. I've got to have an opportunity to talk with another man through this process. There's rules and structure in the program where what turns into a level of accountability. When you look at other men's groups, they're saying, well, we're more than just a small group. We're accountability. You want some man to hold you accountable. I'm going to talk here just a second. How there's a much greater way to do accountability. But these are some of the basics that you got to have. We meet on a weekly basis. And we're not just reading a book. We're reading and studying scripture. There's going to be discussion based on that. And on what does this mean? We're going to educate ourselves, not just have checked the box and read the book, but develop the takeaways from it. There's rules, order, and structure inside of that program. And then there's relationship just like Christ preached messages, but then he said, follow me and the people who got discipled were the ones who spent time with them. Discipleship, I believe, does not happen without a deep level of relationship. So this is just the core basics. If you don't have that, you're not really running a discipleship program. However, there's a lot more to it. Big time. One of the things I feel like I say to people all the time, because here's a little insight, like we, like my elevate life church where we go, had a men's group before you were there. And it had a, there was a modicum of growth and things like that, but it didn't really blossom the way that things had now. And I always say one of the biggest keys is you need a leader who takes it seriously, who understands the severity of it. I always shared with people, so I want to share publicly on the podcast. I remember when we were sat in a leadership meeting, and you said, my team is the most important thing in my life. And I know you well at this point. We'd been a couple years in the podcast. And I was paused waiting for you to say apart from Lindsay and the kids, and you just stopped. And I was like, and I was like, man, that's a challenge. Because for most of us, it was like, it's a priority, not the most important thing. It was like, it was an important thing. But, you know, Johnny's got this. And oh, well, if your anniversary falls on a Saturday, you know, like it was all that. And then I watched as you moved things very inconveniently, like, oh, whoops, we, an event shifted. And it was on my wife's sister's wedding, which we're due to be at. Well, now I'm going to have to pay a couple thousand dollars extra and take some additional flights. So I can take her out to California, fly back home, be here for the event and fly straight back to California. I always use that example because I think most guys would just be like, yeah, I'm out for the event. And you were like, no, I'm going to make this really inconvenient, but I'm going to do it. And like, it's that level of significance for a leader that goes, no, this is, I'm going in this direction. It's so massively important. You what you don't have is in scripture with a Christ or an Apostle Paul. You don't have them going on vacation and having personal life reasons for which they can't make the gospel first in their lives. They decided this is what my life is about. And to run a discipleship program, you need someone who's decided, like, I'm not going to pick on any particular person. But when I talk to people who they're struggling to meet weekly, it's because the leader who I'm talking with hasn't been isn't ready to make that sacrifice. You've watched the sacrifice that I've made to move my demon forward and to move men's lives forward. And to make it a weekly process, I'm incredibly busy. I have so much going on in my life. And I have decided this is what's going to be first. You, someone has to decide this is what's first in my life. You cannot, it's like trying to have a family where six men part time lead that family. That doesn't worry. One man is meant to be the leader of that family. One man is respond. Now, I can delegate, and I delegate a ton of responsibility to my top four leaders, which Nick is one of those. Delegate a ton of responsibility to these guys. There's a structure, but someone has to lead it. Yeah, it's so good, man. So, gee, I mean, you sent something we were preparing. I want to touch on this, and I just want to get into it. Yeah, I want to get into it. Let's jump really just to the finish here, because discipleship is not just a teaching program. There's a lens that I see it through. And I'm not, again, we're not ever trying to beat other people up. We're trying to say, here's what greatness looks like. And a lower level of discipleship is a teaching program, which is similar. We were talking about this in the last episode. How management is. Management is like, I'm going to get you to do what I do. And Nick is really-- Nick is great at helping people understand and don't try to be Garrett. But don't try to just do what he does. It's the same as people trying to buy all the gear in the clothes that Navy Seals have and thinking that that works for them. There's a process that you must follow. And so there's a difference between teaching and discipleship, the same way that there's a difference between management and leadership. And we could spend hours talking about this, but I'm going to summarize it quickly. And this is what the leadership really does. The leadership-- just like Christ said, I am the way. The Christ prepared a way. And the apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. These are people who show they don't just tell. And that's the big difference between teaching and discipleship, the big difference between management and leadership. People want to follow a leader. They don't want to follow a manager. And this is where anyone would want to follow you in your life. If you look at ministries that are starting the Bible, if you look at what happened to Paul's life, he tells it over and over again. If you look at the other disciples and the apostles, their lives and their ministries started with a testimony. Here's what God did to me. Here's-- let me tell you who God is, that you can't change my mind on. That is the beginning of the process. Where does a testimony come from? A testimony doesn't come from. I took a college course. Testimony doesn't come from. I went to seminary. And I've got this really great group of guys. A testimony comes from, God has changed my life. I have died and been resurrected again. This is the Romans 12 process that we talk about all the time at my demon. And if you will truly live transformed, that's when you'll say, you know what? This is more important than everything else in my life. I'm going to do what it takes to share this with other people. God has changed me. And maybe he can change you too. It starts with testimony. Testimony is the witness of transformation. As a discipleship leader or a men's leader, if you can't tell a testimony of how God's changed you, you've got a little bit of a ways to go. And what's got to happen from there is out of your transformation process. This is what I said when our group was 20 people. I said, guys, if we just live this all the way, if we truly surrender and let God change who we are, that's all we have to do. God will take care of the rest. And when some of these men, myself, included when God started to change their life, when they really went all in, when the way that I viewed the seal teams of do this completely dedicated, give all that you have to it and watch what happens. When I did that with scripture, when I did that with my relationship with God, and he changed who I am, what happened was more men showed up. They said, I want some of what you have. That's very different than the book that I read. That's very different than the book club that I've been a part of. That's very different than other experiences that I've had around the church I want once you have. And I can't give it to you, but I can introduce you to the one who can. That is really what discipleship is supposed to be. It's not an education program. There is a process and we gave some of the basics that you're supposed to have, but it is a transformation program. You must be a living example of what God has done in your life. It doesn't mean you're perfect, but it means you're in process. And I can point to the fruit of where God's process has improved my life, where he's utterly and entirely changed me. - Man, that really is, gee, that is the heart of when we talk about you can have the crickum, you can have all the structure and order, but the more is really what you just said, starting with a testimony. You think about what those guys changed the world, and if you said, how are you gonna change the world? For us, we would probably design something that had such a flat track. Like, oh, here's a straight point from A to B. And what it was was, know you're gonna be persecuted at some point. If you're even known to be a Christian, they're gonna be able to take your house from you and burn it down and kill you. Like it was just under persecution. All of the disciples who died and were martyred for Christ, it wasn't because they were willing to do that because they got a 100 on the exam of what does it mean to be a Christian? They were willing to give their life for Christ because they'd seen who he really is. - Yeah, when the disciples first got corrected after the day of Pentecost, and they end, I believe it's Peter and John, we're walking in and that man gets healed, and they get brought before the Sanhedrin. They go, hey, but stop talking about Christ, and they go, we can't help but speak of the things we've seen and witnessed. Judging for yourselves, whether it's right to obey man or God. And that is the core of it. When Paul says, I must preach, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. This is what I always say, like the conviction that you live with is whenever you realize what God's done in your life, and you realize the truth of what we believe. Like you said, not belief is what we know to be true, but we can't scientifically prove. But there's nothing that you could say that could change the mind of somebody who's seen the risen Christ when you're like, no, this is utterly true. Not like, hey, I think there's a good chance or it's probable this is the truth. The board of God is his living, breathing, active word. What it says, I believe 100%. I don't need to get caught up in all these fables and tales. I'm like, well, was it an actual seven days or what? Like all that mindless stuff is just a waste of time. When you see Jesus Christ, risen, crucified, and risen, you understand man, he's changed my life. Like what can stop the person who has that level of conviction as they go out? And so the exact what you're saying, as you step into that leadership transformation, a living example. These these are the actual basics. All of the stuff that flows out from that, there was conventional churches that would meet in places that didn't have a temple, and then there was places that met in people's houses. There was places that met in the synagogue. There was all sorts of models of church, and we get hung up on how, when really it needs to start with the what, which is a transformed life, that's always where it starts. - I just wanted to transition real quick, because this episode was so crucial. It really does start with your testimony and the power of God transforming you like we said. However, if you're looking for a format and structure to start having meaningful time with other brothers and people you wanna grow into discipleship with, check out our warrior circle. We use the podcast as a curriculum of sorts, and then give you all the guidance and notes for creating meaningful discussion. Each week, you and anyone that joins you will listen to a specified episode, and then we give you the guide for leading a group based on that episode. It has all the key points, the questions for discussion, as well as an action step for people to take in order to apply what you've discussed. We also give extensive guidance on how to lead that group, the exact structure to follow, so that you can make it as effective as possible. It's our way of trying to make starting a discipleship group as easy to follow as possible. If you want more information, go to www.thienpossible.life/warriorcircle for more. Once again, that's www.thienpossible.life/warriorcircle. - Thank you very much for listening, guys. Remember to share, like, subscribe. If you think that this would be something that someone would enjoy, please send it to him. We appreciate it all. If you want to get in touch, you can follow us on Instagram at the Impossible Life. You'll find us on there. You can also email at [email protected]. If you have any questions, if you want to get in touch and find out about Garrett's personal or business coaching, that's the way to do it. Thank you again for listening, go out there, think better, and live the Impossible. See you again soon. [BLANK_AUDIO]

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The podcast aims to redefine what it means to be a godly man, contrasting the common soft, nice-guy stereotype with the bold, strong, and servant-hearted example of Jesus and biblical figures like David and Moses.
  2. Discipleship is more than an educational program or curriculum; it involves relational, hands-on learning through regular, weekly gatherings and personal mentorship, akin to the rabbinical tradition of following a teacher.
  3. Many churches lack effective men’s groups, with less than 10% having one, and men often treat faith as a checkbox in their lives rather than the central foundation.
  4. The basics of discipleship include weekly Bible-based gatherings, moving beyond problem-solution learning to holistic transformation, as illustrated by the "Karate Kid" wax-on, wax-off approach.
  5. The Mighty Men group emphasizes relationship over curriculum, with leaders guiding discussions after messages to foster discipleship and growth.

Summary:

In this episode of *The Impossible Life Podcast*, co-hosts Nick Surface and Garrett Unclebok discuss the mindset shift needed to redefine what it means to be a godly man. They challenge the common stereotype of a passive, nice Christian man, pointing instead to the bold, servant-hearted, and sometimes confrontational example of Jesus and biblical figures like Abraham, David, and Moses. The core theme is discipleship, which they argue has been reduced to a mere educational program in many churches, where less than 10% have a men’s group.

Discipleship, they emphasize, is not about checking a faith box or consuming content like a YouTube tutorial; it is a relational, holistic process rooted in the rabbinical tradition of learning by spending time with a mentor. They stress the importance of weekly gatherings (not monthly) and moving beyond curriculum-driven approaches to foster genuine transformation. The Mighty Men group, which attracts 400–500 men weekly, is offered as a model of this relational discipleship, focusing on discussion and community after messages.

The hosts encourage listeners to capture the heart of discipleship—making it about relationship and consistent practice, not just knowledge—to fulfill the call of Matthew 28:19-20 to make disciples.

FAQs

The vision is to change the mindset of what it means to be a godly man, challenging the stereotype of a passive Christian man and instead following Jesus' example of bold conviction, service, and strength.

Discipleship is about relationship and transformation, not just learning facts. A person could earn a master's degree in divinity without a transformed life, but true discipleship involves being mentored through personal connection and community.

In biblical times, discipleship was relational—you followed a rabbi, learned by being with them, and absorbed their way of thinking. Today, it's often treated like a formal education, focusing on problem-solving rather than holistic growth.

Weekly gatherings are essential for building consistency and growth, similar to regular gym workouts. Meeting less frequently, like once a month, delays progress and prevents the formation of strong discipleship habits.

While Mighty Men has a handbook, the heart of discipleship is capturing the relational and transformative spirit, not just replicating a program. The goal is to foster community and growth, not to rely solely on a curriculum.

A godly man is strong, bold, and loving, like Jesus, who challenged authority and served others. Biblical figures like Abraham, David, and Moses were also men of action and combat, not passive or soft.

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