Staying Rooted When the Work Gets Hard

Disciple-making is slow work. Yet movements of disciples (DMMs/CPMs) accelerate rapidly. But not at first. And they can give a false impression that at the granular level they don’t feel slow. No one I have ever discipled personally has changed as rapidly as I wanted them to. The slow, steady slog of investing in people, day after day, is definitely part of what it means to release movements that rapidly multiply.

I have said that many times, in many training rooms, on many continents. But it is one thing to say it and another to live it — to keep going through the seasons when the fruit is slow, the people you invested in walk away, and the multiplication you long for feels further off than ever.

In those seasons, the question is not really about method. It is about what keeps you rooted when the work gets hard. Because it will get hard. And what sustains you then is not strategy. It is something deeper.

The Danger of Rooting in the Wrong Thing

It is easy, in disciple-making, to slowly root your sense of identity and well-being in the fruit. When groups are multiplying and people are responding, you feel alive and confident. When things slow down or there are setbacks, we feel discouraged, anxious, and tempted to either strive harder, quietly give up, or make excuses about how where you work is more difficult than other places.

If our rootedness rises and falls with the results, we are rooted in the wrong thing. And the work of disciple-making, with its long, slow seasons and real disappointments, will eventually expose it.

Jesus was clear about where our rootedness belongs. Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. (John 15:4) The fruit is not the root. He is the root. The fruit is what flows from staying connected to Him — not the thing that actually gives us life.

What Staying Rooted Looks Like in Practice

For me, staying rooted is not something abstract. It involves specific, ordinary practices that I return to, especially when my work feels hard. Simple things that sustain me so I can go the long haul.

It means time with Jesus that has nothing to do with ministry output — not preparing a study, not planning a strategy, just being with Him. Formethis often happens early, with coffee, in the quiet before the day begins. It looks like honesty with Him about discouragement rather than pushing through and pretending. It looks like remembering, again and again, that I am loved and held, independent of whether anything is multiplying this month. Oryear.

These practices are not luxuries for the seasons when there is time. They are what make endurance possible. The leaders I have watched last for decades in this work — in places far harder than most of us will ever serve — are not the ones with the best strategies. They are the ones who stayed rooted in Christ through the seasons when the strategy was not working.

For the Long Haul

If you are in a hard, dry season right now — if the fruit is slow, if people have walked away, if you are tired in a way that strategy cannot fix — the invitation is not to try harder. It is to return to the root.

Sit with Jesus before you do anything else. Let Him remind you who you are apart from what you produce. The work matters, and it is worth pursuing. But it cannot be the thing that holds you up. Only He can be that. Return to that intimacy with Him. He’s waiting to hold you in His arms.

In those times when I feel spent, dry, or frustrated, a question I often ask Jesus is “How do you feel about me right now?” Then I listen. Never once have I heard Him say, “I’m frustrated with your lack of fruit.” No, that is all me. He reassures me of His love. He says, come to me, weary one. I’llgive you some rest and fresh hope for the day ahead.

Staying rooted is easier to do with people who understand the hard seasons and will remind you of the truth of God’s unconditional love when you forget it. If you’d like that kind of company and feel you need it, come find us at multipliersmindset.com/dtmmembership.

Something to Think About and Discuss:

• Honestly, where is your rootedness right now — in the fruit, or in Christ Himself? How can you tell?

• What resonated with you most in this article?

• What is one practice of staying rooted you could return to or strengthen this week?

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