The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) concluded its morning program on the fourth and final day of the 2025 General Assembly in Seoul, Korea, with a compelling call for a global return to family-centered disciple making — challenging pastors, parents, and national church leaders to bridge the growing gap between pulpit and home.
Held on the morning of Oct. 31 under the theme “Celebrating the Gospel in Disciple Making,” the panel brought together four veteran leaders of global discipleship and family ministry: Gwen De Rozario, Executive Director of the Family & Children Commission of the Asia Evangelical Alliance; David Kornfield, Lead for Discipling and Pastoring of Pastors within the WEA; P.C. Mathew, Global Director of the WEA Family Challenge; and Alan Charter, Facilitator of the Global Children’s Forum.
The moderator introduced the discussion as the culmination of the Assembly’s week-long reflections on mission and renewal.
A four-level vision for disciple making
Opening the conversation, David Kornfield outlined what he described as the four interdependent levels of disciple-making movements — a framework he said is critical if the church is to withstand cultural shifts and generational decline.
“The first level, without which all the other levels will fail, is small-group, personal disciple making,” Kornfield said. “When you go back to your church, I challenge you to ask three questions. Ask people to raise their hands if they are disciples. Then ask them to raise their hands if they have a discipler — and you’ll see the numbers drop. Then ask how many are Christians. Why are the numbers so different?”
Without personal, relational discipleship, he said, even vibrant churches will falter. The second level is therefore a healthy disciple-making church, which fosters this culture collectively. The third level is a movement of disciple-making churches that can resist what he called “the tide of culture that is sweeping us away.”
Finally, Kornfield said, the fourth level — national disciple-making movements — depends on the leadership of national evangelical alliances. Calling alliance leaders in the room to stand, he told them, “If we do not get national movements of healthy disciple-making churches going, all the other levels will fail. That is where we, as leaders, are absolutely critical.”
He warned that declining church membership is a global reality. Referring to The Great Dechurching, a book documenting the loss of 40 million church members in the United States over 25 years, he estimated that “in Latin America, through COVID alone, we lost 39 million members in just two years.”
“Wake up, O sleeper,” he said, quoting Ephesians 5:14. “We as national alliances need to wake up and be building at all four of these levels.”
Family as the first mission field
Rev. Dr. P.C. Mathew followed with a strong appeal for restoring discipleship to its biblical starting point: the family. “From the very beginning, God’s plan to fill the world with his people was disrupted by the fall of the first family,” he said. “Yet in his mercy, God began a redemptive journey that culminated in the coming of Christ to give hope to the families of this world. Every family touched by his grace is called to reflect that missional family of the Godhead.”
Mathew warned that the church often measures spiritual success by public ministry, while neglecting spiritual formation at home. “Many are strong disciples in their ministry outside, yet weak in their ministry inside their own homes,” he said. “Sundays are sacred. Monday to Saturday is secret. This dichotomy has damaged the witness of the church and has caused generations to walk away from Christ.”
He emphasized that strong families are the foundation of strong churches, describing today’s global crisis in family life as a spiritual emergency. “Discipling the families is the need of the hour,” he said.
Mathew presented a three-phase plan for what he calls the Family Revival Movement, which begins with prayer in the home: families praying together for seven minutes a day, for seven days a week, over seven weeks. On the 50th day, families gather at church to celebrate what God has done.
Behind every revival, he said, is prayer. “The revival needs to start in many of our homes. Families need to be revived globally through repentance and prayer led by the leadership of the church and the power of the Spirit.”
In later remarks, he added that the movement’s second phase focuses on seven biblical pillars for family life — including fatherhood, marriage, and forgiveness — and the third on helping families become “missional lighthouses” in their communities.
He illustrated the impact with a story from his home country: “A young man returned from a father-son camp deeply convicted that he had neglected his fatherly role. He asked to speak to his pastor and called for every father in the 600-member church to take up his mission. That conversation sparked repentance, tears, and a wave of family prayer that grew into a revival movement.”
Restoring the home as the center of discipleship
Gwen De Rozario of Singapore expanded the discussion, urging churches to become intentional in equipping every believer to disciple their own home. “As we talk about the gospel for everyone, this must include everyone in our home,” she said. “We are advocating for the church to be intentional in equipping every member to disciple their home. Because discipleship pivots on relationship, and God’s original pattern was for this to happen in our homes.”
De Rozario, whose Asia Evangelical Alliance Family & Children Commission partners with the global D6 Movement (based on Deuteronomy 6), shared testimonies from pastors across Asia who have applied these principles. In one church, after an equipping conference, a pastor said he felt convicted to start praying with his wife; another said he would repent and ask his son for forgiveness.
In South Korea, she noted, many churches have synchronized sermons, small groups, and home life into a unified theme each week. “The word no longer stops at the pulpit — it comes alive at home,” she said. “Homes once marked by tension are now being marked by blessing as fathers learn to bless their families. Parents are moving from being perfectionists to being spiritually consistent.”
She warned that the erosion of biblical values in society — including the rise of abortion and gender confusion — is partly the result of a breakdown in family discipleship. “We wonder why things are changing,” she said. “The reality is, we are not discipling in our homes.”
Calling for a “discipleship reawakening” that links church and home, De Rozario urged leaders to “make families, not programs, the heartbeat of every discipleship effort.” She said seminaries must also begin to train pastors in family discipleship, because “if we trace back many of today’s crises, they often begin with the absence of discipleship at home.”
Children as active participants in mission
Alan Charter, representing the Global Children’s Forum, focused on the role of children in the Great Commission. He lamented that children’s and family ministry are often treated as secondary priorities within churches, despite research showing that a person’s faith is largely shaped before age 13.
“We are invited into this incredible generational adventure,” Charter said. “As the psalmist declares, we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord so that the next generation would know them — even the children yet to be born.”
He cited a recent survey by the Patmos Initiative indicating that 71% of respondents — both Christians and non-Christians — believe it is good for children to know Bible stories. “There is still cultural openness,” he said. “But we are called to a greater thing — to equip children as participants in mission, not just as recipients of it.”
Charter said churches must empower children as “fellow kingdom builders,” describing how children’s acts of generosity often serve as early expressions of faith. “I know a child who began bringing extra sandwiches to school to share with classmates who didn’t have lunch,” he said. “It was a simple act of generosity, but it became a witness that touched parents and teachers alike.”
He shared another story from the United Kingdom, where a teenager named Josh began meeting weekly with 17 of his football teammates to study the Bible. “We must never underestimate how God is at work through the lives of our children,” Charter said. “God has no grandchildren — we are all his children.”
