Many Pastors and ministry leaders have experienced declines in active church membership. There have been pastoral resignations, church closures, and church mergers. These facts give rise to the subject of ministry sustainability. This project seeks to explore strategies to strengthen ministry sustainability via a leadership model which focuses on discipleship. Attention will be given to the characteristics of the first church, (Acts 2:42-46). These characteristics include ministry, fellowship, evangelism, discipleship, and worship. Of particular interest will be the active presence of discipleship, and the role of leader, to better ensure its success. This should be considered because while the first church added to the church daily (Acts 2:47), they were also credited for consistently demonstrating each characteristic, including discipleship, (Acts 2:42-46). With this in mind, other historical and modern-day resources will be consulted which define discipleship, leadership, and demonstrate elements of their individual and collective success. Old Testament and New Testament references will be explored. These will include Jesus’ model of leadership and elements of His discipleship strategy. Attention from the 21st century will be given to an African American Baptist Church, located in West Philadelphia. A case study of that church will chart their journey from the 1930’s to 2023. An introduction will be provided to their pastoral leaders, discipleship strategies, challenges they faced, in addition to other factors which contributed to their sustainability. Also, to provide current local perspectives on discipleship, a survey will be conducted with ministry leadership of local churches regarding: 1.) the role of discipleship in their individual journeys, and 2.) the role of discipleship in the congregations they serve. These results should provide current local perspectives. The outcomes of the survey should speak to the presence/absence of discipleship in their spiritual journey and how it has influenced their roles as ministry leaders. Discipleship models will be reviewed. Ultimately, a discipleship strategy will be developed. A focus group from the case study church congregation will be engaged, prior to implementation, to consider the potential effectiveness of the discipleship strategy. The results of this exercise will include the identification of elements that could cause the discipleship strategy to fail. Enhancements, if necessary, will be made. The projected timeline will thereafter include the strategy implementation through evaluation. The goal of the discipleship strategy developed during this project will be field tested with the African American Baptist church serving as the case study. However, the hope is that the discipleship strategy can be used and adopted by other protestant churches.