From Cover-Up to Coming Up:
Why Discipleship Is Broken and How to Fix It

The scandal isn’t that leaders fail. The scandal is why they tried fig leaves to fix it.

Intro Video – Cover-up culture in ministry doesn’t start with moral failure. It starts with a broken discipleship model, one that creates a “Christian Caste System” where some are “called” and others are merely “faithful.” Where ministry becomes a superficial identity instead of a valuable function. Where the saints are discipled into servants who staff and fund someone else’s vision instead of discovering their own.

The logic is insidious: “I am called to full-time ministry. I have a different ‘Levitical’ status before God. I have higher access and revelation. You should fund my life and vision with tithes because it’s biblical.

Then comes the trap: I make a plan, attribute it to God, and others pay for it. Great system, until even the leader can’t tell if it’s God or not. When your identity is “5-fold ministry class,” when your income depends on appearing anointed, when your platform requires maintaining the appearance of divine favor, cover-up culture becomes inevitable; the fig leaves are shouted from the rooftops.

The root cause isn’t moral weakness; it’s ministry idolatry. When building “your ministry” becomes the goal instead of releasing sons and daughters, the foundation is fatally flawed. You can have what feels like God’s favor and anointing and still be on the wrong course. Outward success becomes the substitute for Council conversations, egos get too big to fail, ministry trumps morality, and transparency goes out the window. We knew the superficial ministry process, but we never knew Him well enough to have a conversation in His Council (Mt 7:21-23).

Servants Run From God – Here’s the darkest secret: It’s not all about leadership. Servants want someone else to be the official interface with God. They worship ministry too! Failures in the leadership class is the only way God can get their attention! Servants are also prone to a victim mentality, so when a leader fails there is a great hue and cry of abuse… some true and some earned.

Ex 20:18 – When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet
and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance
19) and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen.
But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

Jer 5:30 – A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:
31) The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.

Discipleship is graduating servants who follow a man to sons who follow the Lamb.

The Sonship Solution

Father isn’t tearing down the old; He’s elevating the new, and its light exposes the darkness in the old naturally. Saints are accepting His invitation to sonship!

The transition is from servants to sonship. From full-time hirelings to sons doing their part in their mountain. From a Levitical priesthood model to every son functioning as Prophet, Priest, and King.

Old Discipleship: Professional ministry class, accountability to programs, faithfulness to church ministries. Lots of preaching and teaching; little creating and implementing!
New Discipleship: Disciple one another (children, friends, co-workers), fluency in the Courts and Council (Sons are Priests), bringing value to earth in Business (Sons are Kings), and by converting Living Words to Reformation in People, Cities, and Nations (Sons are Prophets).

True Ministry: Opening Their Book, Not Yours

True ministry is showing people THEIR Living Words, not yours. Opening THEIR book, not yours.

This flips everything. Ministry isn’t about your platform visibility or your vision. It’s about discipling the sons and daughters everyone has been waiting for (Rom 8:19).

Impart the sonship identity of being Chosen and why (Sons are Prophets)
The access – Ascension to the Council (Sons are Priests)
(Fluent in the Courts & Council conversations)
The Wisdom, Revelation, & Anointing for Reformation (Sons are Kings)

Father is building people, Cities, Cultures, and Nations and using “whosoever will” sons and daughters to do it. Not Christian Imams. Not just churches, ministries, and pulpits out of Ministry Idolatry & Competition.

The Discipleship Strategy for Sons

Here is the business mountain strategy for discipling sons:

You have Living Words, conversations – put them in writing (Council Notes)
You have Father’s heart from the Council – Put it on a Purpose Profile with Aspirations
You have direction from Heaven – put it in a business plan with cash flow
You have an assignment for Reformation – put it into action in your business

Help people DELIVER on their own grace with coaching deliverables that set captives free! Here are summary PDF graphics with links to examples you can explore (Sonship Progression Slides).

Discipleship is doing it WITH people until they can do it themselves. You cultivate their hearing, let them taste and see, examine the fruit, then let them choose their next step.

Servants are Schooled to be better Servants;

Sons are Fathered to be Themselves.

https://releasingkings.com/2021-11-24-from-servant-to-son/

The Daily Bread is Life

Everything comes AFTER sons find purpose from Father. Once sons are clear on Purpose (daily bread, Living Words from the Council), THEN there’s room for creativity, but little room for debate, rules, competition, or strife. Collaboration and respect are the natural consequence of discovering personal and corporate purpose. We can “see” other people’s hearts and celebrate their success.

Sons cherish three things:

Favor – Being on the same page with Father
Flow – Co-laboring in Father’s power and anointing
Fruit – Seeing treasures in Heaven (sons) and Reformation Results on Earth

They don’t chase money or ministry. They prioritize Father’s purpose through daily Living Words, co-laboring and bearing fruit that remains, storing treasures (sons) in Heaven while advancing Reformation on Earth.

The Sonship Culture

We’re building a culture of sons who: know they are chosen, experience Ascension to Courts and Council, and champion Reformation in their Mountain. That culture is an Ecclesia in Business!

The culture of sonship is built on:

Vulnerability – all my plans are from Him, all my trust is in Him
Transparency – Nothing is hidden in the Kingdom or in me
Bravery –
1. I can afford to try because of Living Words
2. I can afford to fail because of Resurrection Life
3. I can endure spiritual warfare and stay In Christ, in the Council
4. I can follow the Lamb wherever (Rev 14:4); through abundance & lack

This is the opposite of cover-up culture. When your identity is sonship, not ministry class, transparency becomes freedom. When success is co-laboring with Father, failure becomes your next opportunity for Resurrection Life, not a career-ending death sentence.

The Invitation

Father is giving people time to decide. He wants sons who choose Ascension, Courts, Council, and the Isaiah 61 Reformation.

You are being invited to pioneer the new, to go before and prepare a place (Jn 14:3). Be a welcome mat for sons ascending to the Council and returning with a Reformation, instead of a sheriff in the Kingdom; policing every mistake servants make.

Sonship will prevail. We are hungry for the new. We’re tired of cover-up culture, tired of ministry idolatry, tired of being servants funding someone else’s vision.

Ready to discover Sonship and advance Reformation?

The question isn’t whether this movement will succeed. The question is: Will you help awaken and disciple Father’s sons and daughters? It’s what He is doing! Nothing can stop what is coming.

This blog was inspired by two Council conversations you will enjoy. The Levitical priesthood model is being replaced. Sons are Prophets, Priests, and Kings—and they need discipleship that releases them into their full inheritance.

2026-01-28 Cover-up Culture – touches on the recent scandal
2026-01-29 Sonship Transition – the Reformation in how we disciple to get sons

Take the Next Step:

Progression to Sonship – Your Kingdom purpose and redemptive stories form the basis for your personal identity, purpose, value creation, and your business offer. Becoming your authentic self is the Father’s non-religious key to flow and fruit in business and life. We offer practical and prophetic coaching to help you get there, flowing with your Father (co-laboring) instead of fighting circumstances and resistance alone.

Read the book and chat with John about Kingdom Business Coaching.

🔥 From Cover-Up to Coming Up