Discipleship

Church-wide discipleship

Jesus instructed his disciples to make disciples. How? By baptizing and teaching everything that he commanded. The command to baptize implies that the main context of discipleship is the local church.

Church-wide discipleship happens by worshiping and serving together. Here are a few examples of how we disciple one another within the church:

1. Attend the Sunday Morning Gathering
   Come ready to encourage, exhort, and edify one another as we gather to hear from God. Sing whole-heartedly and loudly! Pray fervently with the church. Prepare your heart to hear from the Word of God. Hang out after and get into conversation with others.

2. Become a Member
   Locking arms with a local church is something that Christians have done for centuries. Commit yourself to the body of Christ, open up your life to other believers, attend members’ meetings, participate in the hard and joyous work of life together as a family. Learn more here.

3. Pray
   Our Directory is a great tool for praying for each member of the church. If you don’t know someone yet, pray the Scripture you read that day over them. You could even send them an email or invite them over to get to know them.

4. Practice Hospitality
   Intentionally welcome others into your life. Invite a visitor, new member, or member you don’t know into your home to get to know them. Or reach out about getting coffee or lunch. Ask good questions. Listen well. Pray together.

5. Share the Gospel With Others
   We want those who are far from Jesus to hear the gospel, believe it, and begin to follow him as well. Look for ways to talk about Christ with your neighbors, coworkers, and friends. Let others in the church know how they can pray for your evangelistic efforts.

6. Serve the Church
   One of the ways we glorify God is by serving one another with a glad and joyful heart. Not from a place of guilt, or obligation, or self-promotion, but out of gratitude and love for Christ. Click on this link if you’re ready to serve.

Personal discipleship

While Jesus certainly drew large crowds during his earthly ministry, he also focused his discipleship with a few. The relationships we build in church-wide discipleship should lead us towards personal discipleship.

Personal discipleship happens by initiating intentional relationships centered around Scripture, transparency, and prayer. This can be uncomfortable! But this is the heartbeat of gospel ministry and where some of its greatest joys are formed. If you’re not sure who to meet with, we hope the below will provide a helpful starting point.

1. Community Groups
   These groups are for men and women of different ages and life stages. They meet to spend time applying God’s Word to their lives and praying. These groups meet on a regular basis and are organized by the church.

2. Small Groups
   These groups are typically a few Christians of the same sex who meet regularly to study Scripture, encourage one another in the gospel, and pray. This could be an older member discipling a younger member, a more mature Christian discipling a younger Christian, or peers in the faith effectively discipling one another. These form organically and do not have to be organized by the church. If you’d like someone to reach out to you about this, let us know here.

The above are great starting points for your discipling relationships, but please don’t feel limited by them. There are countless ways that church members aid in the discipleship of one another.

If you’d still like help finding discipling relationships, please reach out to a pastor. We’d love to help you connect!