This past September we began a church-wide discipleship program. To a certain extent it is a variation of the Purpose Driven Church model. The end goal is to have many people in the church activitely discipling others…and not just one or two or three “official” teachers or ministers. We are all ministers.
We began to give basic Bible studies twice every Friday…the first two studies were given simutaneously at 9 a.m., then repeated again Friday evening at 8. We found that giving these two options regarding time enabled most everybody to attend.
The studies started very well, with about 40 people in attendance. Last Friday we finished the first step (level 101), and today we finish the second step (201).
I wish I could say that we ended the studies with the same 40 people. The reality is that only about a fourth of the initial total completed the study, with another 10 people who will be able to complete the course after making up 1-4 studies that they missed (out of 13-15).
So the success of our first cycle is questionable…but at least we’ll have 5-7 people who will be able to disciple others…and that’s better than nobody! It is always encouraging to see the desire and commitment among some to learn and grow!
Discipleship is the operative word here…multiplication is absolutely necessary if we ever hope to reach this area with the gospel.
that’s really exciting to see that growth!! praise God for this ministry and the fruitfulness that is already evident!