Discipleship – Lara McAllister

Disciple making. As followers of Christ we are instructed by Jesus in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

In the spring of 2017 we passed a new vision as well as three ambitious targets, one of them being that by the year 2022, every church within Fellowship Pacific will be instituting an intentional Discipleship Plan.

This past summer we created a Discipleship Framework that can be taken and implemented within your church. We wrestled through the tension of church as an organization and church as an organism. The organizational elements of the church include the planning and structures that are put in place to help people grow deeper in their relationship with Christ.  As we look at church as an organism it is important to remember that God will, and is, doing His work in His people – with or without our plan.  Part of the framework we’ve created works through what it looks like to create a culture where people actually want to be discipled and grow deeper in their walk with Christ.

Identifying and knowing what a disciple will know and what a disciple will be after they have attended your church for 5-7 years is a critical part of this process. Part of the framework includes working together as a staff and board to determine what this would look like for your church.

The delivery system in which you choose to go about implementing a Discipleship Plan is up to you, but it is imperative that you know what that is and how your plan will be filtered through that.  We talk through some examples of what some delivery systems are during our one-day seminar on Creating an Intentional Discipleship Pathway.

Whether you have an intentional Discipleship Pathway/Plan in place or you are looking to create one, we would love to hear from you. If you have one already, we would love to sit down with you and hear what you’re doing and how God is working through it. If you are looking to begin the process of implementing one, please contact us and we will set up a time for us to go through the framework with your board and staff.

So what does a one-day seminar on Creating an Intentional Discipleship Pathway look like? Basically our team will spend a day (often a Saturday) from 9am – 3:30pm with your board and staff and go through the framework of a 5 year Discipleship Plan. Before beginning this process, you need to have a clear and established vision in place.

We are now booking into the fall of 2018 and early 2019, so if you’re thinking about creating a plan, contact us and we can put a date down.

We’re excited to be part of the future of your church and look forward to hearing from you!