In the last two weeks, I have preached on the mission and vision of Crossroads Christian Church. I will be combining these two messages into one CD to be used in our outreach to guests, as well as making them available on the website.
Recently, we began a five (5) week campaign called “OUTFLOW.” This study is about learning to let God’s love and power flow out of you and our church, into the lives and the community around us. We will be having a special small group study time on Sunday mornings from 9am – 10am. Everyone will gather in the auditorium for the video portion of the lesson. We will then split up into small discussion groups. This will be followed by worship and a message, all coordinated with the subject of the day. Each person is asked to reinforce the concepts with daily readings from the book “Outflow”.
In the sermon on the Church’s vision, I mentioned that we would be launching a new discipleship strategy in 2010. We are excited about the possibilities this new strategy has for really integrating new believers into both the church and their faith in Jesus Christ. It is, however, a major shift in our thinking about discipleship.
Those of you who have been disciples for awhile have probably witnessed the following scenario a few hundred times. An individual enthusiastically accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. You see them in church and occasionally in a Sunday school class or Bible study or even a small group. Then suddenly their attendance begins to fall off or stops suddenly. You wonder what happened to them. Once it is discovered they have encountered a problem, it is too late to do anything. Another brother or sister is lost back to their previous life without Christ or involvement in His Church.
Now there are lots of reasons for this. Sometimes it is a failure to properly shepherd the individual. Other times, it is simply the difficulty one has in making a lasting change in their life. It is a problem, though, that must be addressed by our strategy on discipleship.
Up to now our strategy has been to encourage individuals to get involved in either Sunday school or small groups in order to disciple them. However, since both of these programs are also trying to disciple those who have been believers for some years, the strategy falls short in meeting the needs of new Christians.
This is why we are adding another component to our discipleship strategy. It is called “Life on Life Discipleship.” To put it simply, every new believer is partnered up with a mature believer to walk with them through the first twelve (12) months of their spiritual life. Statistically speaking, if a new convert stays faithful through the first year, they will probably stay faithful for a lifetime.
In order for this strategy to be successful, we will need mature believers who are willing to commit 1% of their time to discipling another. You see we all have 168 hours in a week. One percent of that would be a little less than two (2) hours a week. By investing that time with a new believer for one year, you would be having an unparalleled impact for the Kingdom of Christ.
Now you might be thinking, “I don’t know what I would even teach or talk about with a new believer.” That is no problem because we would provide support training and a curriculum for you to follow. The key is that you would meet and mentor them on a weekly basis, at a time convenient for both of you, for one year. The objective is two-fold. Not only do you ground them in the fundamentals of the faith, but you groom them so that they can become a mentor for someone else.
Please prayerfully consider if God is calling you to this vital discipleship ministry. We will be having a meeting to showcase the whole strategy and I hope you will attend. God bless!
