Our vision for discipleship. Our vision is to create a culture of intentional, reproducible, gospel-centered discipleship relationships that promote grace-based personal transformation and growth in spiritual maturity through repentance and faith, so that the people of God, grounded in the Word of God, are equipped for the ministry of God.

Why discipleship? Fundamentally, it is because Jesus commands us: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19). We are called to be disciples and to make disciples.

What is a disciple? A disciple is an apprentice of Jesus who is continually and actively engaged in learning how to live by the grace of God under His rule and authority. Although many have come to associate the term “disciple” with those who are really “serious” about their faith, we believe that every Christian is called to be a disciple of Christ. A disciple is simply someone who is learning how to follow Jesus. It’s not about on how far along we are, but who we are following.

How are disciples made? We believe that disciples are not mass-produced in a program or a classroom through some 6-week or even 30-week program, because it is not information or mastery of content that we are after, but life change. Information, while critical, is not what transforms, so it’s possible for the best-run Christian Education programs to actually inoculate students from true, life-on-life discipleship. Jesus didn’t write a confession or teach a class; He lived with and among His disciples. So our goal in discipleship is life-on-life, and not simply curriculum-on-life. The vehicle is relationship. And that is why that our goal is not to create a program, but a culture.

Our curriculum. Although we have emphasized the relational aspect of discipleship, there is still a significant teaching-learning component to discipleship. We are called to “make disciples, teaching them to observe” all of Christ’s commands. So, yes, curriculum and doctrine matter. But that doctrine is to be lived out. The curriculum is a tool for the work of life-on-life discipleship to occur. Therefore, we utilize both curriculum-based life-on-life discipleship groups as well as a more traditional classroom setting in our curriculum for discipleship.