When I look at the different people around my church, and talk to them about what they know about God or listen to discussions during our Sunday School classes, I realize that many people have an incomplete understanding of even the the basics of the Christian faith. I think the our Christian education is like swiss cheese. There are holes in what we know, or in how we have applied what we know, or even more so we don’t know enough it seems or lack the training necessary to help others learn.
WDA has spent years considering how we need to help people grow to maturity. I would love to say that the process of discipling someone is a clean step by step process where we learn one thing and go on to the next. The difficulty is that we tend to leap around without a clear idea of what we need to know and what we need to teach. WDA has a progressive plan for helping people grow. We begin with the basics and using tools such as the R-CAPS grid, we make a plan that allow people to grow in phases.
The challenge for any disciple building process is that people don’t always begin with one person at the beginning stages of faith in Christ and continue with them to maturity. The disciples were with Jesus as he discipled them over a period of three years. Not only were they with him, they left their jobs and followed him for the majority of that time. This is not only impractical it’s seems impossible in our modern context.
My experience as a discipleship pastor has shown me that building disciples takes more time than I ever expected. Some contexts provide a more robust opportunity such as the college campus, however the week by week discipleship in the church means that we have to commit to stay with one another long enough to grow. Having a plan enables your ministry to know not only where you are going but you can build out that plan, considering the time and commitment necessary to see people grow to maturity in your context.
With WDA’s R-CAPS Grid you can learn to see that discipleship is more than content alone, but is structured around relationships, focuses on application, involves praying with and for one another and builds situations where people can learn with others and do ministry.
WDA is working in a variety of ministry settings, with our 28/20 project, our Restorative Ministries, our International Leadership Training and Next Generation Ministry. One thing that we have learned. Discipleship requires a plan and takes time.
Take some time to learn more about our philosophy of ministry by reading Disciple Building a Biblical Framework. Contact WDA to learn more about how you can develop a plan for your church and ministry which can help fill in the holes and develop leaders for years to come.