Purpose Driven Discipleship- Tom Rees

What are we trying to accomplish?

“A Christian Disciple is a learner and follower of Jesus Christ who reflects His teaching and lifestyle and is actively reproducing that pattern in others. “

Barna Study on discipleship:

- Only one of every six people who attend a Christian church are involved in being discipled

- Women are twice as likely to be involved in a discipleship program

- 69% of adults who engage in discipleship do so in small groups

- One out of three church leaders are themselves involved in a small group

What is our strategy for making disciples?

(What are we doing with our time we have with people?)

Diamond of Spiritual Development

Jesus called his disciples to make four commitments:

            1) Commitment to Membership

                        -Becoming a member of the body of Christ

                        -The Process of Knowing Christ

                        -Include them

            2) Commitment to Maturity

                        -The process of growing in Christ

                        -Instruct them

            3) Commitment to Ministry

                        -The process of serving Christ

                        -Involve them

            4) Commitment to Mission

                        -The process of sharing Christ

                        -Invest them

How is your ministry part of this strategy?

Five Circles of Commitment

            1) Community

                        -Unchurched

                        -Occasional Attender

                        -In social network of members

            2) Crowd

                        -Regular pattern of attendance

                        -Believers and non-believers

            3) Congregation

                        -Committed to fellowship and membership

                        -Baptized in water

                        -Accountable relationship with the local church

            4) Committed

                        -Committed to grow

                        -Involved in Bible study group

                        -Growing in character, faith, and spiritual disciplines

                        -Not actively serving

            5) Core

                        -Committed to serving

                        -Actively involved in ministry

                        -Serve in leadership and ministry roles

Each circle represents a barrier of resistance- a line that is seemingly uncrossable

How do we bring people from the outside to the core? (Discipling)

How do we get people from the core to reach the outside? (Missional)

Where are you?

            -Recast our mission

            -Assess our present ministries

            -Identify what base(s) your ministry is targeting

            -Determine which bases your church needs to strengthen for growth

            This presentation definitely challenged me, or maybe more so saddened me- seeing all of the ways that we as Christians have been and continue to fall short in the areas of discipleship and outreach. It’s easy to play the blame-game, but we are all guilty of being comfortable, fearful, prideful, lazy, etc. and not getting up and actively pursuing those who need to encounter the Lord.  

            Whether we are happy with our little core click and don’t even realize that there are others who have yet to know God in such a way, or we are hanging out in the crowd going back and forth on whether or not to fully commit, we all have improvements to make, and we need to start making those changes now. 

Daniel R. Schafer

John 7:16-18- "Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him."

            Daniel R. Schafer has been in ministry for 47 years.  His ministry work has been referred to as “weird” and “unique,” as he has participated in and started an extensive list of ministries that are “out of the ordinary” for the typical pastor, including being the official “prayer” for the NASCAR races, speaking and facilitating school assemblies, etc.

            Schafer is highly involved with local and national legal departments as a chaplain, etc. One of the things he has been involved with includes the World Trade Center relief. He was the head chaplain who would direct the other chaplains to where they needed to be. When in this position in NYC, he chose to wear a priest’s “collar” and when performing a funeral, used the symbol of the cross. This was significant, because it opened many doors for him which were not opened beforehand.  He said that people would come up to him requesting prayer, etc.  It was during this time, that he also started seeing a professional therapist to help him cope with all of the traumatic sights, smells, sounds, etc. that he was experiencing.  He has continued to attend counseling sessions to deal with the emotional stress presented to him in his job of being the “bearer of bad news” to families of those who have died in fatal car crashes, in school shootings, suicides, etc. He says that eighty percent of his stress relief is through the Lord, and twenty percent is through professional counseling.  He also turns to diaphragmatic breathing to keep his blood pressure and stress level down in those traumatic times.

            When involved in things like “helping” the families deal with traumatic deaths/suicides, etc. in 4 Police departments, 5 Fire departments, and an EMS squad. Dan says that just his presence is what makes the difference for the people; not the fancy words he could say or the scriptures he could read to them. It’s about helping people, not giving them advice. The best questions to ask are questions which, upon answering them, they answer their own questions; “What are you thinking?” “What are you going to do?”  Get them to ventilate and then validate.

There’s nothing you can do to help the person who’s dead, but you must do what you can to help those who are alive not only survive, but thrive.

            Schafer reads people by looking for signals in their body language, eye movement, etc. He says that 80% of communication is through body language.

            Schafer’s church is a small country church that stands behind him for all of his wild outreach ideas, like Biker Sunday, Police Sunday, Racer Sunday, etc.

He says that the secret to getting a great turn out is. “If you feed people, they will come.”

            He preached a message titled, “Tapping Into Your Natural Weirdness.” The first thing he did when he started at his church was to join the First Aid Squad in town, squeegee the windows of all the windows in town, etc. These were “weird” or different approaches that he took to getting his foot in the door for ministry- creating relationships.

            “As silly as you might feel, if the Lord’s going to bless you, He’ll bless you. “

            I think the most inspirational thing about Dan is his drive and his obviously intense love for people. If he didn’t love the Lord’s work and people, I don’t think that he would be able to do half of the things that he does/has done. The Lord has specifically set him up for this job. I like that he views his “job” as more than a 9-5, but as his life.  He is active in his community- doing anything and everything to get connected to his community; creating relationships which is the most important thing and the most effective method of evangelism.  

Todd & Deb Bube

            Deb Bube started attending Glad Tidings in the youth ministry with her sister. She eventually started volunteering in the preschool class in the kids ministry department. She realized that she loved that, so she went to Kutztown University and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education.

            Deb and a friend headed up the preschool class during services, and Deb went on to direct the opening of a preschool- Lakeside Christian Early Learning Center. In the beginning of preparing to start the preschool, Deb traveled around to different churches and gleaned information that she used to help make decisions.  Today Lakeside Christian E.L.C. facilitates approximately 80-85 kids. The preschool has a high academic standard that holds a good reputation in the community.  Deb and her husband Todd began to feel a tug to move into a different branch of church ministry, so Deb handed Lakeside over and made changes in order to grow and fit into their new roles- Todd as Children’s director, and Deb in charge of the church volunteers. She is now the Director of Creative Arts and

            GT believes that their Sunday morning services are their outreaches. They focus all of their energies and resources into the Sunday morning experience- keeping it consistent. They advertise choice Sunday morning series’ extensively by sending out promotional fliers, movie theatre previews, etc. They encourage their members to personally invite friends (this is still the most effective way).  Social media is important in their promotional approach, via facebook and twitter.

            Glad Tidings has many “lifegroups” that are designed to accommodate many different people with many different interests and needs. They use this as another form of outreach, in that in the sermons, the pastor will direct people to a group or class that is relevant to the sermon, etc. It’s a form of follow-up.

            Every month they do a “serve” weekend- they focus one of the church’s ministries and highlight it in the services.  “Serve” is a process that a person in GT would go through if they were interested in volunteering in any of the ministries.

            Todd Bube is the Children’s ministry director at Glad Tidings Church over approximately 190 children’s workers. Their biggest Children’s outreach is VBS with about 1000 kids in attendance each night. They have approximately 500 volunteers.  They start planning VBS in October and do everything with excellence by sticking to their timeline of everything that needs to get done.

To create a great team of people under him, Todd has to allow his volunteers to dream- to take their gifts and their ideas into practice- utilizing who and what he has. Through VBS, parents see how excited their children are, and are interested and begin to attend the church. They also send a handout home with the parents to keep them informed and involved.

            Their regular kid’s ministry runs 550-600 kids weekly. They run the kid’s ministry like the main church, with a service for all ages and then breaking off into small groups by ages.

            Todd strives for excellence in everything he and his team decides to do. This requires a lot of work. “Anything worthwhile is a lot of work.” –Todd Bube

            In conclusion, this is a couple who has truly devoted their life to the work of the Lord. 

Gerry Stoltzfoos

Gerry Stoltzfoos is one of those guys whose personality draws you in. I’d want to go to his church! Now, I’m not saying that he’s got a lot of charisma and can fly by on that. No, anyone who listens to Gerry talk can instantly tell that his heart’s desire is to share the hope of Christ, and it is that passion deep within him, and the love of Christ that draws people in.

            Gerry admits that he struggled through schooling at Valley Forge Christian College, but with a lot of hard work and by the grace of God, he graduated! It was during that time at VFCC, in the same chapel services I attend every day, that his passion for church planting was first sparked.  After graduation, Gerry planned to plant 10 churches in the Philadelphia area.

            Gerry was excited and passionate about this vision, and decided to fast and pray for Philadelphia. In the middle of this time of fasting and prayer, someone came to Gerry and told him that he thought God had spoken to him about Gerry planting a church near Gettysburg. Gerry was confused and a little bit upset by this. All of the time, thoughts, prayer, and effort he had been pouring into his vision for Philly was all to go to waste?

            As the weeks passed, it seemed as though God was holding onto Gerry’s shoulders and guiding him through open door after open door, all leading to Gettysburg. Even though looking back now, Gerry can see how obvious it was, at the time, he was still bitter and upset about the change of course. A committee of pastors of the Gettysburg area invited Gerry to meet with them, and to discuss the spiritual state of the area, and the possibility of him working there. Gerry didn’t think that he had any wisdom to offer, in fact, he knew he couldn’t impress these wise, experienced men. He didn’t think that he was the man for the job and was sure that they’d realize that too; he didn’t even agree with everything about the Assemblies of God. To his bafflement, the committee affirmed him, saying that they were only impressed with Jesus.

            From that day forward, Gerry was almost forced to change his attitude toward the situation, as he witnessed the Lord’s providence manifesting so vividly in his life.

            Gerry started Freedom Valley Church in Gettysburg, PA in 1992. There were 42 people in attendance. Today, there are approximately 2400 people attending every weekend.

            How did this drastic change take place? Gerry’s first order of business was a mass flier letting the community know that they were there. The next thing was giving away food. Gerry said that food is the biggest draw for all people. Freedom Valley Church started hosting themed Sundays such as Friends Day, and Man Fest, which drew a lot of people in. They still do these today.  These were only a few of the many little jumpstarting things they did, but the real reason for their growth was the relationship foundation Gerry built in the community. Gerry is real. He wears Harley apparel, etc., because he likes it, and because of his approachability, people treat him like a normal guy. He would have neighbors over for dinner before the church was even started, he got to know the business owners in the immediate town, he showed people the love of Christ, and through that, people came to find that love for themselves.

            Gerry has a huge heart for reaching the lost, specifically those whom the church in general is failing to reach.  He wrote a book called 83 lost sheep that talks about the percentage of people who don’t know Jesus.  Gerry says that “America has given up on church as a solution.” I think that this is due to the fact that Christians in America have given up on dying to self and carrying the Gospel to their neighbors. In fact, Gerry said that he tried to get other local churches to join him in some of his endeavors to reach more people in the city with the Gospel, and their response was one of rejection.  Gerry said, “I thought that all churches were interested in Kingdom Expansion.” Apparently this is not the case.

            Today, Gerry has a vision to plant 1000 churches. His game plan is based on a multiplication process: Every pastor of every church he plants has to swear to plant more.  What if this were the vision of all pastors? What if it were the vision of all Christians? What if every time someone came to know the Lord, they actually followed through and told more people?

I believe that America, for one, would be a very different place.