Proposal For Discipleship - Bryan Brown

Christ Community Church

We live to enjoy and declare the wonders of God’s grace in Christ for the good of Brisbane, Australia, and the world.

We purpose to do this by
• Worshipping God in all aspects of life
• Experiencing the benefits of the gospel through an authentic community of believers and seekers
• Giving ourselves to Brisbane in service and ministry
• Building servant-leaders for the church throughout the world

We value a life-on-life ministry model.
The gospel moves us to serve as representatives of Christ. Jesus left for us a model of ministry for the extension of His kingdom. This model was multiplying in purpose and personal, intentional, and equipping in nature. We desire our church to be characterised by a commitment to life-on-life discipleship.

“An effective ministry plan consists of a clearly defined purpose, vision, and mission that is supported by a biblically sound and culturally relevant philosophy of ministry. … The overall plan is supported with action plans that define goals, specific action steps, timelines, and resources required to accomplish the vision and mission. Implementation of the plan is measured to determine what’s working well and what’s not.”

Functions that are needed internally to ensure an effective ministry plan:
1. Leadership Development*
2. Teaching and preaching of God’s Word
3. Life-on-life discipleship*
4. Evangelism*
5. Assimilation of new people*
6. Caring for God’s people

* Need to have a clear, effective, and reproducable plan

“Discipling others is a process by which a person with a life worth emulating commits himself for an extended amount of time to a few individuals who have been won to Chirst, the purpose being to aid and guide their growth to maturity and to reproduce themselves in a third spiritual generation” – Hadidian

Proposal

A 3-year training plan for making disciples very similar to The Journey by Randy Pope which includes leadership training and development, life-on-life group dynamics, missional outreach, and periodic training events for key issues. Attached is an outline of The Journey which I am proposing that we adopt and adapt to meet the needs above of Christ Community.

“Programs” – to have or not to have…that is the question.

Negatives
o Programs tend to be passive – preparation is dependent upon one
o Programs tend to focus on information and knowledge
o Low accountability
o Loss of mission
o “One size fits all” – Lack of personalization

Positives – (with the right leaders – it is always dependent upon leadership!)
o Provides structure and direction
o Cohesive for entire church
o A measure of quality control
o Provides a base from which to personalize
o Lets Leaders focus more on people, not just material

Questions / Concerns:

How does this effect current minsitry within Community Team structure?

What purposes does this fulfil that are not already being addressed?

What is the time commitment of those involved?

How do we start? With whom do we start? Where do the leaders come from?