From Tod Vogt, Mission Alive Executive Director
It was about 2016 when Mission Alive developed Discipleship Cohorts (DC) (https://missionalive.org/discipleship-cohorts/ ). We saw that our church planters needed a process to help them develop disciples within their church plant. We opened Discipleship Cohorts to anyone hungry for a deeper spiritual journey. Since then hundreds of people have registered for our DC Level 1, a 16-week journey into learning to listen to God and follow what you hear with action.
Discipleship is about far more than ongoing Bible study. It is about incrementally learning how to imitate Jesus in all of the small and big moments of life. Being able to cite a Bible chapter and verse can be insufficient in some of the hardest moments. In those times, we need to lean on the Holy Spirit and listen. But, how do we do that? How do we identify what the Spirit is saying and how we are to follow? We do it through the practice of turning inward and examining our role in God’s transformation of us–the role of submitting to God, allowing Him to change us into instruments for His purposes.
Discipleship also trains us to turn outward, like Jesus. It trains us to walk in our world with an awareness of God and what God is up to around us. Discipleship is what trains us to not only identify what God is doing but also how to join Him in his Mission. That is, discipleship helps us see when and where we can take action to participate in God’s Mission.
Because discipleship prepares us to see what God is already doing and identify how we are to join Him, it is central to the work of church planting. Church planting is much more than starting a cooler worship service in a growing suburb. It is about starting new innovative communities of faith that present the Gospel in ways that the Nones (those with no religious preference) and the Dones (those done with church) can hear, understand, and appreciate.
If you are interested in engaging your community in a way that genuinely advances God’s Mission, consider beginning with a Mission Alive Discipleship Cohort. It will help you pay attention to what God is already up to and figure out how to join Him in it.
NEW COHORTS ARE STARTING SOON. CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO LEARN MORE AND REGISTER.