A New View
A New View by Dean Ridings
Better
Vision Through Intentional Disciplemaking
Mount Paran Baptist Church is on the southeast
side of Washington, D.C., a high crime part of town. Despite drug deals going down
right outside the church doors, Pastor Willie T. Lawson says he isn’t planning
to relocate the . . .
. . . church any time soon. “I believe that the church can have an impact,” he says.
“When Jesus said, ‘Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest,’” Pastor Willy says, quoting Matthew 9:38, “these people that we see here, who are unchurched and unsaved, they are God’s harvest.
“And since the church’s job is to go out and win souls for the Savior and disciple them,” he adds, “we couldn’t be in a better place than right here.”
Pastor Willie says Navigator Cedric Brown of the Church Discipleship Ministry (CDM) proved “instrumental” in helping his congregation form its vision: to develop a disciplemaking church of fully equipped believers who make an impact in their world.
Tapping into 75 years of experience helping men and women become intentional disciplemakers, CDM staff strive to help pastors and ministry leaders establish reaching the lost and disciplemaking as the core mission of the church. In fact, this is a central value of CDM.
“We’re convinced that most pastors and church leaders greatly desire to see their congregations become disciples of Jesus,” says Darrell Sanders, CDM’s director. “But often there’s not an enabling environment or strength of resources to encourage this development. So these pastors and church leaders can feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to carry out the ministry the Lord has placed upon their hearts. Our burden is to help them move from making a few disciples to becoming Intentional Disciplemaking Churches.
“We
start by helping churches develop and implement their vision,” Darrell says.
“Our desire is to serve and resource. Although we provide materials, tools, and
seminars, our approach to ministry more is relational, life to life. We partner
with local churches in the work of the Great Commission.”
CDM has more than 100 staff members serving in ministry locations across the nation—double the number of staff coming alongside church leaders five years ago—and many are in key metropolitan areas. CDM leaders and staff minister in 250 churches in the United States and internationally. They serve in 20 countries in Europe, Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.
Ray Scheck, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in the Baltimore area, says in his years of ministry “no one had ever raised the question of how to be a disciplemaking congregation or church.”
That’s why Pastor Ray is so grateful for his disciplemaking “coach,” CDM’s John Sackett, who introduced him to the concept at a Christian education gathering where John led a series of workshops.
“When I was first introduced to this idea of disciple–making,” says Pastor Ray, “I brought together a team of people to focus on, ‘What would it mean in a practical way to be a disciplemaking congregation?’ ” For his team it meant a personal commitment to getting into God’s Word.
Today, that commitment has spread to every ministry in the church, where leaders lead ministries based upon God’s Word “with the goal of, ‘How is this going to make disciples?’ ” Pastor Ray says. “What’s encouraging is that the leaders have caught it!”
On the other coast, Galen Call, senior pastor of Las Gatos Christian Church in northern California, credits his CDM disciplemaking coach Sam Hershey with revitalizing his church’s ministry.
“Our
church had experienced a decline in recent years, a loss of vision,” says
Pastor Galen. “And the result of that was the decay of the internal structure
of the church. Therefore, we felt it would be helpful for us to go through a
process like this, the process of intentional disciplemaking, to regain that
vision and rebuild the structure of the church.
“I found the process to be especially useful for us,” he says. “It’s a process that involves a coach from outside the church who brings to us objective counsel and direction, and we together develop the process and vision that results from it.
“I certainly recommend this process of intentional disciplemaking to any church,” adds Pastor Galen. He recently saw more than 40 new small group leaders go through three weeks of training because they now see a clearer vision of their church. “It will strengthen the church in its mission and in its vision to accomplish the work of Jesus Christ.”
For Pastor Willie, as his congregation members become more fully devoted followers of Jesus, he anticipates that the church will make an even greater impact in the community.
“My hopes and dreams are that this congregation will be a congregation of disciplemakers,” he says, “and if no one else hears about us, at least these people who are caught up in drugs, homosexuality, crime—they’ll hear about us!”More articles from our flagship publication One-to-One Ministry Review.
