Make Disciples
Mission: Engage the nations, tribes, peoples, and languages of the world with the Gospel of Jesus. Build inroads to the community and 'people and places of peace'.
Locally (St. Louis):
Meet them: Parks, libraries, international restaurants, neighborhoods, already planned community events, sports, and places of worship (mosques, temples). Intentional and frequent Gospel conversations, prayer walking, spiritual mapping, and house/person of peace searches in ministry areas.
Disciple them: Life-on-life time together deepening relationships through meals together, having them in your home, missional group together, holiday parties, and English tutoring from the Bible.
Mobilize them: Train new followers of Jesus to engage their people group and area of influence with the Gospel of Jesus. Connect them to established churches or start new ones.
Globally:
Train and lead ministry leaders and groups on vision trips and strategic international partnerships
Mobilize the Church
Mission: Equip followers of Jesus to abide in Jesus and make disciples of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Individual Missions Mobilization:
- Disciple believers to have a firm foundation in God's Word.
- Lead believers into the community to engage the lost, modeling how to start intentional conversations, ask questions and listen, steer the conversation to a spiritual and Gospel conversation, share the full Gospel of Jesus, and ask for a response.
- Equip believers to disciple new followers of Jesus through simple, reproducible ways
- 1 day Gospel Conversations Training a
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Local Church Mobilization:
Phase 1: Assess, Plan, and Plant the Vision
- Meet with the local church staff and ministry leadership to learn how to best serve them in missions mobilization.
- Lead staff and leadership through an 'Abiding and Making Disciples Health Assessment' & Ephesians 4 APEST.
- Guide the church leadership to develop or refine an intentional missions mobilization strategy and structure.
- Preach, teach, and cast vision about being mobilized to grow in competence and confidence to abide in Jesus and make disciples in the Sunday church gathering 3-4 weeks before the Gospel Conversations Training.
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Phase 2: Equip & Deploy
1-Day Gospel Conversations Training:
Mission: Equip believers in personal missions mobilization to abide in Jesus and make disciples (why, who, what, and how).
- The training usually lasts for 6-8 hours on a Saturday. Below is a typical schedule of events.
- Prayer
- Missional vision casting
- Develop and practice sharing personal salvation testimony and clear, concise Gospel message.
- Train in initiating intentional conversation and navigating to spiritual and Gospel conversations.
- Visit inside a mosque, Hindu temple, or Buddhist temple (when having an 8 hr training).
- Engage the community in Gospel conversations through the power of the Holy Spirit in groups of 2-3.
- Report back to the group to celebrate and pray.
2-5 Day Mobilization Training Intensive:
- This training follows a similar format to the 1-day GCT. This training may include engaging and serving local STL churches and mission organizations.
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Phase 3: Grow
- Cultivate a plan to establish mutual missional equipping, encouragement, and accountability in every church gathering (usually a 3/3rds format).
- Without intentional mutual equipping, encouragement, and accountability there will be no spiritual multiplication and abiding. With it, disciples will be made and become spiritual multipliers training others to have Gospel conversations, creating apprentice programs, and other mobilization opportunities.
- Believers from the GCT wanting deeper mobilization are equipped to lead a missional small group with mutual equipping, accountability, and encouragement to abide in Jesus and make disciples.
- Help believers discover and strengthen their ministry calling and giftings (APEST)
- Establish and celebrate strategic goals with members' abiding in Jesus and making disciples.
- Gather the church in smaller groups that focus on mutual equipping, encouragement, and accountability to abide in Jesus and make disciples. These life-on-life relationships and groups should be in a 3/3rds format. Leaders are facilitators instead of preachers/teachers. Leaders focus on creating an interactive environment engaging their group with good questions as they study through the Bible. Teaching disciples to obey God's Word involves teaching them God's truth in the Bible and modeling ministry and Gospel conversations. Church staff and leadership lead the charge; they should be in these small groups for their personal benefit and also actively making disciples outside of church gatherings.
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Phase 4: Mature & Multiplying
- Church leaders and members have a missions mobilization strategy in place. A clear mission statement/vision will be communicated. The focus of all church gatherings, events, and mission partnerships should be the Gospel of Jesus.
- Members are intentionally starting conversations to have Gospel conversations with others, multiplying mission groups, leading Gospel Conversations Trainings, and mobilizing other local churches.
- A residency/apprenticeship program is established where members are further trained in in spiritual obedience.
- A sending culture is created. Believers are equipped and sent as spiritual multipliers wherever God calls them, locally or globally, vocationally or personally.
- New churches are being established where people are coming to faith in an area or where members are sent.