Research has shown that the USA is the third largest country of lost people (behind China and India). This statistic is so surprising to me since we have freedom of religion and a large percentage of Americans call themselves Christians. I believe the reason for this is a lack of discipleship in the church. Making disciples is the primary mission of the church.
Historically, Mt. Zion has always been good at solid Christian education and encouraging one another through fellowship. But as we face limited funds and the need for more volunteers, there is a need to refocus to make sure that we are accomplishing the mission that Christ gave us.
Our vision and purpose continues to be "Worshiping Christ by Spreading the Gospel and Serving the Community". But we realize that the best way to do that is to make disciples.
So we have developed the following "Discipleship Model" to show how we are going to accomplish that mission. This will be our philosophy for ministry.
(Click on the picture to enlarge)
We want to equip our members through Christian education classes, Bible studies, training, seminars, etc so that every member is enabled to minister to the needs of each other in the context of ministry teams and eventually small community groups. Then members will be able to outreach into our community to serve needs and spread the Gospel. We want all of our members to be able to live missional lives in their communities. They can evangelize and share their faith with neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc. As the Gospel is spread, God will save the lost and if by His grace, they become a part of our church, we want to disciple these new converts. Discipleship will take place when mature members invest their lives to help model and train new believers. The church will be committed to educating and equipping them as disciples as the process is started all over again.
Please note, that we want to concentrate most of our budget and volunteer effort into equipping and outreach.
I hope that this model makes sense to you and you will actively get involved with helping us make disciples. Please feel free to contact me or any of our elders if you have any questions regarding this.
I look forward to us maximizing what God has given us to make disciples of all nations.
Historically, Mt. Zion has always been good at solid Christian education and encouraging one another through fellowship. But as we face limited funds and the need for more volunteers, there is a need to refocus to make sure that we are accomplishing the mission that Christ gave us.
Our vision and purpose continues to be "Worshiping Christ by Spreading the Gospel and Serving the Community". But we realize that the best way to do that is to make disciples.
So we have developed the following "Discipleship Model" to show how we are going to accomplish that mission. This will be our philosophy for ministry.
(Click on the picture to enlarge)We want to equip our members through Christian education classes, Bible studies, training, seminars, etc so that every member is enabled to minister to the needs of each other in the context of ministry teams and eventually small community groups. Then members will be able to outreach into our community to serve needs and spread the Gospel. We want all of our members to be able to live missional lives in their communities. They can evangelize and share their faith with neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc. As the Gospel is spread, God will save the lost and if by His grace, they become a part of our church, we want to disciple these new converts. Discipleship will take place when mature members invest their lives to help model and train new believers. The church will be committed to educating and equipping them as disciples as the process is started all over again.
Please note, that we want to concentrate most of our budget and volunteer effort into equipping and outreach.
I hope that this model makes sense to you and you will actively get involved with helping us make disciples. Please feel free to contact me or any of our elders if you have any questions regarding this.
I look forward to us maximizing what God has given us to make disciples of all nations.
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