At the beginning of this year, I read a book called Swimming Lessons by Grant Edwards. In it, he posed this question, of which I am still struggling with the answer. I would like to share it with you and then show you how we at Tabernacle of Praise (TOP) are approaching the answer.

If I placed a recently converted Christian into your care, do you know what to do to maximize the chances of this new Christian maturing in Christ?

This question is significant in light of the fact that TOP’s mission statement is to reconcile the lost and disciple believers in Crawford County and beyond. Asking us this question is like asking asking a blacksmith if he can make a horeshoe, or a carpenter if he can cut wood. If asked those question, these craftsment could dismiss it as foolishness and continue with their work as usual, or they could be intrigued by the simplicity of it and give their full attention to answering the questions. In doing so, they would find faster, more efficient ways to create horshows and cut wood. They would earn larger profit margins and grow their clientele. This is the difference between a craftsman and a master. The master works hard at answering the simple questions.

We want to be masters at what we do, and so the Board of Elders and I tackled this question and Grant’s book for three months. We met biweekly to discuss each chapter and the quesitons and implications that those chapters raised for us as a church. In the end, we all came to the conclusion that we as a church don’t know exactly what to do to maximize the chances of a new Christian maturing in Christ. That’s not a good place to find yourself if your mission is to disciple believers. Now that we knew where we were, we decided to move on and get somewhere else.

First Steps Ministry was founded by Grant Edwards to promote his belief in the efficiency and biblical precedent of one-on-one discipleship. According to him, believers grow in Christ faster, more steadily and more lastingly when they are being taught within the context of a relationship. We have come to believe that he is right based on our own experience and work in the ministry. Grant’s method is simple: The disciple meets with the discipler one hour or so a week for twelve weeks and they discuss and work on four essential disciplines of Christian life–prayer, Bible study, Christian community and evangelism. The idea is that a person has the best chances of developing these spiritual life skills when they are with a mature believer one-on-one.

In short, the Elders of TOP have decided to put their hopes in the First Steps method of discipleship to change our church culture, and ultimately, our community. To kick it off, we are holding a discipleship seminar this Saturday starting at 8:30 am. The seminar fee is $30 which includes lunch and a First Steps discipleship workbook, which is used to facilitate the discipleship relationship over the three month period. Please come if you can!