Following The Master's Plan For Discipleship: A Church of 3-Strands

Are you ready to take your church to a new level, but not sure how to begin? Have you tried all the new church growth and small group resources available but still people are not growing up and becoming fully mature saints of God? Do you have a passion and a vision for the Great Commandment and the Great Commission?

What Rick Warren did for today’s church structure and Ralph Neighbors did for cell groups CORE Discipleship Groups can provide for discipleship. CORE Discipleship represents a major church paradigm shift, but one every pastor can integrate if they are to be about the Great Commission.

In most churches, the weekend service is directed at the crowd or first strand of discipleship. These are those who have made some level of commitment – whether it is seeker, believer or those in leadership. It is not gender specific and everyone is invited. The message is typically simple, practical, and not overly invasive.

The '12 disciples' or strand two in the discipleship model are the ones who are hungry for more. These are the small group members, but as is the case with most small groups, the emphasis is on fellowship.

Finally, there’s the inner CORE of your church. These are your current and future leaders. They are the ones who want to go deeper, have a passion to grow personally, but who also want to help others grow in Christ and reach out to the lost.

However, most churches understand the need for having a dedicated process for discipleship, but lack the system or ‘roadmap’ to accomplish the vision. For discipleship to be truly effective, it must be intentional, relational, and understood that just as is true in natural parenting, so is spiritual discipleship - it is for life.

A Three-Strand Cord - Crowd, Cell & CORE:
From Acts 20:20; 2:41-47 and throughout Scripture we discover large groups (the crowds) tied to smaller group communities. Jesus taught the crowds, the 12, and especially, a smaller, more intimate group made up of Peter, James, and John – three strands of discipleship – crowds, cells, and the core all interwoven and essential.

Ecclesiastes 4:12says, "One standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken".

CORE Discipleship Groups purpose to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission by focusing on the third-strand of the Great Commission: "Teach them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). We accomplish this purpose as we build life-long relationships in the context of safe and confidential CORE Groups - groups of no more than four disciples, men with men and women with women. CORE Groups are not accountability groups or smaller, small groups. CORE Groups develop men and women who commit their lives to Jesus Christ and are willing to follow Him as presented in the pages of God's Word. From the very beginning, CORE members are held accountable to begin praying for two to come to Christ and for someone they are called to disciple. The "handshake" of CORE is five-fold:

1. Love:
Our first foundational value is the pursuit of love. Our pursuit is the fulfillment of the Great Commandment - our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with others (Mth. 22:37-40).

2. Christ-likeness:
Our second foundational value is the fulfillment of the Great Commission – the pursuit of Christ-likeness. It is our desire to be genuinely conformed to the character of Jesus. We believe this is God’s vision for man, to make us in the image of Christ (Gen 1:26; Rom 8:29). We believe that all spiritual progress is the result of God’s grace. We believe that humility is the pathway to Christ-likeness. In seeking to truly become like Christ, we remember His command to, “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Mth. 11:29).

3. Devoted:
The third foundational value of CORE is a commitment to the four fundamental devotions of the church as recorded in Acts 2:42: God's Word, fellowship, communion, and prayer. It is learning to be a doer of the Word.

4. Equipped:
A CORE Group outfits the saints for the work of ministry - a privilege and enterprise of each member of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16).

5. Faithful:
A CORE Group follows Jesus' pattern of discipleship and that Paul presented in 2 Timothy 2:2: "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

The Great Commission:
We take seriously the Great Commission recorded for us in Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (bold mine).

Being a disciple and making disciples is a direct command from our Lord Jesus and the responsibility of every born-again believer.

We are to commit our lives to Jesus Christ and be willing to do whatever Jesus tells us so that His kingdom will be built according to His plan. That's discipleship.

CORE Discipleship Groups follow the Master's plan for discipleship by imparting life, not just teaching about life - it is spiritual parenting. It is showing, telling, supervising and releasing disciples to make disciples who can then repeat the process once more. It is both an adventure of a lifetime and a lifetime of adventure.

For more information on how you or your church can integrate CORE Discipleship Groups, please visit our web site at: http://www.coregroups.org

Live Christ Deliberately!

Doug Morrell