Vision, mission, purpose & beliefs
Vision
To see every Christ-follower formed, conformed and transformed in the image of Jesus.
Mission
Make disciples.
Core Beliefs
•The Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God.
•We acknowledge the Creator - God as our heavenly Father, infinitely perfect, and intimately acquainted with all our ways.
•We claim Jesus Christ as Lord - the very God who came in human flesh - the object of our worship and the subject of our praise.
•We recognize the Holy Spirit as the third member of the Godhead, unceasingly at work convicting, convincing, and comforting.
•That Adam's fall into sin left humanity without the hope of heaven apart from a new birth, made possible by the Savior's death and bodily resurrection.
•The offer of salvation is God's love-gift to all. Those who accept it by faith, apart from works, become new creatures in Christ.
•That anyone who trusts in Christ by faith is a new creation in Him - clothed in His righteousness and fully loved and accepted by God.
•That God expects our lives to reflect that we belong to Him and that we are pursuing a holy life.
•That Satan, under the sovereign permission of God, tries to destroy the faith of believers and that drawing near to God is the only way to resist him.
•That as new creations in Christ we will continue to wrestle with our sin nature. We will, however, continue to grow in grace and become more like Jesus. Ultimate perfection and freedom from sin, however, will only come when we finally stand in the presence of the Lord.
•That, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are members of His universal church and that the local church is the place God has designed for His people to worship Him, observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Table, and love other Christians.
•That, having embraced Jesus Christ by faith, we are to make Him known to non-Christians in our sphere of influence.
•We anticipate our Lord's promised return in power and glory.
•That all who have died will be brought back from beyond - believers to everlasting communion with God and unbelievers to everlasting separation from God.
What We Do
We serve the Body of Christ by providing a Biblical discipleship process and free discipleship resources free online. We do so based on what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:18-19: "What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge … that I might win more of them."
Who We Are
In a day of instant coffee, instant popcorn, and microwave ovens, most of us want to hurry-up processes that take time to accomplish. God has no instant formulas for discipleship. God invites you to follow Him at whatever point in life you may be. Apart from His sacrificial work on the Cross, the most important thing our Lord did upon the earth was to make disciples. Discipleship, like raising children, is progressive, not instantaneous. Jesus’ discipleship process was relational, up-close and personal. He took a few men at various stages of life, poured His life and ministry into them, equipped them for ministry, empowered them, and released them to repeat the process.
I have had the great opportunity to visit with hundreds of pastors around the world regarding discipleship. I share your passion in seeing people become fully equipped, spiritually mature saints – believers who know Jesus and make Him known. I also know what it feels like to look out over the congregation and see that many are not growing up in the basics of our faith.
Back in 1988, my wife Suzie and I were members of Scottsdale Bible Church, Scottsdale, Arizona. Gary Smalley and John Trent led our Genesis 2 class – a group of about 120 people. Genesis was then broken down into even smaller life groups of 12-16 people who met in homes all over Phoenix. Both of these groups were comprised of folks of about the same age, marital status, number of children, etc. And though Sunday’s big gathering followed by our large Sunday school and the home groups were incredible, nothing altered my pathway more than the next level of discipleship. Two guys from our small group invited me to a once a week, 6:00am men’s fellowship. These men became disciplers and helped plant the seed for what is now known as the 3-Strand CORE Discipleship Process.
In 1989, we moved back to our roots in West Texas. There, in what we now look back and affectionately call our “wilderness years,” we were discipled by a very spiritually mature couple and began serving in various aspects of ministry culminating in Doug’s affirmation and calling to ministry. During that season, we were also introduced to and inspired by the personal teachings of Peter Lord, Bill and Delores Winder, and Sam Soleyn. Inspired to live a simple and devoted life in Christ, we developed a residential at-risk teen ministry in our home and began ministering to the broken, hungry, homeless, sick and those in prison. In 1994 and in partnership with life-long friend Steve Trafton, we developed a discipleship tool to assist others in developing the virtues of Christ (at that time, we could not find anything on the market that helped people develop Christ-like virtues as a study/journal). The Disciple’s Journal and other discipleship books soon followed.
In 2001, Phillip Hearn, founding pastor of New River Fellowship, listened to my vision about implementing a third strand to our existing church discipleship process (crowd/cells). He agreed and I launched the first CORE Group. After 18-months meeting with three other guys and after having seen “real-life transformation”, we cast the vision to the church staff, realigned staff around the process, communicated the process to all church leadership (cell group leaders and ministry heads), and finally to the body in a 3-part sermon series entitled “The 4-12 Trilogy”. Within two years, I was overseeing 28 CORE Groups, had developed and published the CORE Discipleship manual, and once I believed the process soundly tested and evidenced into the second and third generation, I launched the CORE Discipleship website. Phillip went on to write his doctoral dissertation for Regent University on the findings, “The Three-Strand Church: Understanding the Scriptural Values and Structural Venues of a Three-Strand Approach to Discipleship.”
In addition to overseeing Core, Doug directs communications for one of the nation's leading children's discipleship publishers. Suzie is a work-at-home mom and oversees our online e-book distribution - she loves to pray for each request we receive!
Since 1994, our little ministry has provided more than 400,000 free eBooks to churches, ministries, individuals, schools and prison ministries around the world. We are honored to be a small part of Jesus' Great Commission.
The Lord has apparently chosen to place His mantle of approval on our ministry. Our great joy is to continue providing free discipleship resources to ministries and churches around the world. We operate the ministry from our home, accept no salary for the work of this ministry, and all expenses are paid by us. We have no offices or support staff or unnecessary equipment. Every penny is stretched as far as possible to serve the needs of those who look to us for free, quality discipleship resources.
May our Lord Jesus bless you as you purpose to fulfill the Great Commandment and Great Commission.
Also, please feel free to use the terms Core Discipleship, Core Groups, or C3 Discipleship - many have done so since we first launched and we think it perfectly describes the purpose and process.
Doug & Suzie Morrell