10 Themes for Discipleship
In Matthew 28:19-20, God gives every church that seeks to follow him their divine mission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Every church has the same mission, but every church is not the same. We are each gifted in unique ways, placed in unique contexts, and asked to engage people through the above mission God has given us to reveal the hope of Jesus and His love for them.
At True Hope Collister, we exist to display the true hope of Jesus to make disciples by helping people discover who Jesus is, experience him through a personal relationship, and follow him as the leader of their life.
These steps are our discipleship pathway: discover, experience, and follow. As a church, our goal is to create safe and effective environments where people can discover who Jesus is for the first time, experience what it means to be in a relationship with him, and then follow him in the everyday stuff of life. This three-step process is continuous. When we step out in faith and follow Jesus’ leadership in our lives, it will lead to a more profound discovery of who he is, a more intimate experience with him, and a greater trust to follow him in a more significant way. This process of deepening continues for the rest of our lives and is called sanctification.
In asking how we make disciples, we have identified ten themes that we want to teach, wrestle with and live out in the everyday stuff of our lives. Those themes are:
Knowing - God knows me, and I can know him.
Identity - Through faith in Jesus and his sacrifice, I belong to God, and He loves me!
Storytelling - God has a big story, and I can be a part of it.
Faith Community - God’s family cares for each other and worships God together.
Love/Respect - God fills me with His love so I can give it away.
Responsibility - God has entrusted me with the things and people He created around me.
Serving - I live asking the question, what needs to be done?
Out of Comfort - God transforms me when I step out in faith.
Modeling - I can see Christ in others, and they can see Him in me.
Course Correction - When I get off track, God offers me a path of healing.
As we engage these ten themes and seek to make them a part of our everyday lives, we believe God will meet us in that space and transform our lives. We will begin to live out of a transformed identity, engage an eternal prupose, and live within deep and satisfying community. Each year we want to take 2 of these themes and focus on them in our times of worhisp and teaching. In 2022 the two themes we will forcus on are storytelling and identity.
Storytelling: Helping followers of Jesus discover the Big God Story so it can impact our lives by giving us an accurate and awe-inspiring perspective into how God has been moving throughout history. It further compels us to see how God uses every person’s life and creates a unique story that deserves to be told for His glory.
Identity: Teaching followers of Jesus who they are in Christ (Ephesians 1) and empowering them to live out of that identity and stand firm against counter-identities that the world offers to bring them to destruction.
Knowing who we are and that we are a part of a story bigger than ourselves will offer protection and purpose in a world that is realing from a lack of understanding of both. Discipleship is not conformity. It is a transformation that leads to freedom, purpose, and belonging in the everyday stuff of our lives. Where are you at in the discipleship journey? How can we help you? If you are interested in learning more about starting the journey, please reach out by clicking here.