Can a disciplemaking culture be formed in a congregation? Can a church become a place where disciples are made and continually being made? That is what The Navigators have been working at this process for almost 50 years.
In the “Growing Intentional Disciplemaking Cultures” or GiDC, we see it happen. I have seen it in small churches and large ones, mainline and non-denominational churches. The beauty is that each congregation works it out differently. In fact, that is one of the strengths of our process. We contextualize disciplemaking to each situation.
The GiDC starts with the pastor, moving to equipping a core team, then to building culture in the church and finally to the community. The are ten major steps along the way. There are challenges that each pastor and his people face. Sometimes it is learning new skills or other times making disciples is not the way it has done. The whole GiDC is a step of faith.
We meet with the pastor twice a month to gain common ground and unpack discipleship. As the pastor gains further insights and skills, they pull in a few others in their congregation to widen the learning. At the beginning of the second year this little group each invites a few others to practice what they’ve been learning. As we round out the their third year more and more folks from the congregation begin experiencing these biblical principles and beginning to taking to their community. By the end of the process the church has made significant gains in: discovering truth from the scriptures, learning to connect more deeply with each other, defining a disciple, increasing the number of individuals who know how to mentor spiritually and living on mission.
The goal of the three years is to help churches be disciplemaking entities. I’m thrilled to see the excitement already in the churches who’ve just completed their first year. To read more at this link on one of these congregations. 