What We do - Discipling

Coaching : Training : Discipling : Teaching : Building

Discipling through Discovery Bible Studies

why it's different

“If we make disciples we can plant a church, but if we just try to plant a church, the chance is great we won't make disciples.” – Floyd McClung (Director of All Nations)

Some things that make Discovery Bible Studies a unique approach to church planting...

Friendship Group (instead of Collected Individuals)

Instead of trying to get a variety of people who don't know each other to come to a church building, you start at someone's home with their natural circle of friends and family members (the people they are already hanging out with). Why does this work?

• It's much easier to get someone to commit to meeting with their own friends, than strangers they have never met
• People open up more quickly with people they already know
• At the beginning, you don't need the finances to build a building and pay a pastor
• It's so easy and requires no funding, making it possible for that person to reproduce it

Discovery (instead of Teaching)

We believe the Holy Spirit and the Bible can speak to people directly (you don’t need a qualified pastor or teacher just to read and understand the Bible)

Group (instead of the individual)

People learn in a group setting - and the group self corrects.

Have you ever watched "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" There are 3 "life lines" if you don't know the answer to the trivia question. The first is to call your smartest friend (who may or may not know the answer), the second is to remove several wrong answers (someone effective), but the last and most effective, is to ask the audience. The group always knows the answer! The same principle is true - the collective memory and knowledge of a group is greater than the individual.

In a recent seminar on church planting I put a photo of a painting on the screen and said, “I want you to take a look at this image.” After a few seconds...I blanked the screen and said, “Now, describe the image.”

People called out various details they remembered. After the group was done I said, “Could any one of you remember everything in this image?”

The group said, "No!"

I said, “Yet, together, you manage to remember most of the details in this painting. Now that you’ve heard everyone list what they remembered, I’ll bet that you remember more of the image than you did before we talked about it.”

Research shows that...
• Groups remember more and faster than individuals.
• As group of people can remember more, and more accurately, than an individual.
• As groups recall things together, group memory becomes the memory of each individual in the group.

Obedience (instead of just knowledge)

We encouraging reading the Bible and immediately deciding how you will let the Word of God change your life. In a Discovery Bible Study everyone decides on an "I will" statement at the end - a statement about something they will change in their life - based on the scripture they just read.

Some examples...

• I will stop yelling at my son and try to give him a hug once a day.
• I will share some food with my neighbor.
• I will stop stealing money.

We suggest doing your "I will" statement within 48 hours. Studies have shown that if you don't obey within 2 days, most good intentions remain as intentions.

Multiply Vs Grow

We are not trying to create large churches. If someone new wants to start attending an existing Discovery Bible Study, we have one of the members of the first group help that person start their own DBS with that person's friendship group.

In other words "don't come to my thing...I'll help you start your thing." This is why it needs to be so simple that anyone can reproduce it quickly and easily (no expensive building, paid staff, complex programs, etc.)

 

"Take away the building, the worship band and the Sunday school classes. In fact, take away the masses of people as well. Jesus discipled 12, and they reached the world. If we keep our simple churches small and intimate, we can disciple each person well and thouroughly, training them at the same time to plant a simple church of their own. " - Kevin Standfield (YWAM Cape Town)