Turning Your Church into a Disciple-Making Mission

Purpose

The purpose of the GDI Cohort experience is to equip leaders in a mutually supportive and stimulating environment, who intend to turn churches and ministries into communities that fulfill the Great Commission’s imperative of making reproducing disciples of Jesus with a particular focus on “micro groups.”

Objectives

1. Provide a process whereby a church/ministry can transition from its current model of ministry to become a church that makes reproducing disciples of Christ.
2. Successful Journey: Imagine what your church/ministry can become through concrete pictures of actual churches that have been transformed into disciple making congregations, particularly through a growing movement of reproducing micro groups.

3. Unpack and lay-in the three major components upon which to form the disciple making culture in your church/ministry:

A. Relational Environment: Just as Jesus majored in the relational investment in the twelve, so we must adopt Jesus’ approach if we are going form disciples who make disciples. Our particular approach centers on the “micro group” as the optimum setting for the relational environment.

B. Intentional Leaders: The leader of the “micro group” is the most important leader in the church. They are on the front line of leading and reproducing the basic disciple making unit, the micro group. This implies that the pastors’ role is to empower God’s people for their ministry which in turn builds up the body of Christ.

C. Reproducible Process: Central to making this a simple and reproducible for the average believer there is a need for a transferable disciple making tool that maps out the picture of a mature, reproducing disciple. We suggest that Discipleship Essentials be the tool that you master, though your theological tradition may suggest something else.

4. Change Process: Provide a clear understanding of how change occurs within the culture of a congregation as you are incorporating the above three components.

5. The purpose of this cohort is to raise up an ever-expanding band of leaders who sense the Holy Spirit’s call (professionally and personally) to make a lifetime investment into growing reproducing* disciples and ministries.

6. Aspire through this training to grow model disciple-making churches** or ministries that become replicating training centers.

7. Reflect biblically and theologically on Jesus’ and Paul’s relational model of disciple making and apply this model to the way disciples are made.

*“Reproducing” is shorthand for disciples who make disciples.

**See the profile for a model church.

Covenantal Commitments: Expectations of Participants

1. Meet online 20 sessions for 2 hours over a 2-year period with a cohort of ministry leaders in order to begin the transition process to become a church of disciples who make disciples.
2. Complete the structured online interactive curriculum on a timely basis to move sequentially through the steps necessary to refocus the mission and ministry practice around disciple making. The cohort will be facilitated by a trained coach whose role is ask the penetrating coaching questions as well as create a sense of community among the participants.
3. Practice the art of disciple-making by selecting, leading, and replicating a micro group so that you can experience the power of transformation and multiplication of disciples as the inception of a growing network of disciple makers.

For more information visit the GDI Website and "Click" the Online Cohort tab. You may also contact Dan Dominguez, PhD, GDI Director, Leader Development, at dan@globaldi.org or at 210 846-2641

Use this link to complete an application to join a GDI Cohort:  Cohort Application