Our Church’s Disciple-Making Journey
Today's post is written by Pastor Chris Dunlap. He pastors Numidia Valley Bible Fellowship. This year his church is participating in a Regional Church Design Lab, which brings together regional workers and church leaders in a 12-month intensive cohort focused on helping each regional church grow in its effectiveness to make disciples.
I must admit I was skeptical when the district team began rolling out their plans for disciple-making communities.
I remained open to what the Lord was doing, and it soon became apparent that this was what our church needed to become a healthy, disciple-making church. As an Alliance pastor leading an independent church, I am grateful to the district for including us in the process, coming alongside us, and supporting us.
I assembled our DMC Dashboard group and was pleasantly surprised by the results of our assessment. We had a lot of work before us, but I was grateful for how our church leaders engaged with the process. I was eager to get to the Design Lab and begin developing our disciple-making pathway.
In the meantime, we gathered with the Alliance churches of the Central Region for prayer and the One Day Essentials event. I was uncertain how our church leadership would respond. Many come from a mainline background, and much of this was a new experience for them. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by how they responded and engaged.
The Church Design Lab kicked off with a retreat in February, where the district team laid out the vision and process of how we, as a church, define what a disciple is and go about developing disciples. By the end of that first retreat, we had begun to make progress, and our team was excited.
In March, we began monthly Design Lab workshops, fleshing out the concepts we learned at the retreat. We developed our church's definition of discipleship, examined our unique culture, and evaluated our current methods of making disciples.
On August 21–22, we attended the second Design Lab retreat. We took a deep dive into culture, which is shaped by the stories we tell (narrative), what we do (behaviors), and what we believe (values). This allowed us to look honestly at our church to see where we are in line with the gospel and where we have gotten off track.
Going through the Design Lab process as a region has been very beneficial. We are learning together, even though our specific outcomes look different for each church. We also support and encourage one another to lead through change.
What has enhanced the process even more is that many of the Central Region pastors participated in the Friendship in Ministry cohort around the same time we conducted our DMC Dashboard evaluation. The relationships built and strengthened through that cohort have played a significant role in our churches supporting one another through this process.
I began this journey with some skepticism. I now see the disciple-making community process and Church Design Lab as valuable tools the Lord is using to help us ask important questions about who we are, how we make disciples, and what it means to faithfully follow Jesus. We have much work yet to do, but I am grateful for the journey—and even more grateful that we are not walking it alone.