from New Life Ministries

Growing in Christian Discipleship

New Life Ministries is happy to share a variety of ideas that congregations have found helpful in their ministry of evangelism and outreach.  We welcome your suggestion of an idea you've tried that has been especially helpful to your ministry.  Send a brief description of your idea to our WebServant.  More details are available for some ideas through the highlighted links.

2 Cents a Meal Club  
Motivate congregational members to grow in discipleship by addressing the dilemma of world hunger. Encourage persons to join the 2 Cents a Meal Club through which they commit themselves to set aside 2 cents per family member for every meal eaten for world hunger. This becomes an easy and inexpensive way (about $20 per person per year) to build awareness of hunger needs.

50-Day Spiritual Adventure  
Encourage accelerated spiritual growth for all ages through a 50-Day Spiritual Adventure during the 7 weeks leading up to Easter (also suitable for other times of the year). Devotional guides for adults, youth and children focus on a central theme and guide persons in basic spiritual disciplines. Adventurers seek to open their lives to the amazing reality of Christ's presence and better represent him to others.

Adult Bible Fellowships
Remove some of the stigma that Christian education is a children’s activity (after all, we call it Sunday school) by calling your adult classes adult Bible fellowships. The name emphasizes the important combination of biblical learning in the midst of an interactive atmosphere where participants will experience love, warmth, and acceptance.  And considering using Youth Bible Fellowships as the name for youth classes.

All-Including Sunday School  
At the beginning of each Sunday school quarter, develop and distribute broadly a brief list of all your classes, including the class name, age range, age of children, primary study, class interests and social activities, and teaching style employed (lecture, small group discussions, video segments, etc.).

Alternative Ways to Celebrate Christmas  
Form a special task force in your church, perhaps a cooperative effort between the worship and education areas, to establish programs to help people find alternative ways to celebrate the holidays.

Arts in Worship to Lift Up Evangelism  
Use drama and music in worship (as well as the sermon) to touch the heart as well as the mind for evangelism.

Bethel Bible Study Series  
Use the Bethel Bible Study Series to provide new and existing members alike with high-quality, in-depth Bible study. Grow in discipleship by growing in knowledge of the Word of God.

Boost Attendance in Adult Sunday School Classes
Motivate adult Sunday school classes to reach out and include new members. Through a special video-training experience, stir-up an interest in growth. Help adult classes become more receptive and open to newcomers.

Breakfast Spiritual Growth Group
Create a breakfast spiritual growth group. Many churches have had significant success with early morning spiritual growth groups that meet for breakfast, study, and prayer. Early morning time is attractive to many people and avoids conflicts with evening events and family time.

Brethren Way of Christ (see Spiritual Enrichment Weekend)

Children’s After School/Weekend Clubs
Provide a supplemental Christian education experience (after-school; weekday evening; Saturday morning; Sunday evening) for children ages 3-12. Go beyond just Sunday school. Provide a multi-faceted educational, spiritual growth program for kids.

Congregational Conflict Management/Reconciliation Training
Contract with a conciliation service to lead training sessions in your church. The goal is to help congregational members learn how to positively deal with conflict and to help your congregation find ways to work toward healing (if needed).

Covenant Groups
Encourage discipleship growth and Bible study by organizing covenant groups. Unlike more loosely organized small groups, covenant groups work at in-depth study and spiritual discipline. Participants become more relationally sensitive, biblically informed, and globally aware.

Discipling for Men
Many congregations in North American provide various women's study and fellowship groups, but men are often a forgotten group. A specific course is designed to equip men and is patterned after the discipling model of Jesus. Through group study, outside homework, mutual care, accountability, and ministry together, men may find spiritual growth on a level not experienced by many Christian males. It may be used for both in-reach and outreach.

Discipling Partners  
Pair new Christians and mature believers as discipling partners to provide support and increased growth. This relationship begins in a membership or welcome class that they both attend and would continue for six months following.

Enchiladas for Easter Breakfast
Heighten awareness of global outreach by serving ethnic foods for your Easter morning breakfast. This is a wonderful way to help your congregation catch the vision that the good news of Easter is for all the people of the world.

Establish a Christian Education and Church Growth Task Force
Have a special task force take a fresh look at your church's educational program in terms of the potential for growth. Include some persons already active in that program but also include others for a fresh perspective. This task force should work from six to twelve months to bring about improvements in quality and attendance at Sunday school and other educational programs.

Evangelism/Church Growth Conference or Seminar
Recruit two to five persons from your congregation to attend an evangelism/church growth conference or seminar. Such events provide opportunities to enrich your experience with Christ, enlarge your concept of evangelism and church growth, expand your evangelism/church growth skills, and envision ways to implement evangelism/church growth learnings in your congregation.

Evangelism Training
Train your whole congregation to share their faith in Jesus Christ. Themes should include the content of the gospel, conversational skills, and confidence to share the gospel. Provide on-the-job training as part of the training. The goal is to help persons learn how to adequately share a gospel presentation in order to lead people to Christ. Many excellent training programs are available, or design one of your own.

Family Month  
Offer special events, classes, and messages during a month-long focus on family and human relationships.

Family Peacemaking Workshops
Take an evening, a day, or an entire weekend to explore how to create a better peaceful, loving atmosphere within families.

Global Witness
Help members of your church see how they are connected to Christian witness around the world.

Life Stages Video Home Nights
Plan a video series of 5-7 sessions hosted by someone in the congregation who has a home large enough to accommodate 12-15 persons. Select themes related to life's stages, e.g. singles, parenting, marital relations, aging, etc.

Mentoring Leaders (Men and Women Too!)
Up to twelve people covenant to meet together one night a week for a year to grow deeper in their faith, develop leadership skills, and encourage one another.

Mission Trips
Increase persons’ spiritual growth through first-hand involvement in mission or service projects. Plan a trip for youth, adults, older adults, or a cross-section of ages to help meet a specific need related to the mission of the broader church.

Peace Academy for Junior High or Senior High Youth
Invite your youth to participate in a weekend Peace Academy or invite an On Earth Peace Assembly staff person to conduct a Peace Academy weekend at your church (or church camp or in your district). Peace Academy weekends include group building time, a movie(s), New Testament study, study of denominational paper(s) on peacemaking, conflict management skills training, and helping youth take a look at other peacemaking issues. Weekends may include a Saturday morning work project.

Peace Event
Invite community persons who have peace interests to a peace event at your church. Welcome those who have no church family to come back and visit your worship services and other church activities.

Peace Resources for Your Church Library
The Peace Place Bookstore and Resource Center is located at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor. For congregations searching for peace and conflict management resources dealing with social issues and one's Christian life, contact The Peace Place for a list of available resources.

Rapid Response
Learn the art of rapid response to the needs of people and find ways to quickly involve interested persons in the life of the church.

Reading through the Bible
Set up a program that will get the majority of youth and adults in the congregation to read through the Bible in one year. Children may be encouraged to read certain books of the Bible.

"Reserve Team"
Expand your pool of Sunday school teachers. Recruit a team of substitutes for each class—the Reserve Team. This concept helps provide leader development for both existing teachers and "teachers-in-the-making."
(based on the article, "One Solution for Two Problems: The Teacher Corps Concept," Net Results, January 1984.)

Servant Exchange
Help your congregation to experience servanthood and to prepare for a communion service by serving each other in practical ways.

Set Specific Percentage Goals for Growth
Set specific percentage goals for growth in three areas: worship attendance, Christian education group experiences, and new member additions. Aim for a 10% increase in each of these areas, keeping in mind, however, the unique situation of your congregation.

The Sonshine Dollar Program
Boost attendance in children's Sunday school. Motivate students to participate in Christian education offerings. Provide incentives for your students (Sonshine Dollars) for attending and participating actively.
(adapted from "Licking the Sunday School Blues," Net Results, April 1985)

Spiritual Disciplines Film Series
Show the Richard Foster Celebration of Discipline film/video series. Through this four-part series, bring alive the importance of growing in one's spiritual life. Lift up the relationship between discipline and discipleship.

Spiritual Enrichment Weekend  
Encourage members of your congregation to participate a spiritual renewal/growth experience. Through these Christ-centered experiences persons become revived in their own spirits and deepen their walk with Christ, along with being challenged to serve and minister.

Spiritual Gifts Discovery and Lay Ministry Mobilization

Start a New Adult Bible Fellowship or Sunday School Class
Expand your educational offerings for adults. Start a brand new adult Sunday school class. Develop a format, style, and study approach that attracts persons who are no longer active in the educational/discipleship growth activities of your congregation.

Teaching Peace to Youth
By using the peace study material such as The Peace Book, share with youth the positive ways they can face their culture. Help youth to be challenged with a "shalom" approach to life which includes biblical peacemaking, reconciliation, justice, service, and wholeness.

Teaching People to Share Their Faith
Organize a short study unit for existing classes and groups on teaching people to share their faith.

Upper Room Retreat Center
Set aside a special room in your church building for a "retreat center." Provide a special space for new and established members alike to develop and practice spiritual disciplines.

Venture Clubs (see Children’s After School/Weekend Clubs)

Youth Spiritual Life Retreat  
National polls consistently show that over fifty percent of teenagers would like to participate in a spiritual life retreat. Hold a retreat for the youth in your church, and use this as an opportunity to invite other youth as well. Or join together with other churches in your community or denomination.  

Walk to Emmaus^® (see Spiritual Enrichment Weekend)

Ideas That Work Index

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