Uncategorized

Discipleship Training-Continued

Reflecting back to the last blog, I see that I am behind the 8 ball as they say in keeping our readers up to date on all that we are doing here at Bible.org. Since May we have hired a couple of new employees who specifically are targeting the discipleship focal point. Our focus is targeted at helping the church be a “disciple making factory” and the other focus is to be online training/education that supports our multicultural audience on the web. How we reach both of those goals simultaneously is may be a challenge.


Reflecting back to the last blog, I see that I am behind the 8 ball as they say in keeping our readers up to date on all that we are doing here at Bible.org. Since May we have hired a couple of new employees who specifically are targeting the discipleship focal point. Our focus is targeted at helping the church be a “disciple making factory” and the other focus is to be online training/education that supports our multicultural audience on the web. How we reach both of those goals simultaneously is may be a challenge.

What do we mean by the church? The desire of Bible.org is to be a resource for churches in provision of materials that will help them to develop/deliver discipleship materials for their congregations. One church that is a model for this is the one in Post Falls, ID. Their program utilizes small group’s ministry and each and every parishioner is included in this “discipleship factory” for the lack of a better word. Why is this important? A book written by Jessie Rice titled “The Church of Facebook” explains the reason why we must endeavor to move forward into this arena. In this book, Mr. Rice points out the fact that as more people are engaging in social media they are relinquishing the face to face interactions that help us develop stronger commitments and communities. Our abilities to speak in complete sentences, hold challenging conversations, interact regarding biblical questions and think in a biblical framework is limited to what you can tweet on Twitter, or comment on Facebook. Pictures rather than words are the key factor to the success of Facebook where people are randomly selecting pictures with catchy phrases and brilliant colors but do not engage the mind to think critically or deeply.
On the other side of the coin is the need for more biblical education to encourage new believers to interact with other more mature believers so that they become fishers of men as well. So far the mindset has been Sunday School and morning worship services. But what happens when a church decides to abandon Sunday School and/or Sunday night services, changes Wednesday evening prayer meeting for topical studies? Who is teaching the new believers that “walk the aisle” but are then left on their own to develop their biblical base of knowledge. Who will correct their errors? Who will interact with them to encourage them/pray with them/teach them? It is our goal to help the church meet the needs of these new believers.
In the mix of both of these strategies we must remember that across our globe are those who are in the category of the non-literate, who never have read nor will ever read for any number of reasons. How do we meet those needs and still present the gospel to them in a fashion that they will come to Christ and then have a hunger to know more and also be able to share the gospel with others? In this endeavor God has graciously brought to us a person who is knowledgeable in the art of biblical storytelling. He uses it in his ministry and we plan on developing a Story Teller’s Bible to help those who interact with non-literate people. We are attempting to act on Christ’s command to go into all the world and teach…..
As you can see we have many challenges before us and as we are earnest to accomplish these goals we ask that you will join us in praying for us in these endeavors and think if you might join with us as we start on this journey.

6 Comments

  • tctoguy

    Your Blog….

    Dave, I am really enjoying your blog on Discipleship Training. Keep up the great work!

    Bobby Sams

  • Gawade

    Discipleship

    This Bible Training that you spoke about really touched my heart.  I attend church regularly, but the idea of going deeper in the word excites me.

    Do I need to purchase the net Bible? Or is it all ready contained on this site?

    Thank You, and

    God Bless you,

  • Doulos Hal

    Another thought

    With the ability to search the WWW for any answer needed with portable devices there is little incentive to "learn things by heart" for the younger generations. However, learning the scripture by heart is the key to spiritual transformation! (Romans 12:2) Furthermore, since everything has wonderful graphics there is little need to read and let the mind convert the text to pictures. However, converting text to pictures is the key to exercising our minds so they become stronger! 

    I see the train (wreck) coming, it is coming around the bend…

    Just, further confirmation that we need to help these future generations as they are being set up to fail spiritually (Luke 18:8).

  • Jacques de Loustal

    Unfortunately less and less

    Unfortunately less and less people know the scripture by heart. I read and memorize parts of the bible every week.