PROJECT PAPER ON EVANGELISM and DISCIPLESHIP

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Evangelism and Discipleship

First semester, year 2017-2016

Submitted to Dr. Winston Reyes

Submitted by Wilson R. Ligaray

November 24, 2017

Asian Theological Seminary

54 Scout Madriñan Street

Quezon City

Philippines

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I. The Current Journey: Church Background

In April of 2016, our church (Church of the Open Door Int’l – Cubao or simply CODI-

Cubao) went through strategic planning, with the help of a resource person from one of our

ministry partners. Here we have crafted our church’s values, vision and mission. We were also

given a template on how to lay down our strategic plan. But with the limited time, the template

was not clearly explained. It was just more of an overview. Still, this was a milestone for us. To

finally have known our true identity as a church (values) and have a clear picture of our future is

for us a great blessing already. And so, from what we have accomplished from the planning, we

ventured into the journey of fulfilling the Great Commission afresh.

I thought we now have in our arsenal a good plan, a plan worth pursuing. Looking at it

now, what I thought to be a plan was more of a guide. After a year of implementation, we scheduled

a meeting with our ministry partner to help us in our evaluation. Since what we prepared was not

really a plan in the truest sense of the word, we cannot proceed with a proper evaluation. Realizing

that we were not substantially taught in the preparation of our goals and objectives, our ministry

partner went through explaining the planning process. Step by step, our ministry partner guided as

through the planning, setting goals, appointing key people and preparing the needed finances. Then

we proceeded with the evaluation of what we had accomplished.

After this, with a clearer understanding of what we ought to do, we scheduled our strategic

planning (May 2017) for the next fiscal year (2017-2018). All ministry department prepared their

respective plans. With considerable deliberation that took quite some time, the plan was

consolidated and then approved. We were able to implement it by August 2017. Though a bit late,

still, we had a great run for the first two months. There were Sundays when our church attendance

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reached 130 (for us this is already phenomenal). But, for this past month our attendance seemed

to have slowly declined.

Something is off, apparently. We weren’t able to implement the plan as planned. I paused

and made my own evaluation. I think the delay in the implementation influenced our momentum.

Another possible reason would be that only our head pastor is full time in the ministry, all leaders

are volunteers. I think there’s this issue of priorities. Meetings were set, but were not followed.

We also did not agree to do regular evaluation. The plan has remained to be just on paper.

I head our education ministry. Included in our plan for this fiscal year is to come up with

our church’s own complete discipleship process. We currently have our “Win – Build - Send”

process, adapted from the material designed by the Discipleship Ministry of Campus Crusade for

Christ. But the material didn’t clearly explained the process. It was just presented in one of the

lessons and was not thoroughly discussed. It wasn’t clear in the material which lessons are for

Win, for Build and for Send or if all lessons are just for one part of the cycle.

Another possible cause for the decline, and this is just my personal opinion based on my

observation, I sense a lack of spiritual vitality in our church. There seems to be no excitement, no

enthusiasm. We are on status quo and everybody seems to be just going through the motions. I

myself got frustrated. There was a time when I spoke with our youth and asked them if they were

reading their Bibles, majority said “No.” I had always reminded, exhorted and encouraged our

youth leaders to be consistent with their time with God in His Word and prayer. My desire for

them to be Biblically grounded had not permeated down the line. It didn’t reached the regular

members. It remained stocked with the youth leaders. It was really a down time for me. I felt

incompetent and that I am really not making an impact.

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 But God really moves in mysterious ways. In many class lectures on our Evangelism and

Discipleship course, we were able to hear lectures from leaders of Victory church. Whether they

are from the U-belt, from Every Nation BGC, from Victory Katipunan or Metro East, they were

mentioning the same thing with the same fervor – their passion for honoring God and making

disciples. Along with this is there simple discipleship process which they breathed and lived out.

Interestingly, all these leaders mentioned the book “Simple Church” by Thom Rainer and Eric

Geiger, and that this made a great impact in their discipleship journey. I got curious. Apparently,

I went on reading it.

II. The Unexpected Journey: The Simple Church

I have seen quite a number of models, colorful illustrated discipleship processes. I am a

visual person so whenever I see drawings and images I get interested and tend to easily grasp the

concepts and ideas they convey. My thought patterns were like this when I saw these many models.

They were easy to understand. They were simple. And so I thought I got it.

The first time I heard Victory’s Discipleship Journey was during one of our classes in my

last semester’s course on Strategic Leadership and Management. I was introduced to this

discipleship journey and leadership development they implemented. It was still blurry at the time,

but I already sensed that I have to look on this much further. As mentioned above, seeing and

hearing this process for a number of times in many lectures made it clearer to me. The concept was

simple. It was presented simply. They used alliteration. It was easy to understand. And so I thought,

this time I really got it.

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 When I read the book – Simple Church, it was as if my eyes of spiritual simplicity was

opened. It revealed to me the principles behind the simplicity, necessity and effectivity of this

simplicity in doing ministry. This is what our church need. And it is safe to say, that this is what

struggling churches need.

The authors of Simple Church made it clear that spiritual growth is a process and that there

is a great need for leaders to design such a process to help their congregation’s spiritual maturity.

“Church leaders must craft opportunities where people will encounter the
grace of God. Simple church leaders are designers, not programmers. They excel
in designing a ministry process that leads to spiritual growth and vitality.
Spiritual growth is a process. It always has been. Thus, it would make
sense for church leaders to design their churches around the process of spiritual
growth.”1
With growth, process and design in mind, the authors defined a Simple Church as:

“A congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process

that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.”2

The core principle and summary of this spiritual growth process is:

“Loving God, Loving People, Serve in Ministry and the Lost.”3

In addition to this definition, they also presented and explained the simple church’s four

key elements.

“The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and
are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is

1
Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples. (Nashville, TN:
B&H Books, 2011), 38.
2
Ibid., 39
3
Ibid., 25

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 implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons
everything that is not in the process (focus).”4

CLARITY >> MOVEMENT >> ALIGNMENT >> FOCUS

Below is an overview of the simple church ministry process:

Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the

people. A clear process has ability. It has the ability to be easily

communicated and understood. Clarity involves certainty, and it eliminates

confusion. For a church to be simple, the process must have a high degree

of clarity.5

Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to

greater areas of commitment. Movement is about flow. It is about

assimilation. Movement is what causes a person to go to the next step.6

Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple

process. Alignment to the process means that all ministry departments

submit and attach themselves to the same overarching process.7

Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple

ministry process. Focus most often means saying "no." Focus requires

saying "yes" to the best and "no" to everything else.8

4
Ibid., 44
5
Rainer, Geiger, Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples, 46
6
Ibid., 47
7
Ibid., 48-49
8
Ibid., 50

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 After reading the book, this time I can say with certainty, I got it. I then realized that having

identified the church values, crafting a mission-vision and formulating a yearly strategic plan are

not enough. There must be a solid tool for the plans to be effectively implemented. I then revisited

Aubrey Malphurs’ book – Advanced Strategic Planning. As far as I can remember, I read

somewhere in the book about the importance of having a discipleship process. I scanned the book,

and in Chapter 9, Making Mature Disciples, Malphurs presented a second option in developing a

ministry strategy. The process is as follows:

Step 1 – Articulate Christ’s Mission for the Church (Mission – Vision statement)

Step 2 – Identify the Characteristics of a Mature Disciple (CARE)

Step 3 – Design a Disciple-Maturing Process (this is what I’m looking for)

Step 4 – Measure the Church’s Spiritual Progress (beyond the scope of this paper)9

Above process show that it is not enough for churches to just have their values, mission

and vision. The next step in the process is to design a disciple-making model that will help in the

realization of the mission-vision. Still, in doesn’t stop here. The whole strategic plan cycle ends

with a clear system of tracking ministry progress.

This further ignited my desire for our church to have our own discipleship process.

Although Malphurs didn’t mention anything about a simple church, his book complements that of

Rainer’s and Geiger’s. After this reading and research I can say that now I truly have grasped the

simple church principle. And this for me was an amazing and an unexpected (but blessed) journey.

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Aubrey Malphurs. Advanced Strategic Planning: A New model for Church and Ministry
Leaders. 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. BV 652 Mal-a 2005), 195-209.
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III. The Expected Journey: Church Re-Designed, Church Make-over

The aim of this paper is to redesign the discipleship process of our church, CODI-Cubao,

based on our previously formulated values, vision and mission and applying the principles

presented in the book Simple Church. As mentioned above, we currently have our own discipleship

journey, but is unclear. The process that will be presented here will not be exhaustive. The design

will just be an initial framework for our church leaders to consider in the actual designing of our

complete discipleship process. (The Simple Church book made mention that in the process of

designing the discipleship process, key leaders must be involved). Also, the existing “tried and

tested” Discipleship Journey of Victory Church (Engage, Establish, Equip, Empower) has been a

major influence to the model I here propose. The principle behind the 4 E’s is here worth noting

(this was presented to us during our field trip in Victory Metro East).

Engage: every person is valuable to God

Establish: every church, campus ministry and small groups can grow (larger, stronger

and more influential)

Equip: every minister should prepare others for ministry

Empower: every disciple should make disciples

IV. The Man on the Journey: a Disciple Defined in Context

For the discipleship process to be simple, the end goal must first be defined. I

contextualized my definition based on our church’s values and was the basis for the crafting of our

church vision-mission.

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 Vision: We are a Christ-centered, family oriented church, adhering to the

authority of the Bible, bringing Christ to our immediate and unreached

communities.

Mission: We nurture and equip every believer to become an effective disciple

maker.

To make it simple and for easy recall I used an acronym to represent the above statements.

This acronym I got from the slogan of our Life group Ministry (we call our small groups – life

groups). The slogan or motto says - “Cared to care.” Life group leaders, them being cared for by

our pastor and is wife (as heads of our life group ministry), are to care for their life group members.

The caring is passed on starting from our leader/s.

Also, during the course of time, we have collectively agreed that discipleship is to happen

primarily in our life groups. And so the word CARE is used to represent my proposed definition

of a disciple, our church values and our church vision.

C – Christ-centered

A – Adhering to the authority of the Bible

R – Relational (family oriented)

E – Engaging intentionally to the immediate and unreached communities

This is who we are, this is what we value and this is what we desire for our new and future

members. Disciples in the CODI-Cubao context are full of CARE, persons of CARE. They are

Christ-centered, adhere to the Bible’s authority, relational and engages intentionally the

community. Since this is my proposed definition of a disciple, it then also speaks of our mission,

the Great Commission – the making of disciples. Our values, mission and vision all rolled into

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one. We desire for all our members to be CARE persons, and for this to happen, they are to receive

CARE, they are to be CAREd for. It is important to have this clear definition because this is the

reason why we are to design a discipleship process, why are we to become a simple church.

V. The CODI-Cubao Discipleship Process: The CARE Journey

How are we to fulfill the Great Commission? How are we to make disciples (CARE

persons)? Simple. We are to CARE for our existing members and for the lost. Having the core

principle of spiritual growth process (Love God, love people, serve in ministry and the lost), and

Victory’s Discipleship Journey as my bases, and using again the acronym CARE above, I came

up with this model of discipleship process:

C – Connect (connect to God and to people)

A – Abide (abide in Christ for spiritual foundation)

R – Raise (raise and train leaders to make disciples)

E – Empower (empower leaders to make discipling-disciples)

The process is simple; it is clear (CARE), it has movement (there is growth), it has

alignment (values, mission, vision and strategy all in one), and it has focus (CARE, anything that

is CAREless, I don’t give that a care).

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 PROCESS GOAL TOOLS/ENVIRONMENT

Connect Preach the Gospel 1. CARE groups* (attendee)

2. Book 1 (our existing material)
3. Sunday Worship Services
4. Connect Events (monthly or
quarterly per age group, networks)

Abide Deepen and strengthen 1. CARE groups (attendee)

spiritual foundation
2. CARE encounters
3. Book 2 (our existing material)
4. SOAP (our existing material)
5. Book 4 (our existing material)
6. Purple Book (this is optional, for our
leaders' consideration)

Raise Learn basic ministry skills 1. CARE groups (Intern)

2. Book 5 (existing material)
3. Lessons about deeper
understanding of the Great
Commission
4. Training and application of how to
share the Gospel
5. The CARE process explained in more
detail
6. In-depth understanding and
practice of spiritual gift
7. Internship in specific ministry based
on gifting

Empower Increase confidence and competence 1. CARE groups (leader)

to make disciples 2. Lessons on CARE group facilitation

Commissioning 3. Mentoring and coaching

4. Leadership Seminars
5. Special classes

*For alignment, it is just but appropriate (and I here propose) that our small groups be renamed: from Life

groups to CARE groups. With this, everyone will be frequently reminded of who we are, why we do things

and where we are heading.

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CODI-Cubao CARE Journey: a Discipleship Process

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VI. A New Journey Begins: (Conclusion)

As was mentioned earlier, the goal of this study is to simply present an initial framework

for our church’s discipleship process. This will serve as the first step in the beginning of our new

journey of a thousand miles of fulfilling God’s mandate of making disciples. I will be presenting

this model to our church leaders for further improvement (or utter dismissal). Comments and

suggestions are encouraged, revisions are inevitable. Details will be discussed especially on the

lessons and trainings. Ministry department will certainly be realigned. Many existing church

programs will be checked, others will be improved and some will be omitted.

I firmly believe that what has been laid down above is faithful to what was described in the

book - Simple Church. In the designing of my model, I here express my gratitude to our Professor,

Dr. Winston Reyes and to Victory Church for their generous and unselfish hearts in sharing to the

body of Christ their wisdom and resources for ministry strategy and growth.

It is my heart’s desire that this simple process will inspire, by God’s grace, our whole

church to venture into a new, fresh, meaningful and CAREful ministry journey. And as we make

our voyage and see people growing and maturing in Christ, it will motivate us all the more to never

give up in pursuing the process for the fulfilment of the Great Commission. To God be the glory!

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Bibliography

Rainer, Thom S., Eric Geiger. Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples.
Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2011.

Malphurs, Aubrey. Advanced Strategic Planning: A New model for Church and Ministry
Leaders. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. BV 652 Mal-a 2005

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