It has been said "Give a man a fish you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime."  Jesus has charged us as followers to make disciples of all nations. This involves much more than leading people in a sinner's prayer, shaking their hand, then sending them on their merry way. 

 

Not everyone who is saved is a disciple, but every disciple is saved. In like fashion, we must take up this mantle of responsibility to make disciples or as Jesus said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

 

I am reminded of the story of Lazarus found in John chapter 11. After Jesus performs the miraculous in bringing Lazarus back from the dead after 4 days in the tomb, he says something very important:  "When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." 

 

While this clearly demonstrates God's role in bringing people out of darkness into His marvelous light, it also show us our responsibility to remove the grave clothes (old habits, worldliness) from the newly formed Christian.

 

In response to this deep need in the church today, and in our own community, we have put into place a series of intense, college-level discipleship courses to be offered on a continuous basis. We have been approved by Global University to serve as an extension campus for their Center for Evangelism and Discipleship. We will be offering courses on Christian life and service in a wide variety of topics. Some of these include:

If you are interested in any of these courses or more information on their content go to http://www.globaluniversity.edu/ministry_resources/level3/ced/ChristianService.cfm. Please contact the church or see any staff member to find out about getting signed up for the next class!