When I sit back and look at the overall purpose of the church (that "make disciples, teaching them to obey... concept) and then walk through the processes and events during a week that gives the purpose life, I sometimes wonder if we try to do too much.
Here at New Hope, for adults we have Sunday morning Bible Study, then a sermon, then that evening another sermon. We then come back in small groups during their season, and on Wednesday night.
Practically, that means that some weeks the adult disciple would receive 5 different teachings on typically 5 different texts or topics. On the surface, that seems a bit much. In college, I took a full load every term of 4 and sometimes 5 courses, with far more challenging work accompanying those than is asked of the learner at church. So it can be done.
But this isn't just learning we are after, is it?
We are after life transformation.
So what if everything we did each week was related to a text or a theme/topic? Would that help further our goal? I've been researching that off and on for years. Some churches that have implemented a thematic discipleship program report great gains in their people's ability to learn and apply the concepts and really precepts they are taught.
It would mean organizing around the book of the Bible you were going through, or around the topic. Practically it would mean a lot of pre-work to gather the materials and to train the teachers prior to each block of time.
But I think it would be worth it.
If I were planting a church today, this is the way I would go.
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