The Church’s job is to Equip the Saints to do Ministry. Our Core Competency is discipleship. We think about it like this: “It’s not that some worship attendees need discipleship, but that disciples need a place to worship.” Therefore, more important to us than anything else is the discipleship of our lay leaders.
We tend to talk about NewCity Discipleship in three C’s…Discipleship Culture, Discipleship Community, Discipleship Curriculum.
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Discipleship Culture
We believe the “the norm” of Scripture is that every believer is being personally discipled (poured into) and every believer is discipling (pouring into). That in our walk along The Way, towards Christ and Christ-likeness, there are an identifiable few walking ahead of us, an identifiable few walking with us, and an identifiable few walking behind us.
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Discipleship Community
The VAST majority of the members of NewCity go to worship on Sunday, help lead a [Home] Group and are discipled weekly in the early hours of the morning. Older Men and Older Women (Titus 2) lead gender-specific groups of 4-6 for several years.
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Discipleship Curriculum
Jesus’ Great Commission to his followers includes this, “Go make disciples…teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Therefore discipleship must at least include some “life product” that is repentantly lived, clearly explained and freely given away. Discipleship must include what Jesus commanded (or at least training in how to discover what Jesus commanded) and how to observe those commands in the Gospel.