When church members need a wake-up call to help them take responsibility for their spiritual growth and community (by sharing among themselves and reaching out to others), how should it be delivered? Pastor John VanSickle found one approach that is working for his church. It came in the form of Bill Lee (Lay Director of Discover Bible Schools for the Florida Conference) who has a passion for helping churches rediscover their spiritual joy and mission.
VanSickle took the first step by inviting Lee to meet with his South Orlando Church Board in the summer of 2002. Out of this came a unanimous vote to have Lee lead their church through a sequence of activities designed to disciple and train members for Christian service.
The first step was to place their church's department leaders and assistants within a new “evangelism center” structure. The goal was that everyone would be tied into outreach in some way through an evangelism clearing house called the Discover Center (DC). The name is partly derived from the fact that the church has a Discover Bible School which offers many opportunities for participation (i.e. mailing out study guides, responding to questions by Internet, maintaining a video library, making personal contacts, grading lessons, distributing cards, conducting door-to-door surveys to find interests, and helping to disciple new members). Although this is a typical “Discover Bible School” in many respects, it is much larger and provides greater potential for every member to become involved.
The first purpose for the DC is “discipleship;” to make disciples of those who are already members and to help them learn how to disciple someone else. One method that Lee uses to accomplish this is a 13-part series of studies that leads members through the book Steps to Christ. Pastor VanSickle has found this particularly helpful and uplifting to his members.
For his syllabus Lee prints Steps to Christ on 8.5” x 11” pages and places them in a 3-ring notebook, along with discussion starter questions at the beginning of each chapter. This first phase is called “Communicating with Jesus.”
VanSickle said, “We used this study in our Small Group Fellowships in homes as well as in our Sabbath School classes. The idea in Sabbath School was to discuss the chapter for the first 20 minutes then go on to the Quarterly study. But we found that sometimes Sabbath School members were so engrossed in the “Steps to Christ” studies that little time was left for the Quarterly. In fact, when we completed the first Steps to Christ study, some of the Sabbath School teachers came and wanted to know what they were to study next. I found it interesting that I had to remind them to use their Quarterlies until we were ready to move into the second segment which is, “Communicating with God.” This section deals with how to pray, and how to claim Bible promises.”
VanSickle continues, “As we studied Steps to Christ in Sabbath School and Small Group Fellowships, I also went through the book, a chapter a week, in my sermons presenting each chapter in a PowerPoint presentation. This helped provide a unifying theme.
”Today, members are pulled in so many directions—independent ministries, offshoots and the like, it’s hard to get everyone to come together in unity. The South Orlando Church has a long history of being divided by a variety of specious teachings and fringe ministries. This church was far from being “one” in the Spirit. To address this I chose a new motto, “Onward and Upward,” and really worked it into this series. Each week I reminded the church family that we cannot move onward, unless we move onward united. We also cannot move upward without Jesus Christ in our lives. Only when Jesus’ love fills our hearts can we follow when He beckons us “Onward and Upward.”
”There are times in our worship hour when I invite everyone to stand and say to each other, ‘Jesus loves you&I do too.’ At the beginning many members were hesitant to say this to one another, but by the end of the series they were not only saying it to each other, but to people they met during the week. They were excited that it provided them with an opportunity to witness.”
VanSickle concludes, “This has made a huge difference in the attitude of our church family. Many members now have a personal relationship with Christ like never before. They feel like true disciples of Jesus who are ready to share His love with their friends and neighbors.
Anyone who is responsible for leading a church can benefit from this simple approach. I encourage you to establish a “Discover Center for Discipleship and Personal Evangelism” and see for yourself how, saying "Yes" to Jesus can change your church.
John VanSickle was pastor of the South Orlando Seventh-day Adventist Church, Orlando, Florida at the time this article was written.
