DISCIPLESHIP

God loves people. He wants to pour His life and love into the lives of people. And He accomplishes it primarily by working through people. Big events and well-strategized programs are great. But tangible, life transformation happens when the power of God’s love works in the hearts of people, through the lives of other people in the midst of real life.

When God wanted to communicate His love to the world, He didn’t drop a book out of the sky. He sent us a Person: “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We need to teach the message of the Gospel boldly and accurately. But a big part of hearing the message is seeing it in the lives of the messengers.

So, we want to walk closely with people so that we can know their hearts, enabling us to present the truth of God’s love in a way that makes sense to them. And we want to walk closely with people so that they can see the love of God and the life of Christ clearly as He works in our lives.

The Father's House

Much of our ministry takes place at our training centre site, which we call The Father’s House - a beautiful, quiet 2-acre site where groups come for teaching, training, discipleship, spiritual growth and renewal. Our desire is that the beauty of God’s creation and the warmth of our hospitality will make people feel at rest and very much at home. We call it The Father’s House because, whatever else happens, we want whoever comes to encounter the truth of the Gospel and the reality of God’s love in such a way that they find their home in the heart of God.

For more information about ministries at The Father's House, reach out to us! 

Discipleship Intensive Training (DIT)

We were designed to know God, to love Him, to become like Him, and to reflect His goodness and love in our lives. We call that process of becoming like Jesus and learning to follow Him . . . discipleship. It is the one and only thing that Jesus has called the church to do.

We have developed a two-week intensive, where university students and young adults come for two separate weeks into a very relational environment where they hear lots of teaching about discipleship and where they tangibly experience the love of God in close, intimate community.

The first week covers what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Not as an activity or program that we take part in at church, but as a way of life. We look at the heart of God from which the call to discipleship flows; how God has uniquely designed us for His life; how the Gospel makes discipleship possible; and the marks of a genuine disciple.

The second week examines what it means to impact others in real life with the love and truth of Christ, using the unique way in which God has wired you where you live, work, and play. We talk about how to build intentional relationships; how to discover and use the gifts, personalities and experiences He has given us to point others to Christ; and how we can trust the Spirit of God to work through us, even in our weakness.

Worldview

Every culture has distinct ways in which they see the world, and every culture also ways in which it distorts reality. This is so important to understand, because our view of reality motivates everything we do; it defines how we interpret and respond to things that happen; and it defines how we view God and what it means to know Him and follow Him.

So, one Saturday per month for 6 months, we spend the day exploring the deep and often hidden impact that African Traditional Religious worldview has on our understanding of God and our practice of discipleship, comparing African traditional worldview with Biblical worldview in major areas such as the nature of God, the purpose of the creation of humanity, the meaning of sin, the need for salvation, how we relate with God, dealing with suffering, and how we think about the afterlife. Using Romans 11:36-12:2 as a template, we discuss how we can engage our worldview with the truth of God’s word in a way that continually reshapes our hearts and minds to see life from a Biblical perspective.

Sharing Life

The various teaching and training programs are fertile ground for the development of closer, more intimate day-to-day relationships. From the larger group, there are young people we meet with on a regular basis to mentor them and guide them as they seek to walk with Jesus. And we also love to open our home so that they can come and experience the love of Christ in the context of a family environment. This is where we have seen some of the deepest transformation.