Making Disciples = Mentoring Like Jesus
Welcome to the blog space of the Alliance of Reformed Churches. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been continuing to grow and develop who we are along with welcoming partner congregations. Just this week 20 congregations from California to Pennsylvania, who have applied to join, had congregational votes supervised by their denomination, and who have joined or expect to join the Alliance after their release at the fall classical gatherings, were accepted into the Alliance.
As we’re growing in partner congregation numbers, we’re also growing by learning from those congregations about their journey, their ministry and what they are doing right now to grow as followers of Christ. This learning has us thinking about our future around equipping, encouraging and empowering congregations. So, we’re taking some first steps to introduce you to what we are calling “preferred providers.” These are folks with reformed theology who provide contract ministry services to individual congregations and their leaders. Over the next few blogs, we want to introduce you to Jeff Allen and his Thrive Coaching Network. Each week, we’ll present a leader testimony adn Thrive Coaching Network contributed that journey. Finally, we’ll offer you links that you can follow to “dive in” and discover what Thrive offers.
We believe God has called us to provide introductions between congregations seeking to follow God more fully and people who have the calling to help them follow that calling. Let’s take our first steps together as we hear and are challenged by what God is doing in the ministry of Jeff Allen. As you read these, feel free to send feedback to Dan Ackerman about whether these blogs are helpful and how we can serve you further as we think about and develop a “preferred provider” approach to ministry.
TESTIMONIAL | GLendale, Arizona
Yvonne Nash is the Pastor of Outreach & Discipleship at Christ’s Community Church in Glendale, AZ.
We have always had a focus on making disciples. We have used different studies and tools like Experiencing God and Discipleship Essentials. Our people have been very devoted to their walk, but we weren’t seeing multiplication.
In 2019, initial steps were taken to move our culture from being devoted to engaged. Being a disciple who makes disciples. In 2019, our 7 person staff joined a Coaching Huddle led by Jeff Allen from the Thrive Coaching Network. We began introducing the Coaching Huddles to our congregation, and in March of 2020, we started leading our own huddles. We started with 7, and in 3 generations, our equipping of leaders of leaders had grown to 96! This was the beginning of the Family Life Track at Christ’s Community Church – growing Disciples who DISCOVER, are DEVELOPed, and then DEPLOYed to look like Jesus and do the things that Jesus does in everyday life.
Read more of Yvonne’s story here.
Photo / Family Life Track at Christ’s Community Church in Glendale, AZ
DIVE DEEPER
A few years ago, someone asked me to share the names of people I had discipled. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, I shared that while I could identify many folks I had engaged with in worship, education classes, and Small Groups over the years - I couldn’t honestly say that I had discipled anyone! As a pastor, this got me thinking, and I realized that Jesus invested most of his time with 12 disciples who became disciple-making leaders. Then I began to wonder: What would happen if I invested my time in a similar way?
MENTORING LIKE JESUS
Mentoring Like Jesus is one of the key lessons in the Core Practices of Following Jesus.
Tap the video below to glimpse this and other disciple-making, culture-shaping resources available.