Women's Discipleship International
CURRICULUM
We believe that a strong discipleship program is built on two parts of equal emphasis
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Knowing God is where we spend extensive time in scripture, digging into what scripture teaches us about Him and our relationship to Him. As participants begin to understand the basics of our faith, we also spend time learning about how we can have a deeper experience with Him. The three-year key to this half of our training is to-
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Help participants grow in scriptural knowledge, using correct resources to dig in to scripture, experience God through prayer and worship, as well as learning ways to listen for His voice and the Holy Spirit’s leading.
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Living in healthy community is where we spend an equally in-depth amount of time learning to “be together as o e” in all that we do. Just as Christ walked for three years throughout Galilee with his disciples, we too must learn to “walk” with one another. As they walked, ate, and slept together over those years, we too must learn how to have these kinds of community experiences before we can “go out” and teach others the same. Over the three-years, participants will
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Become adept in various community building strategies. This includes- knowing first we must become healthy in sharing praises and burdens with someone inside the body; using strategies such as our DIA’s (Discipleship In Action) to build healthy “Christian” relationships that breed growth within oneself as well as the body they worship within; finally, learning strategies to take this “community sense” out into the world of others.
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Program Overview
Nurturing Disciples
Quality time spent nurturing disciples by
“Doing Life Together.”
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Building a Healthy sense of community
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Building spiritual relationships within the body
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Leading by example for others to grow
Equipping their Giftedness
Equipping disciples to engage the world by
“Contending for the Faith.”
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Renewing the mind
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Scripture through systematic theology
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Apologetics to understand the world
Enabling to Equip
& Encourage Others
Enabling disciples to become examples as they “build bridges to reach the world.”
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Developing spiritual habits
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Sharing their worldview with others
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Building spiritual relationships
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Equip others to lead
Year 1
Discipleship Essentials
What does it take to have an effective discipleship program?
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Knowing God– During two weeks, students learn the “basic” concepts of who God is through-
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Renewing the Mind– building a strong biblical knowledge base via detailed key components of Christianity and their scriptural sources
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Experiencing God- building a strong relational knowledge of God through spiritual disciplines and biblical relationship concepts.
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Living in Healthy Community- understanding what “healthy” Christian community is and how to grow this by knowing-
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Created for community- God’s triune nature is relational and we are too
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Building community- what are the needed components of community and practicing them
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Expanding community- how we expand our community to others outside our existing community
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Year 2
Contending for the Faith
This year’s “Knowing God” section is spent delving into difficult topics that the church has written volumes on and multiple Christian university courses are devoted to each of these subjects. Spending time searching various resources to understand what Christianity is all about, how to describe difficult topics such as: the Trinity; how do we know God, what God is/isn’t; who is Christ & the Holy Spirit; what is creation, sin, man, satan, etc; and other topics that make Christianity uniquely different from other faiths. This year’s “building community” unit deals with strengthening the first year (1 on 1) relationships they have built and then broaden to include another individual. In both cases, they are building these within the group of leaders being trained currently. Sharing experiences in evening debriefs help others to understand one another more deeply and trust one another. We see this as critical in discipleship before they begin to go out and work with others. Just as Christ walked with his inner circle for three years, here we are building that intimate relationship with a couple “inner circle” individuals.
Year 3
Building Bridges
Now that participants have dug deep in to the basics of the faith and how to clearly understand their faith in order to “know” how Christianity is unique, participants begin to compare what they have learned with “other” religions. Comparing the key topics of “who is God” or “what is salvation” to ways other religions see these topics is one of two critical topics in this third year. Knowing what another religion defines “God” as is essential if you want to converse with someone about God. This year is spent on these topics with great detail. So they learn how to use year 2 knowledge to see how different faiths may/do differ from Christianity. Understanding these keys in personal conversation helps to build bridges with someone from another faith. Entering in to the world of apologetics in this program is a natural building block into sharing faith and leading others to Christ as they pull the first two years together with this third year of reaching the world. In the “building community” segment, this year spends a great deal of time in two ways: first, understanding how to “listen” to what others believe and see where you can begin a conversation from and next really listening to God’s voice as he leads a person to “their personal” next steps in this discipleship journey. Not all are called to the same path, so listening is essential in knowing what role God may be calling a specific individual to pursue. This year spends a great deal of time seeking direction and defining possible next step roles.
