Living out Jesus's commission to his disciples (Matthew 28:16-20) is at the core of why the church exists. We are called to be disciples and make disciples. A disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus 


In addition to the Great Commission, Jesus shares with us the great commandment in Matthew 22:36-40. Simply put, the command is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Here we discover what is required for his commission is to be revealed to the world. We realize that Jesus's call sounds simple as an idea, but it is much more challenging when we understand his call as a lifetime work. 


Our desire is to lead you in living a life of faithfulness to God by helping you put these teachings of Jesus into action. May this page and the church community help you grow as a disciple of Jesus.


We see our three mission words "Love*Live*Lead" encouraging you to grow as a disciple in the following ways.


Love: Individual disciplines that help

you know and love God.


Live: Corporate disciplines that put you in relationships with

other disciples to foster spiritual transformation.


Lead: Growing as a disciple through intentionally

leading others into spiritual growth. 



There is a joke that says, "Being in a church no more makes you a Christian than being in a garage makes you a car." 


We want to see people experience life change as they follow Jesus Christ. We believe that spending time in God's presence changes us deeply, which serves as God's catalyst to change the world. 


Being a disciple is primarily a call to follow Jesus. Jesus says, "Come/follow after me, and I will make your fishers of men." In his first call to his disciples (Matthew 4:19), we discover a four-part calling. 

1. Come: Everyone begins somewhere. At this point, we grow to know Jesus and discover that we can trust him through our new relationship.


2. Follow me: This is a deeper step that is not just about liking Jesus; instead this is loving Jesus, learning from Jesus, and learning to do the same things he did when he traveled around with his disciples.


3. I will make you: This is the place of deep inner work and transformation. This is having our hearts re-oriented towards heaven, so we can love God and love others well. It is an ongoing, lifelong journey.


4. Fishers of men: We join the mission of Jesus. Our faith in Jesus is not just about us getting to heaven, but working with God for heaven to break into earth. God uses our relationships and everything we do to accomplish this. The word "men" is in the sense of humanity.

The following definitions are from discipleship.org, and help clarify what is and is not discipleship:


We believe definitions are vitally important. Our definitions are in agreement with the following and where possible, we will use these definitions.

  1. Discipleship– is simply the state of being a disciple. This word (like the word evangelism) is not in the Bible. Unfortunately, in the North American church, discipleship is typically seen as an educational process designed to orient new believers to the biblical and everyday practices of our churches – and so we often prefer disciple making.
  2. Disciple – someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus (Matt. 4:19).
  3. Disciple making – is entering into relationships to intentionally help people follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20).
  4. Disciple maker – a disciple of Jesus who enters into relationships with people to intentionally help them follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus.
  5. A Church – A spiritual family growing in surrendered obedience to all the teachings of Jesus Christ who gather together regularly under Biblically recognized leadership for the purpose of fulfilling the great commission (making disciples) with a Great Commandment heart (loving God, loving people).
  6.  A Disciple Making Culture – The beliefs, habits, and narrative of a church constantly repeated with congruence and intentionality, that make it clear to almost everyone, all the time, including newcomers, that disciple making is what everyone does in this church.
  7. A Disciple Making Church (Level 5) – is a church where disciple making is the core DNA and culture of the church, where the average church member makes disciples to the fourth generation and this disciple making activity is regularly produced in significant and diverse streams within the church and these streams multiply consistently into new churches.
  8. Disciple Making Movement (DMM) – A disciple making movement exists when churches plant multiple churches (within a few short years), through gospel activity, that has abundant fruit among the lost, that multiplies these disciples (people growing in obedience to all of Jesus’ commands), who in turn replicate themselves in others, so that we can see at least four generations regularly produced in multiple streams of disciple making activity and these streams multiply consistently into churches.


This is a selection of resources to help you grow spiritually to follow Jesus and love others well.


The South Fork 2021 New Testament Reading Plan


Websites:

Discipleship.org - https://www.discipleship.org

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality - https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/

Replicate Ministries - https://replicate.org/

Renovaré - https://renovare.org

The Bible Project - https://bibleproject.com/

Multiply - multiplymovement.com/


Books:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

A classic work about 12 disciplines that help us grow spiritually. They are broken down into three sections of four disciplines. The Inward disciplines, the Outward disciplines, and the Corporate disciplines.

Growing Up by Robby Gallaty

A helpful book to grow you not only as a disciple, but as a disciple who makes disciples. Gallaty structures his book helpful acronyms that focus you on spiritual disciplines that you can repeat individually and in community with others.

The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordeiro

This book helps you read the Bible consistently and devotionally. What if we read the Bible to take away one point for the day, rather than learning everything it has to say. This focus makes all the difference.


Discipleship/Spiritual Formation Podcasts:

Replicate

Renovaré

Exploring My Strange Bible

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality


Apps:

https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

http://commonprayer.net/media

https://likejesusapp.com/

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