My Discipleship Program

For this project, I was to be presenting to a church board my proposal for a discipleship event or program.  I used the community of Long Branch, NJ where I am currently interning at Searchlight Church.  The idea for this program came from a previous experience in the summer of 2013 at my home church.

OVERVIEW:

My proposal is to start a weekly Young Adults Small Group study.  The goal is to create a small group community of young adults to promote effective spiritual growth, as well as a Biblical community in 21^st century American culture.

Here is the short version:

Who: Young Adults (20 somethings)

What: Small Group (maximum 20 people)

Where: Searchlight Church, although preferably at people’s homes

When: Thursday nights 7pm – 8:30pm, for 10 weeks

Why: To promote biblical community and effective spiritual growth

How: Crazy Love Curriculum

DEMOGRAPHICS:

Long Branch is part of Monmouth County, NJ.  Monmouth County is in the top 1.2% of richest counties in the United States.  There are approximately 630,000 people.  Long Branch itself has about 30,700 people, which is a 2% decrease in the past 10 years.  Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the community, and thankfully Searchlight Church helped a lot with relief aid.

Searchlight Church itself is almost 3 years old, and runs about 150 people.  There is an atmosphere of “new” or “first generation” Christians.  They have contemporary worship (they have actually played for NJ Youth Convention, as well as conventions for other denominations), and a generally young-family type congregation.

Monmouth University is only a few minutes away from the school that Searchlight Church meets in.  There are about 4500 undergraduate students, with around 2000 of them living on campus.  The Christian Ambassadors Club and To Write Love On Her Arms are two student-led organizations that we could possibly reach out to, which I will discuss in more detail below.

CRAZY LOVE CURRICULUM:

I chose the Crazy Love curriculum because of my past success working with it in the summer of 2013 at my home church.  Francis Chan, the author, challenges the Christian to truly follow Jesus with their whole lives.  By the end of the 10 weeks, students make a conscious decision to either accept or reject Christ’s call of total devotion to Him.  This material is heavy, challenging, and remains positive.  At my home church, we saw positive spiritual growth in those who came from this material.  I believe this material will truly prompt spiritual growth in those who attend.

This small group curriculum would last for 10 weeks, as there are 10 chapters and 10 discussion sessions.  The group would have a maximum of about 20 people, and if it grew beyond this we would expand this to multiple small groups.

I also believe that this small group type format will encourage a true Biblical model of community in 21^st century American culture.  When originally doing this in my home church, I felt that we really were experiencing the “early church” type of community in this modern setting.  Our honesty in the discussions, accountability, and relationships that were formed were so energizing.  I believe that this will be a natural by-product of doing this type of small group format.

EVENTS:

Doing group events will contribute to creating a true Biblical community.  Three events that we came up with were to go to Hillsong Church in NYC, go to Six Flags, and also the beach.  I believe that making these trips free will encourage students to get involved who otherwise would not have.  After having a positive experience and making connections on a fun trip, they will be more willing to join this small group.  This is also key in forming the Biblical community among the students who attend the group.

BUDGET COSTS:

Resources:

$240 (20 books)

+$240 (20 study books)

+$27 (1 DVD)

=$507

Events:

$201 NYC (Gas, tolls, parking for 3 vehicles)

+$140 Beach (20 people at $7/person)

+$600 Six Flags (15 people at $33/person, parking, gas for 3 vehicles)

=$941

Totals:

$1,448 = All resources + all events

$848 = All resources + NYC & beach

SUMMARY:

This proposal is about creating a Young Adults Small Group that would meet for 10 weeks.  Its goal is to create a small group community of young adults to promote effective spiritual growth, as well as a Biblical community in 21^st century American culture.

The Crazy Love Curriculum would be used to promote effective spiritual growth, as I have seen it do in the past with success.  The three events throughout the 10 weeks would promote the Biblical community among those who attend, and also help plug new students into the group who wouldn’t have otherwise joined.

Monmouth University could be a resource of advertising, having more students come, and also doing a follow-up program.  After these 10 weeks, perhaps one of these groups could do the next “semester” of small group curriculum.

AFTER CLASS PRESENATION:

These are some things the “church board” brought up and discussed afterwards.

1. Some type of follow-up program.  I did not consider what exactly we would do afterwards, but I envisioned this as a “kick-start” to an official young adults group.  We could advertise this as a semester-type commitment, take a break after the 10 weeks, and then pick up a few weeks later with a new curriculum.

2. Cost of food each week.  This was something I did not take into consideration at all.  At the very minimum, the board calculated that it would be $200 ($20/week).

3. “Scholarship” language.  The board suggested that instead of simply making the events like Six Flags and book resources free, they should be scholarshiped.  This way we wouldn’t just be throwing away money, but still have the events perform their desired function.  It would also give students more ownership of the resources and events.

Overall, I felt good about the presentation and the idea.  The board loved my passion and the fact that I had previous success with this curriculum.  They decided they would go with it.  I am thankful for their insights as well, and I will consider those things whenever I have to do this in real life!