Eager to Encounter God
Building disciples, not just fans.
Pastor A is a young, dynamic pastor from India. He, his wife, and a few young leaders are doing ministry in 26 villages, and have been attending our training for the last year regularly. Whenever he comes to the training he brings his emerging leaders to be trained. Our staff have closely followed up with them and provided mentoring through phone calls, messaging, and associates.
When Pastor A first attended one of our trainings, he was thrilled with the ConneXions Model. Even though he is an active minister of God, he felt he was not building leaders and never had a clear, proper goal in raising them up. Right after attending our training, he started to pray for the right kind of leaders to be built and began identifying them.
He later requested that our India staff come to do a training for the youth in his village. We did a two-day training on “Purposeful Life” for the youth there, based on Malcolm Webber’s book Purpose. Many youth were challenged by the training and the examples presented during the training, and following the training, they began connecting at Pastor A's church. Eventually around 40 youth accepted Christ and were baptized! Pastor A affirmed that our training with them opened the door for the youth to seek God, and gave him and his church the opportunity to reach out to them.
In the next follow-up our staff clarified the difference between disciples and devotees. This distinction kindled in him a desire to build disciples and not just be happy with people attending his church as devotees. Right after the follow-up, he started three house groups in poor, uneducated areas, led by three of his emerging leaders. The leaders of the groups taught the people using a Bible meditation method they learned from one of our follow-up sessions with them.
All of the house groups were meeting every day and meditating on God’s Word. Only three months later, these initial house groups have grown into four more groups for a total of seven. They meet regularly to study the Bible and pray together, with great enthusiasm. Pastor A is now regularly meeting with the seven leaders of these groups every Saturday for prayer, evaluation, and discussion.
Because of this rich context, Pastor A's church is very active and growing as a healthy church. Another pastor in the same village has begun to teach our models to different Bible schools, pastors, and emerging leaders, making full use of course materials and books. They are all eager to encounter God!
