If you have followed the ministry here for any length of time you will have noticed we place A LOT of emphasis on discipleship. There are Biblical and practical reasons for this.

It should be obvious that discipling is part of the “Great Commission” from Matt. 28:18-20. Of the four commands mentioned in these verses, “make disicples” is the strongest and the other three commands are part of discipling. We could go into a multitude of other Biblical reasons.

I tend to learn from my mistakes...sometimes. After 3 years in the Dominican Republic, we had baptized a good number of people. Yet the group of believers was not growing. They were going out the back door and the ones that did stay a while were not bringing others to Christ or maturing in their faith either.

That is when we came across the discipleship philosophy of not just filling people with Biblical information but teaching them ministry skills and the harder more key element of challenging them in their relationship with God of reflecting God’s character in them.

The last two years in the Dominican Republic we did not baptize many people but those we that we did baptize and disciple are still faithful more than a decade later. The small group we left behind in December 1989 has grown to be four congregations.

You can check out a more detailed description of our discipleship philosophy and program. You will find that there is nothing amazingly new. It is basically “teaching them to observe all things what so ever I (Christ) have commanded.” It is not just knowing, it is doing and being a Christian.

We have used this same approach here in Ecuador. We now have Ecuadorians leading the Samanes, Orquideas and Paraiso congregations. You can see more of what my personal involvement is in this part of the ministry by reading my personal ministry plan.