How a congregation’s discipleship philosophy impact its growth

Abstract

The process of discipleship within the church has been viewed as an emphasized issue for the local church. The purpose of this project is to determine what the congregation in Brethren In Christ Church branch in Luveve Five believes and understanding about discipleship. This knowledge will help the pastor is establish what the congregation thinks, thereby helping the church to have a biblical understanding and practice of discipleship. Discipleship is a process that should be deliberately done in the body of believers, yet in most cases this has been left to chance. In this research, a qualitative research method is used, and a phenomenological approach was adopted to explore the research problem. This approach allowed the participants to describe what discipleship meant to them. The findings of the research revealed that the participants had theoretical skills and knowledge about discipleship, yet they failed to practice what they knew, which was evident by a shrinking membership in the congregation. This was a clear indicator that discipleship had lost its intentionality. The recommendations of this study pointed to the pastor. The pastor was supposed to help the church to go back to the grassroots of discipleship, and that he had to identify and train people who were going to serve in the cell groups, children’s ministry, and to disciple others. By so doing, the process of discipleship would strengthen the church.