The writer of Hebrews says that we should spur one another on to good works. This means as we gather in groups, we should help one another in our faith journeys, and part of that faith journey is disciple making and mission.
But how do we actually do it? That’s the question that so many churches are asking! We do community really well, and we do growing toward God really well, but we struggle to mobilize our people toward mission. Why is that? Spurring one another on should be a natural thing if our ultimate goal is disciple making. But is it? Is our ultimate goal to saturate the places where we live, work, and play with the Gospel? Or is our ultimate goal to live in community and grow into Christ-likeness? Well, the answer is both, but we can only become fully-developed disciples as we fulfill the great commission and join God in his mission to redeem all of creation.
In Ephesians 4, Paul describes how the leaders of the church are called to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. What’s the work of the ministry? To make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. We as the people of God are called as his sent missionaries to be salt and light. This means you too! Not just those who grab a passport and head to Mexico for the weekend or those who pick up and move to a village in Africa. If you, as a disciple of Jesus, have the Spirit of God living in you, then you too are a missionary…I’m convinced of it.
Let’s assume we believe all of this. Now what? We are still faced with this question of how we actually mobilize our people.
Our ministry has created a leadership training process for the everyday Life Group or Small group leader to begin shepherding their groups toward mission. We called it LEAP, and it all derived from Luke 10 where Jesus sent out his missionaries. LEAP stands for Language, Equip, Assess, and Pursuit. These are the 4 critical pieces that every community group leader must embrace in order to shape the people they lead toward a life that reaches those far from God. LEAP is not a program it’s a training process.
The leader would go through a six-week bible study, missional experience, and training session from Fiducia(live or online) that will help them understand the ways of mission. Upon completion, the leader would then lead their group through a bible study called Moving Toward Mission that has similar study elements and experiences as LEAP training. (For those interested in simply going through the Moving Toward Mission study alone as a group, you can do that as well; there’s a link at the bottom that will take you to our store).
The leader would now know how to shape their group toward mission at their own pace while going through a marriage study, sermon series study, or the whatever. LEAP training creates new habits that helps “spur one another on to good works.”
If your church is interested in more information or learning more about how to pilot LEAP with some of your leaders, email me at Matt@fiduciacommunity.com. The cost is low, but the impact is huge! Check out what this pastor recently said about LEAP:
“Passionate and bold leaders acknowledge the fact that there is a gap between aspiration and practice. Through LEAP training, our church has learned to take action steps toward mission. Many of our people have transitioned from Life Group to life on mission. The transformation has been astounding.”
– Jason Aguilar, Senior Pastor, The Cloud Church
In about 9 months, this same church saw 12 unchurched people get connected to their church through their life groups!
This stuff works!
What about your church? Are you ready to reach more people in the places your people live, work, and play? Are you ready to release your people to do the work of the ministry? Go to our online store to grab some resources here: http://www.fiduciacommunity.com/store/
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