Friday noon have faithfully continued. The new Sunday 8 a.m. prayer meeting has been a personal blessing to me, and I look forward to that time every week. Currently, I am working on doctoral studies on this very topic—how we as a Word-centered church can continue to make prayer an integral part of our DNA. With that in mind, how might the Lord be calling you to grow in prayer this year? There’s much more I could say about this past year of ministry, but for now, I will simply say thank you. Thank you for caring for each other with the love of Christ. Thank you for admitting your need and seeking help. Thank you for pointing me to Jesus. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the year ahead.
Josh Stringer
Pastor of Discipleship The discipleship ministries of College Church exist to advance a church culture that grows Christlike disciples who make disciples. We do this by helping people DISCOVER more about God, themselves and the church, by helping people GROW in their relationship with God and each other and by making an IMPACT in the lives of people around us by sharing the gospel and the love of Jesus through serving and proclaiming. This is what it means to be a church that is being and making disciples. In 2019-20, I am grateful that we took steps forward in each of these three areas of discipleship—discover, grow,
impact—and I look forward to how we’ll continue to advance the disciple-making culture of College Church in the year ahead. We also saw the Discipleship Committee complete its first year together. I’m grateful to the team that you elected to lead this year. Jeff Oslund chaired the committee and served in faithfulness and humility all year long. College Church, let’s be thankful to the Lord for the way Jeff, Faith Bair, Dave Setran, Mike Solis and Erick Solomon have served us so well this year! One of the main goals of the Discipleship Committee was to learn about the current state of discipleship at College Church. That happened through a survey that more than 600 of you completed. Through the Discipleship Survey we sought to take the spiritual temperature of the congregation. In order to consider our next steps forward, we need to have an accurate understanding of where we are. At the time of this writing, we’re still analyzing the data, but we are so encouraged by the faithfulness of the folks at College Church in personal Bible reading and prayer. God is at work across all generations and is growing us in our understanding of the Bible and love for him. We’ve also learned that a large majority of you feel equipped to be a disciple maker—that is, to help someone else follow Jesus. In the coming year, we hope to consider how we might continue to grow a church culture, not only of being discipled (personal growth), but also in making disciples (outreach and multiplied growth). We’ve planted the seeds in a few areas of one-on-one discipleship in both men’s and women’s ministries. I’m excited to see how those seeds will bear fruit and multiply in the coming year. I also anticipate growth by
23
