Free Webinar: National Discipleship Forum

This article is from Bobby Harrington of discipleship.orgThere is a free webinar of the first National Discipleship Forum entitled, “The Discipleship Lifestyle.” The webinar is promoted on discipleship.org. It took place at Saddleback Church in Los Angeles, CA, and was held in conjunction with the Exponential Conference (West). The speakers included Francis Chan, Jim Putnam, Jeff Vanderstelt, Robert Coleman, Bill Hull, and KP Yohannan, and was presented by Discipleship.org in partnership with Exponential.The dates of the FREE webcast are January 27-29, 2015There is a link at the bottom of this page to sign up for the webcast!VisionMany people who attended said it was the most impactful and life-changing forum they had ever experienced, and you will have a chance to watch it from the beginning. What conspired was a real-life discussion on discipleship in a unique learning environment and format. We are in a season of renewed interest in discipleship. Leaders are hungry for resources and insights for their churches to become more effective at discipleship. Are we, as leaders, modeling the kind of discipleship for we want our people to practice? The first place to look in improving our church’s discipleship systems is inside ourselves to candidly assess and consider how our own disciple-making practices need to change. For this webcast, you will have a front row seat to an intimate conversation among six national leaders and friends as they talk candidly about discipleship in their own lives and seek to learn from one another. In a casual, face to face environment, one of our leaders will start by making a brief and pointed presentation on a key discipleship topic and then the other five leaders will spend the balance of time in conversation and dialogue about that topic.DistinctivesThis Discipleship Forum brought together six leaders who are passionate about discipleship. Unique distinctives include:

• These practitioner leaders engaged each other in a conversational setting with all six leaders on the stage together in an intimate living room type environment.
• The focus was centered on improving their own disciple making practices by learning from each other rather than the traditional conference experience with presenters.
• This forum gathering created an intimate, heart-felt conversation among leaders who shared their own struggles and victories, affirmed and provided push-back to the others, and ultimately learned from one-another.
• You will get a front-row seat to this candid conversation in a way that will challenge your own hearts, in a more meaningful way than a traditional conference.
• Main emphasis focused on the truth that we reproduce who we are.  How can we call others and our churches to be more effective at discipleship if we are not doing it ourselves?

ParticipantsFrancis Chan is the former teaching pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA and one of the most influential speakers in the USA. He is also the Founder and Chancellor of Eternity Bible College, and author of the best-selling books, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, The Forgotten God, and Multiply. In recent years, Francis has made discipleship a primary focus in his ministry.  Robert Coleman is a distinguished professor of evangelism and discipleship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. For many years he served as dean of the Billy Graham International Schools of Evangelism as well as director of the Billy Graham Center Institute of Evangelism at Wheaton College. He is the author of The Master Plan of Evangelism, which is the gold standard for Jesus’ method of discipleship. It has sold over 3.5 million copies and has been published in over 100 languages. KP Yohannan is the founder and international director of Gospel for Asia, a Christian mission organization that has brought the Good News of Christ to millions in South Asia over the last three decades. Dr. Yohannan has been crisscrossing the globe for the last 40 years, challenging the body of Christ to discipleship. His call to a radical lifestyle—with an all-out commitment to Jesus—has left its impact on nearly every continent. His book Revolution In World Missions, has over 2 million copies in print. Bill Hull is a writer and one of the world’s leading discipleship experts, calling the church to choose the life to which Jesus called every disciple. The core of Bill’s writings (of over 20 books) are his highly influential books The Complete Book of Discipleship, Jesus Christ Disciple Maker, The Disciple Making Pastor and The Disciple Making Church. These works made the case for Jesus as the prime example of a disciple maker, and that discipleship should be the core of every pastor and church’s work. His latest work is entitled, The Disciple, Better To Do Evil Than To Be Evil. Jim Putman is the founder and senior pastor of Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. The church was established based upon Jesus’ method of discipleship and it has now become one of the most influential church’s in the USA.  Jim was a co-founder of the Relational Discipleship Network. He holds degrees from Boise State University and Boise Bible College. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Church is a Team Sport, Real Life Discipleship Training Manual and DiscipleShift. Jim’s unique gifting is in discipleship and practical strategies that make discipleship the core competency of the local church. Jeff Vanderstelt is a popular speaker, pastor, teacher, and missional strategist with Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA. Jeff believes that discipleship is the core mission of the church and he helps leaders to see how discipleship leads to the missional lifestyle demonstrated by Jesus. He is a leader of leaders and a coach and trainer for church planters. Jeff has served on the pastoral staff at Willow Creek Community Church and on the Board of Acts 29. Jeff uniquely understands what it means to follow Jesus and build missional communities that transform neighborhoods. We define disciple making as “trusting God’s presence as we enter into the relationships with others to guide them to trust and follow Jesus and obey all his teachings” (Matthew 28:18–20). The Discipleship Forum will focus on helping leaders make this a reality. Our intimate setting will provide a platform for honest dialogue, give and take discussion and real life examples by these leaders.TopicsThis first forum focused on six vitally important topics of discipleship – based on the FREE Discipleship Handbook – and they are ones that you don’t want to miss. Each key topic was briefly and pointedly led by one of the six discipleship leaders, followed by a robust and practical discussion where each speaker was able to openly and honestly express his view of what each topic meant to him. There was intense dialogue, discussion, and self-revelation.The following are the six topics and speakers:1. Jesus: How does the Jesus we believe in, and the gospel we preach, determine the kind of person that we become and the kind of disciples that we make? – Bill Hull2. Intentionality: Disciple makers need a plan to disciple people, they need to know where they are going. – Robert Coleman3. Relationships: Discipleship, following the example of Jesus, needs to be grounded in relationships, or what are referred to as relational environments. – Jeff Vanderstelt4. Bible: The content for discipleship is found in the Bible, it is the instruction manual. – Francis Chan5. Path: Disciples follow a discernible, but crooked growth path. Their life story, in following Jesus, will have similar chapters. – Jim Putman6. Multiply: Discipleship is only complete with reproduction and multiplication, when the disciple becomes a disciple maker himself. – KP Yohannan Sign up for the webinar here.