On a sunny Sabbath afternoon in Lewiston, Maine, the local park is filled with families enjoying the weather, people walking their dogs, and groups of people kicking around a soccer ball. This Sabbath is “Go Day” for The Ark, a church plant in Lewiston, and today, volunteers are handing out free, ice-cold lemonade. A man who is experiencing homelessness enjoys the refreshing treat as someone from The Ark smiles and engages him in conversation while someone else hands him a bag filled with toiletry items. Everyone participates—young, old, members, regular attendees, and visitors—all are invited. This is discipleship in action.
Through consistent outreach and relational ministry, The Ark—a vibrant small group that recently became a company in the Northern New England Conference—now sees weekly attendance climb to more than 60 people. Many are not yet members, but they feel they belong.
When an African family of eight arrived in Maine unprepared for winter, The Ark stepped in to help. That relationship led the entire family to attend regularly—and this summer, two chose baptism.
“Everything we do, the reason that we [the Seventh-day Adventist Church] exist, is for the purpose of making disciples,” wrote Tim Madding, North American Division Evangelism Institute (NADEI) director in Discipling, Nurturing, and Reclaiming. He adds, “I also believe that this is not where our focus has been, at least not recently. … Our focus has been on programming and baptisms” (p. 65).
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
According to Madding, a disciple “is someone who believes what Jesus believes, lives what Jesus lived, and is actively making other disciples of Jesus Christ as well.”
“It’s all about that,” explains Brian Hughes, lay leader for The Ark. “When we go out to the park, though they may not have committed themselves to Jesus yet, they can see how those of us who have committed ourselves to Jesus try to live out [Jesus] through our actions.”
As a young pastor in the Dominican Republic, Bianel Lara was used to seeing large numbers of people being baptized. However, instead of it being something to celebrate, it left him feeling very frustrated. “I got to a point in my ministry that I was tired and sad to see thousands and thousands of people back in my country being baptized, but one month later we didn’t know who they were. We didn’t know anything about them because they left the church through the back door.” Later, under conference leadership and direction, the focus shifted to small group ministries with fantastic results.
This experience was pivotal when Lara accepted the call just over two years ago to serve as director of Personal Ministries and Church Planting for the Greater New York Conference. After analyzing the baptism and membership numbers over several years, he discovered a similar problem: lots of baptisms but poor member retention. True, some members had relocated outside New York, but most, according to Lara, fell through the cracks.
Lara saw firsthand the power of small group ministry and discipleship when it becomes a church’s primary missional focus. “[Since then] everything I’ve used in my ministry is [based on the] small-group system, not only to gain more disciples but to create more disciples and retain more members in the church.”
And at The Ark in Lewiston, that mission is already underway—one conversation, one act of compassion, one disciple at a time.
Which makes sense, especially since this is the model used by Christ and the early Christian church. Ellen White wrote: “The formation of small companies as a basis of Christian effort is a plan that has been presented before me by One who cannot err,” (Review and Herald, August 12, 1902).
Small groups and discipling are nothing new—although, to many, they may seem like fairly recent concepts. After adding 3,000 to the church at Pentecost, the early Christians gathered outdoors in nature, in public spaces, and in homes. But this model gradually shifted as cultural and political influences reshaped the church— especially after nominal Christians, such as Roman Emperor Constantine, began to join its ranks.
“Churches once intimate became institutionalized. Policy took precedence over people, and meetings became more important than ministry. Instead of the church being a place where loneliness ended, it became the place where loneliness began” (“Small Group Ministry: A New Testament Blueprint for the Church;” Ministry Magazine, July 1993).
CREATING A DISCIPLESHIP MISSIONAL FOCUS
Madding asks, “How did Jesus disciple? He spent time with His disciples.” He adds that discipleship is a developed and cultivated journey of spiritual growth in Christ—one that happens through relationships, not programs (p. 68).
That same need for a more focused, personal approach is echoed by conference leadership. “Soul winning is a science,” says Miguel Crespo, New York Conference president. He emphasizes that large church programs and meetings can be beneficial to teach and train the laity to reach people but can’t replace Christ’s methods with reaching individuals with the gospel. “Some programs are good, but some can be a way to make up for the fact that we just aren’t praying enough. It may help get members, but it won’t win disciples.”
Ellen White counseled: “The members of the church should give diligent attention to the Word of God, that they may understand their duty, and then labor with all their energies of mind and heart to make their church one of the most prosperous in the land,” (Review and Herald, Sept. 6, 1884). Not wealthy, or something akin to a mega church. Instead, think “influential”—the church with the greatest Christ-like influence in the community, suggests Madding.
As churches plan to embrace this concept, Crespo says church boards should ask three questions:
1. What is the mission of the church?
2. How is the mission of this church different from other denominational churches?
3. Who are our services and programs geared toward?
“These questions should lead to some discussion, because if we are no different, then we might as well just stop,” Crespo says.
Small groups are powerful in creating opportunities to build relationships and simultaneously mentor new believers in their next steps as members mirror how to live like Jesus. There is a level of intentionality that is part of a path to discipleship, which Madding explains as “moving people from wherever they are into a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ” (ibid).
THINK STEPS NOT PROGRAMS
Programs typically meet a social need through services or projects, whereas steps are a series of actions or specific measures taken to achieve a spiritual goal. “What are the steps that happen in the life of the individual to get from where they are to where God has called them to be?” Madding challenges (p. 69).
Baptism is certainly one of those milestones. But getting a person to that point requires a step-by-step process— one that must be bathed in prayer.
The exact steps may vary from church to church, because each congregation must define what discipleship means in their unique context. Whatever the steps are, once they are identified, they must be clearly communicated and intentionally woven into the fabric of the church’s culture and ministry focus.
THE CALL TO EVERY MEMBER
Intentionality is the key to being both Christ-centered and people-centered— but it doesn’t have to be complicated. The early Christian church modeled it. The Ark in Lewiston lives it out.
What would happen if every church member became a disciple-maker?
“God’s work desperately needs you. The work will not be done by paid pastors alone,” Crespo emphasizes. “Every one of us is called to serve and to be a disciple in their own way, according to whatever gifts God has given them.”
For The Ark, discipleship looks like community, conversation, and connection—simple steps on a path that leads to Jesus.
