Gospel Renewal and Discipleship

Gospel Renewal

Gospel renewal is defined as a life-changing recovery of the gospel that occurs personally and corporately. On a personal level, believers are awakened to the wonders of salvation again. In this process, believers are transformed to live for Christ through a renewed perspective on divine grace. On a corporate level, gospel renewal occurs when a body of believers experience this renewal together. Historically, this experience has been called revival. Personal and corporate gospel renewal is necessary since the natural mode of the human heart is self-righteousness, which does not reflect the essence of the gospel and salvation. Corporate gospel renewal occurs in a ministry setting i.e. among a body of believers. This discussion examines the role of corporate gospel renewal within Baptist Grove Church in consideration of the historical aspects of faith tradition and ministry context.

Corporate Gospel Renewal at Baptist Grove Church

Baptist Grove Church exists to reach, grow, and empower dedicated followers of Jesus Christ, who live to the fullest through growing in relationship with God, strengthening relationships with others, and bringing life to our world through service. This vision has guided ministry activities and programs adopted in this ministry setting. The vision is the foundation of the missions of different groups in the church including the youth and the elderly. The vision and mission of the church is rooted in the gospel as the pastor desires that everyone including the youth (grades 6th-12th) to have a passion for Christ. Additionally, the youth ministry coordinator desires that all youth will know and carry a passion for the principles taught and lived by Christ and emulate them in their lives, which enables them to be disciples in daily the stuff of life.[footnoteRef:1] Through this, the church finds ways to communicate the gospel in a clear and striking manner for all generations, which is essential for corporate gospel renewal.[footnoteRef:2] The congregational method adopted by Baptist Grove Church is the conventional and multi-generational church congregation located in North Carolina. However, the church has switched to the virtual church model after the advent of the pandemic. [1: Jeff Vanderstelt, Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway).] [2: Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan). ]

The church tradition has experienced seasons of corporate renewal largely because of its use of different ways to communicate the gospel in a clear and striking manner. In this case, church members including the youth are constantly challenged to develop a strong and genuine heart for worship. The church tradition encourages members to let God transform them into a new person by avoiding to copy the behaviors and customs of this world as stated in Romans 12:2. Baptist Grove Church’s tradition provides a framework for all generations to come together and work together as they subdue their personal wishes for God’s glory by thinking less of themselves and more of his Gospel. This has enabled church members of all generations to experience seasons of personal renewal together resulting in corporate gospel renewal.

Role of Discipleship in a Ministry Setting and in Corporate Gospel Renewal

Baptist Grove Church has adopted a congregational method through which different generations come together to worship one God and serve him together. While the church has designed age-appropriate programs separately for older and younger generations, it combines both categories. The combination of these different programs has provided an avenue for the older generation to disciple the younger generation. By combining these categories, young people in the church observe the older ones and learn, and vice versa resulting in accommodation of every generation. Older people pass on their leadership attributes and model Christlikeness to the young ones while younger generations learn to accept the older ones’ struggles.

This church model that accommodates every generation demonstrates the role and significance of discipleship in a ministry setting. As evident in the church’s case, discipleship is essential in a ministry setting as it provides a premise for mature Christians to disciple younger ones. In this case, it is the premise with which older/mature believers teach young/new believers by modeling the principles of Christ in their actions and lives. Discipleship provides a framework for the old to point people to Jesus and lead others into encountering and imitating the Lord.[footnoteRef:3] As shown in Baptist Grove Church’s case, discipleship helps in the pursuit of corporate gospel renewal by pointing people to Jesus. Pastors and church leaders develop a variety of discipling relationships that point people to Christ. Through this, believers are awakened to the wonders of salvation and experience personal and corporate gospel renewal. [3: Eric Geiger, “5 Current Church Views of “Discipleship””, Eric Geiger, August 14, 2014, https://ericgeiger.com/2014/08/5-current-church-views-discipleship/]

Strengthening Corporate Discipleship and Other Ministry Settings

While the church tradition emphasizes discipleship and experiences seasons of corporate gospel renewal, there is a need to strengthen corporate discipleship and other ministry settings. The church can benefit from adopting a robust or renewed discipleship strategy, which would provide a foundation for gospel renewal. The strategy should be on Jesus’ model or pattern of discipleship by emphasizing people rather than programs. Even though programs help to accommodate people of different ages, the focus should be more on people. Jesus called people to himself and was not concerned with programs to reach the multitudes, but focused on people whom the multitudes would follow.[footnoteRef:4] Therefore, corporate discipleship and ministry settings can be strengthened by an enhanced focus on people instead of programs. The focus on people would help promote corporate spiritual formation, which would in turn promote gospel renewal. [4: Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism (Old Tappan, NJ: Spire Books). ]

One of the specific areas requiring improvement in Baptist Grove Church to strengthen corporate discipleship and other ministry settings is mentorship. Currently, the church model accommodates people of all generations and provide a framework for the old to teach the young. However, there is still a huge gap in the mentorship of the youth and new believers. In this regard, one-on-one mentorship should be adopted based on age and spiritual maturity. With regard to age, older generations should not only teach but also mentor young ones. On the other hand, mentorship based on spiritual maturity can occur within the different church groups regardless of age. During the mentorship, the disciplers should cultivate discipling relationships with their mentees that go beyond church programs. This would strengthen corporate discipleship and other ministry settings by ensuring that church is not just a commitment to programs but a community where people share their lives, reach out, and learn about God together.[footnoteRef:5] Secondly, the church should also implement new believer follow-up, which is the training of new believers. This ensures new believers are accommodated in the ministry setting and taught the principles of Christ and how to emulate them in their lives. [5: Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community (Wheaton, IL: Crossway).]