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Posted: 9/5/03

Bible-based discipleship fuels Lake Pointe growth

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ROCKWALL–Adult Bible Fellowship members at Lake Pointe Church are expected to reach three people for Christ a year and participate in ministry locally, nationally and internationally. With almost 3,500 participants, that's a lot of outreach.

The church uses Adult Bible Fellowships as a “catalytic system” of reproducing 30-member classes to bring people into the congregation and encourage them to grow in their faith, said Carter Shotwell, pastor of education.

Each is designed to implement “four W's”–worship, word, work and world–in each member's life.

Every group, called a “church within a church” by Shotwell, is asked to provide interactive Bible study, fellowship, care ministry involvement and accountability. The groups divide when they grow too large.

Each fellowship includes a “growth group,” a voluntary cell group of no more than five couples or six singles, for more intimate discipleship.

The growth groups are “foundational” to the church's discipleship program, said Greg Kerbel, who teaches a young married class. The units are where members make “deep relationships” that help them realize “we're all in life struggles together,” he said.

Additionally, the church offers three-and-a-half-hour discipleship seminars four times a year to encourage continual growth. New members are required to attend a workshop where they are given an overview of the church and leadership help them plan their first year of involvement.

Bible-based discipleship is one of the 11 characteristics of a healthy church adopted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The church surveys the congregation in worship during January and tracks fellowship attendance, service and giving. Leadership continuously encourage outreach.

“You cannot measure the evangelism emphasis, but you must keep it before the people at all times,” Shotwell said. “You can tell how it is going by conversions. Every member is asked to recommit to these things every year.”

According to the measurements, the fellowship approach is working. Two-thirds of members are involved in the small groups, and 40 percent of active members participate in the growth groups. The church creates about two new fellowships every month to keep pace with incoming people.

“As disciples are developed, a natural outgrowth is relational evangelism and servant evangelism,” Shotwell said. “It is hard for a church to be producing disciples and not reaching new people.”

About 85 percent of Adult Bible Fellowships are involved in ministry projects. Some classes provide workers for preschool classes, others feed the homeless and others help build homes with Habitat for Humanity. The groups partner with agencies and adopt causes they support on national and international levels.