Harvest Buffalo

NO.

There is no financial cost of being involved in the NEW LIFE Discipleship Program. The only ‘cost’ to you is your time.

NO. A copy of the book (“The Walk: Steps for New and Renewed Followers of Jesus” by Stephen Smallman) will be provided to each member of the NEW LIFE Program at no cost to you!

This book is an amazing resource that is easy to read, thoroughly biblical, and great for facilitating discussion around foundational truths of our faith and Christian life.

We will gladly provide you with a copy of God’s Word so you can read it yourself and have your life transformed by it! Simply let us know and we’ll make sure to get a copy in your hands.

The only requirement for NEW LIFE Discipleship is that you profess faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation from your sins. You profess that Jesus is your substitute: He died in your place for your sins and gave you His righteousness out of undeserved mercy and grace. That’s it!

Baptism and/or membership are not requirements for NEW LIFE Discipleship. However, they will be topics that are brought up and discussed in the NEW LIFE Program.

The NEW LIFE Program is structured around 12 sessions and is designed to be completed in approximately 6 months. It is suggested that MicroGroups meet every other week to discuss the material from the curriculum, and it is encouraged that they meet more often (if so desired) to build relationships. This might look different for each MicroGroup as some may choose to take a break in-between sessions, or some choose to simply meet to eat and fellowship together.

The timeline for the NEW LIFE Program is very flexible.

The goal is not to get through the material as fast as possible, but rather to build meaningful relationships that result in understanding and application of the material. MicroGroups can take it as fast or slow as is necessary and comfortable.

Here are the 5 main topics our NEW LIFE curriculum aims to cover:

· Foundational Doctrine (What do we believe and why?)
· Christian Ethics (How does God expect us to live as Christians?)
· Piety (How do I study the Bible? How to pray? What are spiritual disciplines?)
· Church (What is the importance of church, baptism, the Lord’s supper and community?)
· Mission (How do we live out Jesus’ Great Commission to us?)

After your MicroGroup has completed the NEW LIFE curriculum, you are free to continue meeting with the members of the MicroGroup and your leader(s). Your leader(s) may be called upon to mentor another MicroGroup after yours has completed. But this is not the end of the relationship and friendships, but we hope it would be the start to life-long, fruitful fellowship!

We will also contact you once you are finished the NEW LIFE Discipleship Program to find out how it went and how we can continue to help you along in your growth in Christ.

YES! Saying “No thanks” right now doesn’t mean that you can’t come back to this later.

We understand that we all go through seasons of life where our capacities and time might be restricted. If you’d like to check out NEW LIFE Discipleship at a later time, please indicate so on the form above and we can follow up with you at a later date.

There are 3 main things we’d like to see every NEW LIFE disciple get out of the NEW LIFE Discipleship Program:
1. A GROWING faith
The author of Hebrews has some strong words for the believers there who were stagnant in their faith:

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:12-14)

They needed someone to teach them the basic principles of the faith so that they could mature through constant practice and training. Without this sort of intentionality, we are in danger of stagnation and ineffectiveness for Christ’s Kingdom.

We want YOU to have a GROWING faith.
2. A RADICAL faith
The call of Christ on every Christian’s life is to pick up their cross, deny themselves and follow whole-heartedly after him:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25; see also Luke 9:23 & 14:26)

Lesslie Newbigin said:

“A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Saviour but does not make it clear that discipleship means a commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false.”

This sort of ‘radical’ faith really isn’t so radical according to the Bible, but should rather be the norm for every Christian. This doesn’t come easy, and we need help in walking this path.

We want YOU to have a RADICAL faith.
3. A WISE faith
Every new and renewed believer needs to be mentored by those who are mature in the faith so that they can avoid common pitfalls and foolish decisions by learning from the wisdom and experience of others. This is why Jesus gave us various leaders in the church:

“…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” (Ephesians 4:12-15)

Through the help of NEW LIFE leaders (who were specifically hand-picked by our church elders), we want to help to build you up to maturity and wisdom in your Christian faith to equip you for the work of ministry that God has for you.

We want YOU to have a WISE faith.

YES! Please do!

If you know of someone in our church who would benefit from NEW LIFE Discipleship, simply contact Pastor Ricky at Rbeck@harvestbuffalo.org.