For more information contact Clement Southwell at (917)992-2652 or the Church Office at(516) 285-6003
The DISCIPLE Program
"to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ."
Ephesians 4:12
DISCIPLE is a program of disciplined Bible study aimed at developing strong Christian leaders. It focuses on the disciple as learner, believer, follower, proclaimer, and servant while providing the fellowship of a small group for study, prayer, preparation, support, and servanthood.
DISCIPLE assumes that the Bible is key to renewal in the church and affirms that the canon was formed as it is in order for God to speak to us. The study gives the Old and New Testaments equal time, emphasizing the wholeness of the Bible as a revelation of God and draws upon the work of scholars to aid understanding of the Bible.
Over the course of the four-phase DISCIPLE Bible study, participants will have studied the entire Bible in survey fashion followed by in-depth study of the whole Bible according to groupings of literature.
The first study in the program is DISCIPLE: BECOMING DISCIPLES THROUGH BIBLE STUDY, a thirty-four week overview of the entire Bible. Subsequent studies take DISCIPLE graduates deeper into selected portions of Scripture.
DISCIPLE 2: INTO THE WORD INTO THE WORLD concentrates on Genesis, Exodus, Luke, and Acts.
DISCIPLE 3: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE focuses on the Prophets and the letters of Paul, and
DISCIPLE 4: UNDER THE TREE OF LIFE covers the Writings, John, and Revelation.
Completion of DISCIPLE: BECOMING DISCIPLES THROUGH BIBLE STUDY is highly recommended before participating in the subsequent studies, which may be done in any order.
DISCIPLE Second Generation Studies.
JESUS IN THE GOSPELS is the first study in a line of projected studies different from but also related in some ways to DISCIPLE Bible study. This new line is called DISCIPLE Second Generation Studies. The nature of the relationship to DISCIPLE touches on such things as language used to describe the program, training requirement, availability to DISCIPLE-enrolled churches, expectation of disciplined daily study, approach to learning, and commitment to attendance and participation in weekly group study.
While distinct in format and approach to study, this new generation of Bible study materials builds on the foundation and carries forward the philosophy and the ideals that shaped DISCIPLE—high commitment, long-term, disciplined study.
DISCIPLE Second Generation Studies are text-based with attention given in daily reading assignments to Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures. Format and design of print and video components will differ from but have some family resemblance to DISCIPLE. All Second Generation Studies will carry their own title but will be identified on the covers as belonging to DISCIPLE Second Generation Studies. Completion of DISCIPLE: BECOMING DISCIPLES THROUGH BIBLE STUDY is prerequisite for JESUS IN THE GOSPELS and for future Second Generation Studies.
JESUS IN THE GOSPELS is different from DISCIPLE Bible study in its approach to Scripture—it looks more closely at the Gospel texts, in the kind of daily preparation and study required of participants, in lesson layout and design, and in the nature of the study and discussion that takes place in the weekly group meeting
JESUS IN THE GOSPELS focuses on the portraits of Jesus found in the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The word in used in the title signals that this study takes an approach different from the familiar "life and teaching of Jesus" approach of reading stories and accounts of what Jesus said and did in order to draw conclusions about their meaning and about who Jesus was. This study looks at the way each Gospel writer presents events and teachings and at the picture of Jesus that emerges in each of the Gospels.