Resources for discipleship

Discipleship and evangelism training guides

Discovery Bible Study

(written by Matt Parsley)

Discovery Bible Study (DBS) is a tool developed by David L. Watson and Paul D. Watson that helps us focus on making faithful disciples who discover truth in God’s Word, obey what God teaches them, and pass these truths on to others. This becomes the disciple “DNA” that gets passed on from one spiritual generation to the next, leading to movements of multiplying disciples! The study uses the following format:

To begin, each person answers these questions:

Introduction

• What are you thankful for today?
• What is a stress or struggle for you right now? Is there anything this group can do to help?
• Do you know someone who is facing a difficult time right now? Is there anything this group can do to help?

After the first session, the review step is added:

Review

• What was the Bible story from last time?
• How did you apply/obey what you learned?
• With whom did you share the story?

New Story

• Read the new Bible story two to three times and then have the group retell the story without looking (or act it out dramatically).
• Optional: What do you like about the story?
• Optional: What do you find hard or challenging in this story?
• What does this story teach us about God?
• What does this story teach us about people?
• What will you do to apply/obey what you’ve learned?
• Who else needs to hear this story? When will you share it with them?

Contact me at mattrpar@gmail.com for more resources on Discovery Bible Study (including Japanese language resources), recommended story sets, and equipping opportunities for using and teaching DBS in your context. More information about DBS can also be found at dbsguide.org.

The Way to Joy

(written by Jodi Davis)

When we paired students with full-time and intern staff at Word of Life Fellowship, it allowed everyone to be actively involved in the discipleship process, helping both the mentor and mentee. As Proverbs 17:17 stresses, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (ESV).

We use a curriculum published by ABWE/Good Soil that is concise, written for those for whom English is a second language, and biblically based. Word of Life has used The Story of Hope in our four-month Bible Survey course and The Way to Joy as our discipleship course. For two months, our staff were able to meet one-on-one with students and discuss the theme for the week. The ten lessons in The Way to Joy include an overview of God’s redemptive plan, assurance and security of salvation, and many other topics such as prayer, personal holiness, witnessing, the local church, and God’s plan for our lives.

Unlike some books of this type, The Way to Joy provides provocative questions to stimulate discipling-type conversations between the leader and the learner. The books are beautifully illustrated with customized full-color visual illustrations. In addition to the 64 pages of discipleship content, a set of Bible memory verse cards is included in each book.

Having this special time encouraged our students, and it challenged and stretched all our staff. Some of our young Japanese staff said this was their first time having the chance to encourage, challenge, and pray for someone “under their watch and care,” and they also mentioned that they grew through the process. Even better news is that these books are in the process of being translated into Japanese!

ABWE/Good Soil Website: https://www.goodsoil.com/resources

NewDayToDay

(written by Andy Meeko)

The NewDayToDay system is 100 percent made and funded in Japan. And though it was not my intention, it is currently expanding into over 30 languages. If you don’t have a system for discipleship and evangelism training, I encourage you to get familiar with NewDayToDay—it was kitchen-table-grown and is now a high quality resource.

There are three parts in the system:

• Help everyone tell their Jesus story powerfully via My Miracle.
• Help everyone share God’s gift beautifully via GospelShare.
• Help everyone disciple others effectively via GospelVenture (adults) and Treasure Hunt Venture (kids).

See newdaytoday.net (Japanese website with some English webpage links).

Biblically-Based Spiritual Formation

(written by Shan Reed)

Matthew 22:37–39 and Romans 12:1–2 have been the foundation of our women’s ministry. We desire for the women in the church to love God and their neighbor with all their heart, soul, and minds and to be transformed to be more Christlike. We believe that when we live these out in real life, others will be drawn to Jesus.

These six lessons are a result of our prayers for the women in our ministry to grow in these truths from Scripture. Spiritual formation is not a term commonly used in the Japanese Christian circles with which we interact. To help the body of Christ in our context connect with this phrase, we steeped the lessons in God’s Word to help them understand spiritual formation is not a Western idea, but an idea grounded in the Word of God to help us become more like Christ.

The topics covered in the lessons include the following: “What are spiritual disciplines?”; “What is the current condition of your heart?”; “You are not alone: community and the Holy Spirit”; “I’m no good at prayer”; “Worship”; and “Developing soul rhythms or a rule of life.” Some of the spiritual disciplines that are explored are lectio divina, breath prayer, reflection, silence, spiritual friendship, meditation, and prayer walking.

Because my coworker and I tend to study and read in English and then teach in Japanese from English notes, we have written this curriculum in English. We are planning to have it translated into Japanese. If you are interested in finding out more about the curriculum, please contact me at shaninjapan@mac.com.

Developing a Discerning Heart

(written by Shan Reed)

Developing a Discerning Heart is the second in a four-module training system by Entrust Equipping Women. Entrust is a ministry that began in 1979 to equip men and women to lead interactive small groups. It was started to help train those for whom formal seminary training was not an option. Their mission statement is “To multiply church leaders through accessible, locally-owned, reproducible training systems.”

Entrust Equipping Women is one arm of the Entrust training system and equips women in the local and global church to nurture, develop, and mobilize others for kingdom impact. They have training hubs around the world, including one in Thailand for women leaders in Asia.

I attended two of the modules at the training hub in Thailand. The first module, Facilitating Relational Learning, helped me to ask better questions and to listen more openly as I sought to lead transformational Bible studies with the women at our church. Developing a Discerning Heart, the second module, helps us to understand our heart more deeply, exploring our identity in Christ, our thoughts, our will, and our emotions. Although I have not experienced the other two modules, Discovery Bible Study and Equipping Women to Serve, I have talked with women who were impacted by the training and have been implementing their learning in ministry.

The training hub in Thailand is always looking for women who desire to grow in their leadership and mentorship. If you are interested in more information or in attending a training module, visit entrust4.org for more information. (Much of the information in this article is from the website.)

Training programs

Christian Seicho Center (CSC)

(written by Jörg Eymann)

The Christian Seicho (growth) Center is a disciple-making ministry that bridges the gap between the spiritual life of a local church and the formal education of a Bible school. It offers a program that supports the spiritual growth of Christians who are actively seeking to live as disciples of Jesus.

This program helps participants enter God’s presence, quiet themselves before the Lord, and listen to his voice. It also provides the opportunity to study the Bible together with other Christians and to learn from the expertise of other Christians in workshops.

In cooperation with local churches, it provides opportunities to put the Word of God into practice. This ministry trains the participants to live an authentic Christian life in their daily routine. In addition, it encourages the participants to passionately follow Jesus and serve Him in their home church or as a part-time or full-time minister in the worldwide kingdom of God.

For more information, visit the CSC homepage at csc-christian-growth-center.com or mail to christianseichocenter@gmail.com.

CRASH Japan

(written by Helen Kwak)

CRASH stands for Christian Relief, Assistance, Support, and Hope. Though most known for its work in mobilizing and coordinating the evangelical volunteer relief ministry in the wake of the 2011 triple disaster in the Tohoku Region, it has continued to serve churches, communities, and volunteers in Japan in a variety of ways, including resource development.

CRASH currently has several training programs available and is working to create more to serve your church, mission, or community needs.

Keichō and Community is a workshop series on how listening can revitalize your community from the inside and is a good introduction to the world of communication, connection, and emotional competency (keichō means “listening closely”). This series can be tailored to your specific needs.

Survivor Care Training is a two-hour workshop designed to help volunteers be prepared to care for the heart needs of survivors.

Disaster Response Chaplaincy, based on the Southern Baptist Disaster Response curriculum, is a two-day course that equips individuals to serve as chaplains during disaster response.

Emotional and Spiritual Care in Disasters is a review of the materials originally presented in Narita by Kevin Ellers on how chaplains can coordinate with other first responders during disaster deployment. This course requires an understanding of concepts of critical incident stress management for individuals and for groups. These prerequisites can be met through training offered in collaboration with PSV Japan. You can read more details on their website: psv-japan.org

Disaster Ready Church is a walkthrough of a short manual that will help your church think through what disaster readiness looks like for your church or organization.

Programs currently in development:

Crisis Leadership looks at how good leadership practices during crisis can help strengthen communities; Muck-Out is training in the core competencies for cleaning flooded properties; and Work Leader Training covers the basics of managing volunteers on-site during disaster response deployment.

For more information, please contact me (CRASH Care Coordinator) at care.coordinator@crashjapan.com.

Images from cited websites or submitted by authors