WHY & HOW WE DO IT
“Go and make disciples…” – Matthew 28:19
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.’ – 2 Timothy 2:2
God has given the Church a simple game plan: make disciples who will assemble other disciples and gather them into communities of Christ-followers. However, most American churches will admit that this is not happening in their congregation; for example:
80% of churches in the U.S. are plateaued or declining (NAMB)
75% of American churches have no plan for developing leaders (Stetzer)
The percentage of unchurched young adults is the highest in three generations (Pew Foundation)
We also know that ever since the followers of Jesus gathered in the upper room to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit, every movement of God has been preceded by prayer.
Our goal at North Orange County is to reach the one million people who don’t know Jesus. Here’s how we do this:
- Mobilize Christians throughout the region to adopt prayer routes
- Impact the number and quality of workers available to the Church by making disciples who make more disciples.
- Identify emerging leaders and equip and deploy them through a learning community we call The Lab.
- Help pastors and leaders of existing churches to become disciple-makers through our strategy of [1 + 1 (+ 1)] X 2
- 1: First, find one person who doesn’t know Jesus and begin meeting together.
+1: Then, find one person who is new to the faith and commit to walk with them to maturity.
(+1): For those that are church leaders, find one emerging leader and help them develop their gifts and calling.
X2: Finally, train these emerging disciples to do the same, so the word of Jesus can multiply.
- 1: First, find one person who doesn’t know Jesus and begin meeting together.
