Encompass Discipleship Strategy

The Encompass Discipleship Strategy is a comprehensive, church-based model for discipleship. For now, it is largely a developing strategy that is “on paper.” It will be important that our ministry strategies and resources be thoughtful and intentional. To that end, we will be creating a variety of articles that address relevant issues and help lay the philosophical foundation for all that will follow. You can find a listing of these articles below.

Identity and the Self

Somewhere in the early stages of life, we begin to become aware of ourselves as distinct. This awareness fosters self-reflection; the ability to think about ourselves in the third person. Self-reflection is an important and healthy skill for all people. It gives us the capacity to carry on conversations with ourselves and actually form an…

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Shaping Identity In the Local Church

A local church has the ability to influence an individual’s personal identity through its discipleship ministry. How this happens is a complex and ongoing process. The degree to which an individual is associated with a church, the time a church has with the individual, and other factors will impact just how influential a church may…

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Identity Runs Deep

The fact that we are more than we think (see prior article) is an important principle that will be repeated and underscored in other places in this series of articles. There are aspects of our identity that are determined by reality and what God says about us; not by our opinions, desires, behavior, and histories.…

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We Are More Than We Think

How we each perceive our own identities is shaped by a variety of important factors. It’s important to note, however, that our actual identity is more than or different from our perception of our identity. We are more than we think. Reality defines identity more than our individual perceptions. Just because I perceive that I…

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Helping People Develop a Biblical Identity

Much can be said (and has been said) about how any given individual develops his or her own particular identity. It is a complex process that takes place through life and continues until we die. It is not our intent to oversimplify this process or suggest that identity development can be reduced to a simplistic…

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A Biblical Model for Discipleship

The work we’re doing with curriculum is really about discipleship. It’s about a long-term strategy for building people who are committed to following Jesus and living as His disciples. So, we have to think bigger than just what happens in the classroom on Sunday morning (or any other day). I want to suggest there are…

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Encompass Discipleship Stategy

The Encompass Discipleship Strategy is a comprehensive, church-based model for discipleship. For now, it is largely a developing strategy that is “on paper.” That is, it is embryonic. We will build it slowly and in pieces. It currently includes all of the resources available on Sunday School Zone, including God’s Unfolding Story curriculum, but it…

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Teachable From The Start

Even before birth, an infant is interacting with and genuinely learning from its surroundings. Scientists now understand that a child’s brain development begins in the womb and continues most rapidly from birth to age 3. As educators in the church, we need to recognize this as a great opportunity to influence genuine biblical learning (discipleship)…

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Bible Studies for Kids

An Old Testament Model for Child Discipleship

We don’t have a great deal of detail about how Old Testament Hebrews conducted the formal, institutional education of their children. In all likelihood, there was little, if any, “formal, institutional education” taking place on a broad scale. This was an agrarian culture where children provided an important “human resource” for advancing the well-being of…

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