Join a Discipleship Group:
The primary catalyst for making disciples is relationships, and it is challenging to build relationships when only seeing each other once a week during an often rushed worship service. Furthermore, most of us have adopted the erroneous mentality that “church” is a place or an event we attend for a few hours on the weekend. We have separated ourselves from the identity that Jesus gave us, namely, we are the church regardless of location.
To this end, we seek to encourage and empower our members to be the church in their homes and within their neighborhoods. While the believers in the first century continued to worship at the temple as much as three times each day, the primary venue for the church was in their homes. We also know it is much easier to cultivate deep, meaningful relationships in a more intimate environment. In such an environment, people relax, they let their guard down, and they open up to each other. For Canvas, our primary disciple-making medium is through our discipleship groups. We hope to launch a series of discipleship groups across North Georgia—to bring the church to our neighbors and make disciples among them.
Our discipleship groups are based on the model we see in Acts 2, and they incorporate the same elements.
The members of our discipleship groups are unified in their prayers, and they seek God together for each other and our community.
Our discipleship groups eat together regularly, whether it is a full meal or themed appetizers, and everyone brings what they can.
Our discipleship groups worship together through song by the leading of musicians or by leveraging media, such as lyric videos.
Our discipleship groups serve together, and they minister to the needs of each other, our church, and people in our local community.
Our discipleship groups are open to anyone, regardless of whether they are attendees of Canvas Christian Church. They are not “closed” or exclusive to an assigned group of individuals or families. As smaller expressions of Jesus’ larger Church, we desire that everyone experiences and participates in Christian fellowship. These discipleship groups exist across our town so that you can experience the Church in a friendly, relaxed setting, no matter where you are.
We do not follow a regular cadence for multiplication. Instead, we desire to multiply as frequently as the Holy Spirit will empower us. When a discipleship group has reached a capacity no longer conducive to the home in which it’s meeting, it splits with some starting a new discipleship group. At Canvas, we desire to reach as many people with the Gospel as possible, and we believe that by following the Acts 2 model, we can be most effective as disciple-makers.
Besides a personal relationship with Jesus, we maintain two requirements of an individual or family before they lead a discipleship group themselves. First, they must be actively serving at Canvas or in the local community. Leaders must model what we expect of all members of our discipleship groups. Second, they must first participate in a pre-existing group. Our discipleship groups follow a model based on scripture, and we want to ensure that new groups do not diverge from that model. Therefore, by first participating in a group, leaders can witness what we expect to take place. Additionally, we believe leaders of current discipleship groups are best for determining the capacity and ability of leaders for future discipleship groups. By participating in a discipleship group first, current leaders can affirm, exhort, and develop additional leaders.
