While on vacation over the holidays, I had the opportunity to “sit and visit” with a few friends around Bolivar. As we “visited” about family, friends and about First Baptist, more than one person asked questions about name changes. So let me enlist you to help educate our church on one of the name changes that have happened over the past year. Keep in mind, that we desire clarity as we invite our friends and neighbors to participate in our community of faith.
What happened to Sunday School and what is Core Discipleship Groups were common questions. Sunday School has long been the key growth strategy for churches like ours. It was a place where we gathered in small groups to study God’s word together, where we could involve people in fellowship and friendship, where we could quickly minister to each other, and was the place we could invite our friends to join us. It was the place where we wanted everyone to belong. It was where we looked for leadership to keep growing new small groups to make more room for our ever expanding community of faith. A good Sunday School class was the friendly face of FBC where people had the opportunity to connect, grow, serve and share together. Then we had need to allow groups to do the same thing during the week and we gave them a different name for the same basic mission. This muddied the water a bit to be honest.
Now we are using the name Core Discipleship Group to try to clearly communicate that this is the basic small group that we hope everyone will find a place to belong. A group where they can study God’s Word, be involved in fellowship with friends, minister to one another and have a place to invite and involve friends in joining them on the journey of knowing and growing in Christ. Wait that sounds like good small group Sunday School. Yes it does for a generation. It also sounds like good small group ministry for a younger generation. Core Discipleship Groups is the same as good small group Sunday School and good small group ministry. It’s the core discipling group at FBC that we want everyone to be involved in reguardless of day or time.
