Central Church, Sarasota: Discipling, Transformation, Sharing
by Keith Brenton
05/11/2008 - I am a member of the Central Church of Christ in Sarasota, Florida and Rod Myers is our minister. Even though it's a relatively small congregation, we have at least 50% or more actively involved weekly in "Making Disciples Who Make Disciples. The fuel of the discipling ministry is the gospel and driven by our hunger and thirst to know God. We meet one-on-one with someone for at least 6 months and discuss:
A. The Christian Experience
The Gospel is laid out in Romans 1-8
The text speaks for itself and we let it do the talking
Our task is to live this out and to communicate this to others
B. The Transformational Experience
We come to practice the disciplines of prayer, meditation, Bible Study, confession, solitude & fasting.
When we faithfully put these into practice we are changed into the image of Christ
C. The Sharing Experience
Involves being faithful to the person you are working with right now and praying for God to raise up someone for you and your study partner to work with in the next six months.
We also have a group of both men and women who are actively involved weekly in a Life Transformation Group. They read large portions of Scripture daily, then meet in groups of 2 to 4 weekly for sharing and encouraging one another.
Let me tell you about our teens at our congregation. They wanted to try to reach other teens for Christ so they sat up a booth with a sign on it reading: "Confesssion Booth - It's not what you think". We were right outside of "Hollywood 20" movie theatre. They play a long list of different movies including the movie "Expelled". Our young people weren't trying to promote any peculiar movie just that it is a popular and congested place on a Friday night for the youth and other adults to hang out and go to the movies. We didn't know until the last minute if the booth would be allowed to stand in front of the theatre. We are praising God for allowing us the prime location.
Our teens were the ones confessing to the curiosity seekers what God has done and is doing in their lives. Two teens would usually be in the booth at a time while the other teens, their parents and other adults slowly walked around the theatre praising God and praying for open and receptive hearts. One girl listened for a while and got tears in her eyes. She was definitely moved, but didn't respond but was invited to come back if she wanted to talk later. Two different times I saw guys stop who may have first been drawn to the girl in the booth, but their mannerism soon showed their curiosity turned to really listen with a sincere heart. God was touching hearts last night. I just felt privileged to be there. I can't wait to get the full report of the whole evening, but honestly only God knows the whole story and we may never know this side of heaven.
I could go on and on and tell you many more exciting things that God is doing in and through the people at Central. We are glorifying God for blessing us with abundant joy to be able to be a participate in His Work.
Sue Adams
A. The Christian Experience
The Gospel is laid out in Romans 1-8
The text speaks for itself and we let it do the talking
Our task is to live this out and to communicate this to others
B. The Transformational Experience
We come to practice the disciplines of prayer, meditation, Bible Study, confession, solitude & fasting.
When we faithfully put these into practice we are changed into the image of Christ
C. The Sharing Experience
Involves being faithful to the person you are working with right now and praying for God to raise up someone for you and your study partner to work with in the next six months.
We also have a group of both men and women who are actively involved weekly in a Life Transformation Group. They read large portions of Scripture daily, then meet in groups of 2 to 4 weekly for sharing and encouraging one another.
Let me tell you about our teens at our congregation. They wanted to try to reach other teens for Christ so they sat up a booth with a sign on it reading: "Confesssion Booth - It's not what you think". We were right outside of "Hollywood 20" movie theatre. They play a long list of different movies including the movie "Expelled". Our young people weren't trying to promote any peculiar movie just that it is a popular and congested place on a Friday night for the youth and other adults to hang out and go to the movies. We didn't know until the last minute if the booth would be allowed to stand in front of the theatre. We are praising God for allowing us the prime location.
Our teens were the ones confessing to the curiosity seekers what God has done and is doing in their lives. Two teens would usually be in the booth at a time while the other teens, their parents and other adults slowly walked around the theatre praising God and praying for open and receptive hearts. One girl listened for a while and got tears in her eyes. She was definitely moved, but didn't respond but was invited to come back if she wanted to talk later. Two different times I saw guys stop who may have first been drawn to the girl in the booth, but their mannerism soon showed their curiosity turned to really listen with a sincere heart. God was touching hearts last night. I just felt privileged to be there. I can't wait to get the full report of the whole evening, but honestly only God knows the whole story and we may never know this side of heaven.
I could go on and on and tell you many more exciting things that God is doing in and through the people at Central. We are glorifying God for blessing us with abundant joy to be able to be a participate in His Work.
Sue Adams
posted at 6:10 PM
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