Formulating A Covenant Of Discipleship For The Membership Of The Gwinnett Church of Christ

Author

David Chisholm, Abilene Christian UniversityFollow

Date of Award

12-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Primary Advisor

Carson Reed

Secondary Advisor

James Thompson

Committee Reader

Richard Wright

Abstract

This project addressed the lack of a covenant of discipleship for the membership of the Gwinnett Church of Christ (GCC). The purpose of the project was to develop such a covenant document to help all the members of GCC better live out the process of becoming more like Jesus. To provide a theological foundation for this project, I explored discipleship in the exhortation sections of the book of Hebrews, which specifically addresses the need for greater commitment and intentionality amongst a community of faith. I also explored the theoretical framework of how formulating a discipleship covenant document could create progress in the church system that is GCC. The intervention itself included a purposive sample of GCC’s members who studied the text of Hebrews together, reflected on the process of discipleship, and then formulated a covenant of discipleship to be used by the congregation as a whole. The covenant document itself intentionally utilizes language of acknowledgement in which we recognize that the process of discipleship is a work of God’s Spirit and that, as followers of God, it is our responsibility to listen to God’s voice and then, through the Spirit’s power, follow in the way of Jesus. Finally, I evaluated the success of this project and proposed future work necessary to continue assisting GCC in its mission of producing disciples of Jesus.

Recommended Citation

Chisholm, David, "Formulating A Covenant Of Discipleship For The Membership Of The Gwinnett Church of Christ" (2016). Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations. 25.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dmin_theses/25