Lake Forest Church Discipleship Strategy
This is our game plan for reaching our vision - making more and better disciples of Jesus.
Download the full Discipleship Strategy document. 
At Lake Forest, our desire is that every follower of Christ would…
KNOW JESUS IS THE GOOD NEWS THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES AND IN COMMUNITY.
Good News: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, became fully human when he was born to the Virgin Mary. He was fully human and fully God. He lived a perfect life in place of our imperfect lives; died, as our substitute, the death we deserved to die because of our selfishness; and physically rose from the dead. He offers us full life by the promise of his own resurrection. He then ascended into heaven and today is our representative, intercessor, and advocate with God the Father. He is redeeming all things to His Father, “making all things new.”
Scripture: The Bible is God’s completely true Story about who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. It was given by God to human writers and so reflects their backgrounds, styles, and use of language. The Bible is the final and infallible authority on all matters to which it speaks. Because it is God’s Story, it is our best avenue for Knowing Christ.
Community: We were each created for relationship and we live this out by involving ourselves in community with other believers. The bible teaches that we are to be in relationship with one another as Christians. The author of Hebrews explains why: “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” We were each created for relationship and we live this out by involving ourselves in community with other believers.
GROW IN JESUS INTELLECTUALLY AND INTROSPECTIVELY.
Intellectually: We aspire to be a community of learners – people who know they haven’t ‘figured it out’ yet and are hungry to grow as people before God. Jesus encouraged his disciples to be learners, students of the Scriptures but also students of their culture, their history, of love, life, leadership, and theology (right thinking about God).
Introspectively: The Bible calls people to disciplines/practices such as fasting, prayer, worship, loving the poor, stewardship, celebration, and meditation. These Spiritual Practices train us to allow the Lord into our interior and opens doors for us to bring what we feel, value, honor, esteem, love, hate, fear and believe before Him to heal.
SHOW JESUS AS SERVANTS AND SALT.
Servants: Serving is a response to the love and grace we have been given through Jesus and not about “getting busy”. We have been invited to join in the eternal story and partner with God in Kingdom purposes. The Bible puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” God has equipped each of us with unique gifts to build and serve his church.
Salt: Throughout the Bible, salt is used to illustrate the follower of Christ as one of durability, fidelity and purity. We are people committed to peace, faithful in relationships, and pure in motive and action. Putting on these practices of Christ does not mean to simply act like Him outwardly. It involves a deeper inner practice lived out by daily making choices of peace with high integrity and moral ethics. How we carry ourselves when no one is looking is a practice that shapes our inner being.
GO IN JESUS AS MISSIONARIES TO OUR CULTURE AND TO THE WORLD.
To our culture and to the world: A natural expression of realizing the depth of love God has poured out on us is to pass this good news onto those that are on our front porch. To share the hope that Christ gives with those that don’t know this hope is to be caught up into the purpose of Christ coming: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world”. This is the Missio Dei. To do this in a manner that tells the good news of Jesus in word and deed, mercy and grace, and with faithfulness and justice is the call of every disciple.