We learn and grow most in community

We follow a biblical pattern for equipping. Before leaders can shepherd others, they must first experience God’s love and comfort. We want every leader to receive from God before they give to others (cf. 1 Cor. 1:3–4; Eph. 4:32; John 13:34). This rhythm makes equipping both natural and reproducible.

Here are some practical reasons for this sequential approach:

• You can’t give what you haven’t received.

• Your private life with God fuels your public ministry.

• Your personal experience with God gives you vision and confidence to disciple and care for others.

The ABIDE Cohort helps you grow as both a disciple who abides in Christ and a disciple-maker who walks with others in God’s story.

The cohort will offer a transformative and deeply impactful experience for your team.

Your elders, wives, and key ministry leaders will share a common experience, common framework, and common language—strengthening collaboration and deepening a church-wide culture of discipleship, care, and community, from the pulpit to the preschool. This is where your beliefs become your practices.

Together, leaders can more easily equip the saints for the work of ministry—humbly recognizing that none of us ever arrives.

As leaders learn how Jesus makes a difference in everyday life—and help others discover the same—your leadership bench will deepen in sustainable ways, without adding staff.

First and foremost, you will encounter many challenges in recruiting a team and gaining commitment because of spiritual warfare. Here is a list of common challenges:

• The elders must prioritize and commit to the training amid competing demands.

• The elders will need to identify, recruit, and gain the commitment of non-staff leaders to build a core team that can eventually train others.

• There are no shortcuts to discipleship and sanctification. The upfront investment of time and resources will bear fruit over time, not overnight.

Yes! The cost includes almost 50 hours of personalized coaching and equipping over the course of the cohort. Another perspective is that you would pay an equivalent or greater cost if you flew, housed, and fed 12-14 leaders for a weekend conference or training, which would not result in the same depth of training or experience.

As leaders, you must consider the upfront investment for such training. You must prioritize your ministry initiatives and weigh out the time commitment for training that God will use to change you and the church’s culture. To be good stewards of your time and resources, you must consider the cost and benefits of anything you do.

However, it is difficult to calculate the worth of the following intangibles:

• Imagine members and leaders who become confident that God speaks to them through his Word, Christ restores their souls, and the Spirit’s power works in and through them.

• Imagine every church member learning to abide in Christ through his Word, freeing them to experience his love in increasing ways (Eph. 3:17-19) while living in the Fall.

• Imagine the love of Christ compelling and controlling the hearts of those in your church in increasing ways such that they “no longer live for themselves” but for Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-15).

• Imagine if everyone in your church understood how to live in a broken world as they live in Christ and can help others do the same.

• Imagine if every leader and member shared a common language, framework, and approach so that every member carries out your church's mission in creative yet consistent ways.

Yes! Here’s why. We’ve listed the benefits we have seen and heard over the years from cohort participants and churches. Listen to one church’s testimony about their initial hesitation, then appreciation for the 8 weeks.

Personal Reasons

• “I developed habits for abiding in Christ as a way of life.”

• “I learned how to recognize when I’m ‘living below the clouds,’ and when my desires and circumstances serve as my reference point.”

• “It helped to deepen my relationship with God over time as the Spirit untangled the lies I was believing.”

Community Reasons

• “As a leader, God gave me more compassion and care for others as we shared hearts and lives with one another.”

• “As we gathered weekly, we had the privilege of seeing how God worked in the lives of those in the group.”

Equipping Reasons

• “The eight weeks offered needed reps for abiding and learning how to live in God’s story.”

• “The two months offered repeated opportunities to lead the various movements of the group time, enabling me to love better— listening well and asking intentional questions.”

• “It took time to absorb the different aspects of God’s story and to develop a common framework and language for the group.”