After someone makes a profession of faith, then what? How can the church help new members increase their biblical knowledge so they can share their faith with others?
Those are questions the Southern Baptist Convention has asked a new task force to consider. The group of seven SBC pastors from Texas to Tennessee have been charged with recommending steps that church pastors may take to their congregations to improve their disciple-making process.
"This group will suggest a transferable process that any church can use in any context," says Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, in a news release. "The priority will be leading people to the Gospel and then putting them on a pathway toward spiritual growth and maturity."
Robby Gallaty, former pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church for seven years, was announced as chairman of this convention-wide task force two weeks ago. Two other pastors serving on the committee also have local ties: Adam Dooley was formerly pastor at Red Bank Baptist Church and the Rev. Kevin Smith was a pastor at Love Fellowship.
Dennis Culbreth, Hamilton County Baptist Association director of missions, believes Gallaty is an excellent choice because he founded his own discipleship outreach while at Brainerd. Those who participated say it is an excellent model for a program that is adaptable to any size congregation.
"For years I think we have focused as a church on growing the breadth of the ministry with evangelism only," says Gallaty, now senior pastor at Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn.
"I learned when I was pastoring Brainerd Baptist that, if we could focus on the depth of people, grow a deeper understanding of the word in their prayer life and mission engagement, God would take care of the breadth of our ministry.
"We need a path for people to walk after they make a decision for Christ," Gallaty says, "a walkway for spiritual growth and I think that's where we've had an oversight in the church for so many years."
Culbreth desbribes Galaty's work at Brainerd Baptist as "a good laboratory."
"Robby did a fantastic job implementing an active discipleship program at Brainerd and it works," Culbreth says. "There were a lot of folks at Brainerd who were touched and grew as Christians. I think this (task force) is a step in the right direction."
Cheryll Smith and Alan Denton are two Brainerd Baptist members who participated in Gallaty's discipleship initiative, which were called D-Groups, three to five people who met weekly to study Scripture and learn from and encourage each other. Facilitators were Brainerd church members who felt called to lead a D-Group after hearing Gallaty reveal his dedication to the program during a Sunday service, says Smith.
Facilitators asked others to be part of their D-Groups, folks who might be church members or neighbors, work colleagues or friends, Smith says. Groups were free to choose the manner in which they wanted to study Scripture, she explains. For example, Denton's small group studied Scripture from the Bible, while Smith's group read Gallaty's book, "Growing Up."
"What I appreciated about this was that Brother Robby didn't ask us to do anything he didn't do himself. He had his own D-Groups," says Smith. "When you get in a group like that, you're very accountable to the other people in your group.
"You learn to memorize Scripture and you say those verses to other members of your group," she continues. "You're accountable, you're responsible and you can't help but grow in God's word as you study and memorize it."
The ultimate goal is that D-Group members become facilitators for a new group, Smith explains. "The value of discipleship groups is that they multiply. We now have 285 D-Groups at church with more than 1,000 people."
Denton, 25, says he was baptized during his junior year of college, but "coming to a deeper understanding of the commitment I'd made was something I hadn't explored."
When Brainerd Baptist member Bradley Chambers formed a D-Group, Denton joined.
"We talked about Scripture we read in the Bible, what God was teaching us, and talked about any questions we had," Denton says. "Almost every week we talked about some of the deeper theology as well. We felt we were training to replicate the process."
After a year, Denton began his own D-Group with three University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students. He is currently associate minister of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at UTC and has facilitated three Scripture-studying groups at UTC.
"I did a lot of the same things. We studied a Scripture in the Bible, discussed it and challenged each other to be growing and sharing rather than just learning for ourselves," he says. "We were learning for the person God was going to put in our path."
He says can see Gallaty's program being adaptable across the Southern Baptist Convention in megachurches as well as newly planted ones.
"It's about the people involved rather than the program," Denton says. "I see in my everyday life that people have a desire to be equipped and reach their community. This allows that to happen," he says.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States. Southern Baptists number about 15.5 million members, according to Religion News Service, down from its peak 16.3 million in 2003.
Culbreth, however, doesn't see the new task force as the SBC's response to declining numbers.
"I would hope it's more of a concern for true discipleship in the church, which is much needed," he says. "Those numbers reflect a genuine lack of understanding about what Christians believe, because we've failed in discipleship."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 4523-757-6284.