Abundant Life University Has Begun

Abundant Life University got off to a great start last night as 101 people attended four courses that were offered during the Winter semester. We offered Fireproofing Your Marriage; A Bible Study on Romans 8:28; The Theology of Israel; and The Life of the Cross (an evangelism course).

Three out of the above four courses will run eight weeks and one will be a six-week course. All of them will conclude by March 29. On Sunday, April 5, we will offer Letters from Dad, which is four sessions offered three weeks apart. I'll be surprised if this course does not have a higher attendance than any courses we've offered during the last three semesters. It is a hands-on, practical study that produces results that can be seen immediately.

I was pleased with the 101 adults who chose to take part in the above discipleship emphases. Our Children's Ministry had 53 children in choir rehearsal and another 27 leaders, plus nursery care. That was excellent. Was it a good adult attendance? I think anytime you get 181 people together on a Sunday night it has to be good. That is a large group for us. Our Missions Conference will surpass that figure by quite a bit, but discipleship is new in our church. Maybe we are right where we should be at this juncture of our infancy. I would have thought 140 was a minimal number, but we are not at minimal yet.

Five years from now I hope that we have about 25-35% of our Sunday morning attendance involved on Sunday night. I hope that we will have many of our leaders in that group and Christians who desire to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. Our world is changing at break-neck speed. It is probably changing faster than it ever has in our life-time. The truth of the matter is that in five years folks will probably be meeting every night of the week in some capacity. It won't look anything like it does today. The bottom line is that we are turning believers into disciples!