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Background of
Journey
The list of subjects in this section are:
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Structure of Journey
How Journey Was Developed
Journey's Foundation
Math and Acts
The Journey Bible Institute
The Power Of Multiplication
Why Serving is not Ministering
Learn About Student Journey
STRUCTURE OF JOURNEY
If you were going to choose which subjects a new Believer should learn to not only be grounded in the Word of God but to grow and be trusted to multiply, what subjects and topics would you choose?
There are hundreds to choose from.
Journey has 10 lessons inspired by the 10 Commandments:
Journey Lesson
1. Salvation
2. Assurance
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3. Prayer
4. Church
5. Discipleship
6. The Future
7. Spiritual Formation
8. Faith
9. Words
10. Loving God
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10 Commandments in Exodus 20
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Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Concept: My life is to bring glory to God and His Will.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…
Concept: The Bible is the preserved Word of God and the final authority in my life.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…
Concept: I want to grow closer to my Heavenly Father every day.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Concept: My church must believe in and only teach the Word of God.
Honor thy father and thy mother…
Concept: I will spiritually multiply disciples to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission.
Thou shalt not kill.
Concept: We are in spiritual warfare for the souls of every man, woman and child.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Concept: I must mature spiritually to live a holy life according to God’s Word.
Thou shalt not steal.
Concept: I believe that all things are possible with God.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Concept: My words must be in agreement with the Word of God.
Thou shalt not covet…
Concept: I will love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.
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HOW JOURNEY WAS DEVELOPED
Rev. John Honeycutt is the author of Journey discipleship lessons used in over 45 countries and 25 languages.
John Honeycutt's grand parents and parents were church planters, pastors and missionaries. John, with his wife Cathy, have been church planters since 1977 and have 3 adult children.
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They were designed because the lack of good discipleship materials for church planting.
Many discipleship materials are good at “grounding” new believers but fail to multiply them.
Journey is not just a new set of lessons done in a different way with a better look. The result is much bigger than that...it’s the strategy that Journey enables.
Journey has this purpose: leading people to Christ and discipling them to lead others to Christ and betrusted by their Pastor to do the same.
JOURNEY'S FOUNDATION
During church-planting, we have tried many kinds of lessons. We have tried other discipleship systems and the results were always that we had to re-write them, add to them, subtract from them.
I was impressed by Francis Shaeffers' little booklet he used for soul winning, Basic Bible Study, and a message I had heard on the Ten Commandments. If it helps Church planting, it will help any church.
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MATH AND ACTS
The word "disciple" is found 364 times in the Bible. One time in the Old Testament. The rest of the time it's in the New testament, but only up to Acts chapter 21. The word “disciple” actually comes from the word for mathematics as well.
The Bible doesn't use that word randomly. If it calls somebody a disciple, it means they had been discipled.
Every time we see the word, disciple it means that discipleship has taken place for that person to become a disciple. The Bible makes a very clear difference between people who become believers, and those believers who become discipled.
in Acts 21 verse 16, that's the last time it's used in the Bible. From then on, it refers to saved people in the church as the saints because you don't know whose disciples and who's not, that word “disciple” is very carefully used.
Now notice in Acts 2:41 that about 3,000 souls accepted Christ after a message from Peter.
See in Acts 2:47 that people were being saved daily.
In Acts 5:14 we see that “believers” were the more added and in fact multitudes were added.
And in Acts 5:42 these new “believers” were not being kept busy in the new church but they were being taught the Word of God…in every house.
Now here is the result of caring for and teaching new “believers” which is seen in Acts 6:1; the number of the “disciples was multiplied”.
You’ll never find “believers” multiplying in the Bible. And if the Bible uses the word “disciple” it means that discipleship has taken place and the result is always multiplication.
In Acts 6:7 we see that it’s really all about the Word of God being built into the “believers” and the result is they become a disciple and disciples multiply. The disciples were so well trained that they were even able to see Jewish priest come to Christ. How would your church members witness to a Jewish person let alone a rabbi?
In verse seven, the multiplication is described as a much higher or greater multiplication.
Acts 9:31 gives the nature result of disciples multiplying and that is the multiplication of local churches that preach, teach, and disciple with the Word of God.
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THE JOURNEY BIBLE INSTITUTE
The Journey Bible Institute adopts a strategy of winning an individual to Christ, seeing them discipled to the point of becoming a Disciple Maker, then they feel a desire to learn and do more with a possible “Call” to full time ministry.
The Strategy Overview for the Journey Bible Institute is:
1. Discipleship training - one on one
2. Bible Institute - group training
3. Spiritual Leadership - smaller group training
4. Launch New Leaders - one on one
We believe the individual must acquire certain “skills” in order to thrive in full-time ministry. In our experience, those skills are…
Having the ability to Disciple a new Believer to the point of multiplication.
Knowing how to conduct Outreach, Visitation and Follow-up.
Knowing how to start, teach and lead group Bible Studies and Disciplers.
Knowing how to plan, organize, recruit, nurture and grow a group and Disciplers.
Knowing how to lead, conduct and nurture through Worship Services.
The Certificates and Degrees we confer are:
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Certificate in Discipleship
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Degree in Biblical Ministry
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Degree in Ministry Leadership
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Degree in Spiritual Leadership
For a Certificate in Discipleship
The 118 Subjects below are learned in Journey Lessons for this certificate
* This Ministry Skill is learned: Having the ability to Disciple a new Believer.
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THE POWER OF MULTIPLICATION
God is interested in multiplication. He is not interested in addition, He is definitely not interested in subtraction accept where needed. But He is interested in multiplication.
The first man and woman, the first instruction that they were given was that they were to reproduce and multiply. After the earth is destroyed in a flood and the with surviving human beings get off of the ark their firs instruction is to multiply.
When Jesus is upon the earth, everything He did, was to make sure that you and I would get the Gospel almost 2000 years later, and the way that would be done is through multiplication.
Even in the Old Testament when the Jews were taken captive by an enemy and they asked God “What do we do now?” He said to not diminish to continue to grow and multiply so that they would not be overtaken.
The power of multiplication in the local church in reaching people with the Gospel and developing leaders and enlarging the inner core of faithful members in the church can only be done by multiplying them.
That can not be done in a group setting or just from all the ministries that we have seen churches use. It can be done from a one on one discipleship ministry. When you utilize the Journey discipleship materials you are putting into place the power of multiplication.
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WHY MINISTERING IS NOT SERVING
Probably the number one strategy that churches and pastors employ is getting people as involved as possible in the church, as quickly as possible.
Of course, there is a need in the church for people to serve to be able to function effectively and efficiently. However, as a strategy for the people, it is a failed strategy. In fact every religion has people that serve in it. They are not believers and yet they are actively serving.
And once again, there is a great need to develop the concept of community among the believers in the church. But as a strategy for church growth or to grow the believers, this strategy fails every time. The reason is, it’s the exact opposite of what we as leaders and preachers, teachers, missionaries, church planters what we are called to do. We are called in Ephesians 4:11-12 to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry.
Now ministry is not serving. Serving is not the same as ministry. If you study this, and you look up the verses in your Bible and you will find every time ministry is described it always contains these elements: It contains someone who has the Word of God and is transferring it in some way to someone else. But that is not the same as ministering, when someone has the Word of God and they are transferring it to someone else, they are serving but they are serving by ministering.
So, if we will do what the Word of God says we will see disciples multiply because we don’t just get them busy in the Church, we get them effectively working with the Word of God with someone else and that produces solid church growth.
This is not a new plan, it is the original plan.
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LEARN ABOUT STUDENT JOURNEY
Student Journey contains 2 sections with 13 lessons each.
They can be used for 2 quarters.
The goal is for students to disciple each other, one on one, peer to peer.
The first section of Student Journey covers these subjects:
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God
Bible
Sure
Pray
Sin
Holy
Church
Baptism
Giving
Future
Devotion
Truth
Witness
The second section is an effective study of Ephesians 4-6. These lessons are highly effective and spiritually grow young people closer to God and His Word.
There are Resources online for each lesson.
The same book is for the discipler or disciple. Each book has blanks and the Church Leadership gives the answer sheet to their Disciplers.
Every page has additional resources on the website and has at least one QR Code (Quick Response Code) so the students can see an introduction, or a summary or additional thoughts from their smart phones while using the lessons.
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