Our mission at CFBC is “Maturing Disciples to Make Disciples.” We believe God formed our church to fulfill that mission, and led us to adopt John 15:8 as our key verse. It states, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Among the more fruit we believe God wants us to bear at CFBC is to produce more disciples. May it be our collective prayer that each of us will strive to mature as disciples so that we can make more disciples. That’s our vision for CFBC and here are the A, B, C’s of our plan on how each of us at CFBC can mature as disciples to make more disciples.

A    Apply the definition of a disciple to everyone professing to be a Christian.

Here is a simple definition and a comprehensive definition of what a disciple is.

• Simply defined, a disciple is a learner and follower of Christ (Luke 9:23). So if someone professes to believe in Jesus yet at some point refuses to follow Him, there’s a real chance they are not a Christian and were never saved (1 Jn 2:18-19).
• A disciple of Jesus is someone (1) who by God's grace has been freed from slavery to sin to love God and (2) who is reconciled into a radically new relationship with God as His son or daughter (3) who is empowered by the Holy Spirit in such a way that every aspect of his or her life becomes progressively conformed to the authority of Jesus Christ as Lord (John 8:31-32). Not everyone who professes to believe actually believes, and therefore not everyone who professes to follow is a genuine disciple (John 8:44-45).

B    Believe the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, and pray for God to open doors, to open our mouths, and to open hearts for the Gospel (Matt 4:19).

• 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 20-28 is the Gospel. We have to declare and explain that
• Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, He paid the debt for sin and rose with the authority to forgive and reconcile to God sinners, who by grace turn from their sins and place their faith in Him (1 Cor 15:1-4).
• Through Jesus’ soon-coming return and rule over creation, He will reconcile all of creation back to God in righteousness, and He will destroy sin, death, Satan, and all of God’s enemies and make creation a paradise again (1 Cor 15:20-28).

C     Commit to gathering and fellowship so that God can use you to mature the saints of CFBC (Ephesians 4:11-16) through using your gifts to do the one anothers.

In general, growing happens by applying God’s means of grace to worship God and love others like Jesus did. So commit to coming out to our Sunday School Equipping Hour to learn for yourself and to help others learn God’s Word and how to apply it. Fellowship at a lighthouse and grow by loving others. Gather for corporate worship and experience the transformative power of God’s presence through the preaching of His Word and the full gifts of the body. Also depending on where you are in your growth in maturity as a disciple (1 Cor 3:1-3; 13:11; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 John 2:12-14) here are some specific things you can do to grow:

• Spiritual infants: evangelize and be fed milk and stay close to the flock for protection.
• Spiritual children: evangelize and get help to start feeding yourself. Learn the basics of the faith, take responsibility for using your gifts to serve others, and fight against sin and Satan’s schemes that will destabilize your spiritual walk and toss you back and forth.
• Spiritual young adults: evangelize and get coached/developed/supervised to take on significant ministry responsibilities. Also, learn to dig deeply into the meat of God’s Word. Stay accountable and learn from examples of mature Christians.
• Spiritual parents: Keep evangelizing and serving the body by helping spiritual children grow, and/or training spiritual young adults. Stay in your word and on your knees in prayer.

In summary, maturing disciples to make disciples is a process that we all have to commit to. It starts with all of us proclaiming the Good News about Jesus and it continues with everyone gathering with the intent to grow and to use our gifts to help others to grow (Hebrews 10:24-25). Bearing this kind of fruit glorifies God and that’s the reason why CFBC exists (John 15:8). We are “Maturing Disciples to Make Disciples” (Matt 28:16-20).