The three present tense verbs in this statement form our disciple-making pathway. Summarized as Gather, Grow, and Go. In other words, we believe that in order to be healthy a disciple must…

• GATHER with the body of Christ.
• GROW in the grace of Christ.
• GO with the gospel of Christ.

This process is not linear but cyclic. In other words, one never completes the process of becoming a healthy disciple in this life. 

We endeavor to achieve these steps in the following ways:

As we think about helping one another grow in the grace of God, we need to be mindful that spiritual growth is produced through both knowledge of God and community with God’s people. To help facilitate both of these needs we think in terms of learning and community spaces. Learning spaces include Sunday School classes, Core Classes, and Support Groups. Community spaces include Community Groups, Discipleship Groups (D-Groups), Senior Adult Fellowship, Women on Mission, and Men’s and Women’s Ministry events.

• Near-culture: those who share our language and basic culture. Normally, these people live in close geographic proximity to us.
• Cross-culture: cross-culture evangelism is commonly referred to as missions. This evangelism requires that we cross barriers of distance, language, and/or culture in order to engage others with the gospel.

In order to encourage and facilitate broad involvement in going, First Baptist Powell will offer a variety of both near-culture and cross-culture missional opportunities.