Greg Silker, Director, talks about the mission and vision

  Several years ago God gave us the call to plant a Witnessing/Discipling Community (WDC) in every sub–culture of the University. A WDC is a band of followers of Jesus who "support one another in the word and prayer and reach out in redemptive friendships".

They share their lives together. They spur one another on to love and good deeds. They are a small "simple church". They multiply and start other small simple churches to fill the campus and the world.

Some of these WDC’s have connection with a larger expression of the body of Christ (the kind of churches that meet in buildings and have programs)…some do not.

We feel that God is giving this call to many on the campus to whom we have no formal connection, except that we love each other and try and help each other wherever we can. Our desire is to be part of God’s world–wide movement of multiplying "simple churches".

We have so much to learn that we hesitate to make too many proclamations (fortunately there is always the delete key!).

We feel like we can best describe our ministry team as a band of missionaries. Each of us targets a different area but we all support one another and have a common goal. Some of our team provide specific kinds of ministry, such as recovery and prayer ministry for people struggling with addiction and those needing healing. The one thing we seem to do best is to mobilize and support those with a call to bring the gospel to the campus.

Our team longs for real community (God save us from professional ministry!) and we truly want to love one another. We are learning in this as well.

We have a motto for our team:
For God above all
For one another
For the university

Keys that have been impacting us:

  • Acts 13 –– Waiting on God, being in that intimate place with Jesus where we hear his voice and feel his heart for us and those he is sending us to.

  • Luke 10 –– Jesus' method for sending his disciples out two by two; looking for a "person of peace" ( a key person in a social group with an openness to God ) to establish a new community of disciples.

  • Spectacular failures –– How can we learn from them?

  • The grace of God –– it’s way better than we know!

  • Obedience–based vs. knowledge–based discipleship –– learn, then apply; pray and obey. It’s more important to apply what God shows us than passively learn for five years before we do anything.

  • God’s Word as our discipleship manual through basic inductive Bible Study –– "What does it say? What does it mean? What is the Holy Spirit calling me to obey?"

  • Jesus sent us out to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons –– We need to obey him in this. We need his power.

Greg Silker

The Grid: Describing a Witnessing/Discipling Community

  In any given sub-culture, a witnessing, discipling community "supports one another in the Word and prayer, and reaches out to their peers in redemptive friendships, with the aim of affecting transformation by multiplication".

"The Grid" is our attempt to concretely describe the DNA of witnessing, discipling communities (WDC). This acts a diagnostic and a filter for planting and leading a WDC in a specific sub-culture on the University campus.

The 4 aspects of "The Grid" can be broken down as follows...

Supporting one another in the Word
  • How is the group growing in the Word, both personally and together?
  • Are members reading the Bible together inductively?
    What does it say? What does it mean? What is the Spirit calling us to obey?
  • Has the Bible study been handed off to students?
  • How is the group developing a Christian Worldview and foundation in apologetics?
Supporting one another in Prayer
  • How do group members give and receive prayer?
    How are you fostering vulnerability?
  • How are group members Hearing from God and ministering to one another and others?
  • How are group members seeking the Spiritual gifts (healing, prophecy) in and out of the group?
  • How are group members engaging Spiritual Warfare fighting/delivering, working thru conflict?
Reach out in redemptive friendships
  • Are you Praying for friends and sub-cultures?
  • How are you Connecting? Who are you there for?
  • How are you getting people in the Word to meet Jesus?
  • How does "friends" include Ministry to the poor?
  • How are you embracing God’s heart for the nations?
Discipling for multiplication
  • How is the wdc seeking to Multiply? Is it multiplying?
  • Are you praying for laborers and seeking "persons of Peace" as you
    go out, demonstrate and hand-off ministry (Luke 10)?
  • Are you diagnosing "invite in, start new, or plant in oikos" when starting a WDC?
  • Do you have a Leader and co-leader?
    (How are you giving responsibility to members/handing-off?)
  • How are leaders getting in-depth training in the Word and Spirit, leadership, mission, and pastoring?
    How is the WDC connected to the "city church or house of prayer?"

The Grid is something we are still refining, as we do, fail, learn and succeed. Keep a lookout for updates!