You may have heard the term “DPOD” recently. If you didn’t know what that meant, it is the Discovery Path of Discipleship.
About a year ago I began developing a discipleship program. During the early stages of that development I was encouraged to begin sharing my work with group leaders so that everyone would be familiar with it as it matured. You probably noticed awhile back that you hadn’t heard anything more about it from me. The short version of that is, I haven’t been working on it. Between construction planning/development and other duties I could not develop the material within the necessary time. Pastor Sharpe stepped in and continued development of the discipleship program. It is now very different than the material you may have seen from me. Also, it will be deployed and maintained in a very different fashion.
My original vision was to organize the program around groups and supplement the work of the group leaders by providing them with a host of resources and helpers (guides) to help group members grow. DPOD has been reorganized around the goal of pulling participants from the pool of congregants that do not attend a group. The advantage of this is that more congregants will be engaged in continuing development while not adding additional burdens to group leaders or pulling people away from exiting groups. As the DPOD rolls out it should have a minimal impact on groups but a significant impact on the church as a whole. The hope is that as people develop in the DPOD they will eventually transition into groups for long-term community and connection.
If you have questions about DPOD please do not hesitate to reach out to Chad for further information.