Discipleship as Missional Spiritual Formation

The Mission Servant School at Creekside Covenant Church seeks to provide an antidote for the general lack of discipleship found in the Church today. The Mission Servant School was developed to be a process whereby participants engage in a rhythm of spiritual formation – inward toward a deepening dependency on and knowledge of God, together toward a loving, authentic community, and outward as healing agents on mission toward the broken places of the world. Since its introduction in February 2010, thirty-three people have participated in at least one class at the school. This dissertation will look at the effectiveness of this process of missional spiritual formation to date.
Chapter 1 will introduce the problem of the general failure of an informational model of discipleship, the context for ministry found in the midst of a shift from Christendom to post-Christendom, the background of the project in my personal story, the contribution to Transformational Leadership, and one proposed solution – the introduction of a process of discipleship as missional spiritual formation. Chapter 2 will discuss other proposed solutions by reviewing literature that reflects on aspects of formation affecting both the problem and those other proposed solutions. Chapter 3 will look at the context of ministry, the tectonic shift from Christendom to post-Christendom and its effects on an understanding of discipleship, evangelism, and worldview. Chapter 4 will explore the biblical and theological basis of missional spiritual formation as an inward, together, and outward rhythm, beginning with the Trinity itself, through Jesus, the disciples, and on toward the Church at large. Chapter 5 will discuss in detail the process and curriculum of the Mission Servant School. Chapter 6 will outline the method of research that I used to examine the effectiveness of the Mission Servant School, including pre and post-surveys and interviews with participants. Chapter 7 will present the data gathered in the surveys and look beyond the data to attempt to discern the level of understanding and practice of missional spiritual formation and to what extent participants were affected by their participation in the Mission Servant School. Finally, Chapter 8 will bridge the story of the Mission Servant School to date with the next unknown chapter of the Mission Servant School in the future, both at Creekside and beyond it as a gift to the broader Church.