A phenomenological evaluation of a contextualized discipleship process and its effectiveness at Newlife Community Church, Pomona, California

The focus of this dissertation is to answer the question, "What design elements constitute an effective contextualized and responsive model for a vision driven discipleship process at NewLife Community Church located in Pomona, California?" The discipleship program at NewLife Community Church (NLCC) coincides with the vision. The vision is, "Growing Healthy Lives." Both the vision and the process for that vision were initiated and then implemented in response to the problematic need of NLCC.;NLCC had experienced several repetitive start up, yet unsustainable ministries because it had no clear direction or process for making disciples. Therefore, structural strides were made to bring about organizational reform. The reform would revolve around a singular vision of "Growing Healthy Lives." Growing Healthy Lives would be driven by a self-designed discipleship process.;The discipleship process is broken up into three specific levels. Each level includes a holistic curriculum, a custom designed journal as well as audio teachings that are designed to bring about spiritual and emotional growth. To what extent the people are growing in Christ will be the focused outcome to this dissertation. Hence, this dissertation will ultimately evaluate the effectiveness to this self-designed discipleship curriculum in a contextualized phenomenological study.;Over a period of twenty-four weeks, a total of ninety-three participants were tested. Level One tested the effectiveness of Identity Formation (Spiritual Identity) and Inner Soul Healing from forty-seven participants over an eight-week period. Level Two tested the effectiveness of Competence in Bible Understanding from nineteen participants over a nine-week period. Level Three tested the effectiveness of Confidence in Sharing the Gospel from twenty-seven participants over seven-weeks. Collectively, the entire discipleship process had the formative outcome of having a Strong Sense of Spiritual Identity. To accurately measure effectiveness a mixed method approach was conducted. First, quantitative testing was performed through before and after assessments measuring experiences and growth. Second, quantitative testing in the form of surveys, interviews, and written testimonies further capitalized on people's experiences to determine effectiveness. Accumulative data indicated a surge of growth leading to a high effectiveness for achieving its aimed outcomes found within each level.