| The health and impact of the Church depends on the formation of followers of Jesus who engage life well with God and others. Current discipleship literature and studies of the American Church reveal a decline in church attendance and a lack of knowledge and life application of the gospel. The conversations that do and do not occur in any church tell a more accurate, revealing story of church health than church reports.;A desire for relationship, and hence, conversation, lies at the center of God's interactions with humanity. Rather than disengagement, God personally challenges, probes, dialogues, and asks questions of men and women to which He already knows the answer. By walking with God into conversations, Christians can similarly see common verbal exchanges become transformative spaces where they and others can grow in discovering the gospel and experiencing life with God.;This project examines (1) dialogue in the Scriptures, (2) current church examples of discipleship through conversations with a special emphasis and case study presented on CityVine Church in New York City, and (3) conversational skills found in the field of coaching to present a way for churches to move away from program-based discipleship toward a discipleship culture of greater formational impact where every Christian receives and gives discipleship. The research undertaken and applied through the field project enabled a transformational shift at CityVine Church from program-based to an emerging organic discipleship through conversations that holds import for any church. |
