Get ready, get set...go ye! Emerging disciples in the postmodern era

The thesis of this dissertation is that discipling, as the foundational mission of the church as outlined by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20), is cyclical and intergenerational in order to maintain a current and vibrant message for every new generation. Further, this discipling requires a church with the built-in life force Alan Hirsch terms Apostolic Genius comprised of missional DNA which is "the central complex of guiding ideas, phenomena, structures, and experiences that made the phenomenal Jesus movements genuinely dangerous stories...and effective tools of God's redemptive mission to the world.";The very different postmodern mindset of this current generation coupled with rapid technological gains has significantly changed the course of the Christian race today requiring a change in how we "run the race"...how we "do church." The advent of the Internet and social media has changed the way we interrelate personally and globally as well as changed our philosophical foundations resulting in an intergenerational church divide and, ultimately, the loss of our young adults from church.;This project uses SKYPE interviews of recent graduates from the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, to update church practices to attract and keep the postmodern generation by evaluating the effectiveness of our discipling programs, surveying the status of our young adults' current faith walk and works, and by developing a continuing intergenerational link to ensure the discipled actually become the disciples. We interviewed using the Narrative Research Methodology of Appreciative Inquiry to encourage all of the participants to "tell their story" with the backward glance of an appreciative eye.2 Their recollections of positive and productive times at Emmanuel and in their current church communities enabled the participants and the LAC to construct a preferred future. The conversations with the focused goal of discipling formed new relationships between elder and younger, new self-perceptions, and a renewed determination for seeking guidance, getting/giving support, providing feedback, and, thereby, become the next generation of leaders and disciplers.;1Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: +reactivating the missional church (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006), 67. 2Sue Annis Hammond, The Thin Book gfAppreciative Inquiry (Rend: Thin Book Publishing Co., 1998).