The Whole Disciple Podcast

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Family Member Identity Conversation Guide #5—Being a Multiethnic FamilyIn this episode, Christy sits down with John Messiah (Arabic mobilization director), Eddy Gil (associate campus director at Alamance), and Ricky Phillips (ethnic unity associate) to talk about the joys and challenges of living as a multiethnic church family. We also discuss practical next steps that each of us can take to grow in developing multicultural, multiethnic relationships in the church.Resources:Ethnic Unity Resources

It is God’s plan from the beginning to the very end for his family to be a beautiful array of cultures and ethnicities, with people from all nations. In Revelation 7, we see God’s final vision for his family is to be a great multitude from “all tribes and peoples and languages.”But how did we get there? Through thousands of years of God’s commitment to bring people from all nations, tribes, and tongues into his family. From the very beginning, God has been committed to his family being multicultural and multiethnic—from God’s covenant with Abraham fulfilled by Jesus, bringing God’s blessing to all nations and lived out in the experience of the church from the book of Acts until today.So now we go and tell whoever we come across about Jesus, and we intentionally take steps to seek out the people who we wouldn’t naturally interact with, in order to share the gospel. Then, we watch God gather people into our church from across all cultures and walks of life. When they come, we welcome them with open arms, and just like the apostles in Acts 6, we do our best to make sure nobody gets overlooked and nobody gets left out in our family’s fellowship. Resources:The Summit Church Ethnic Unity sermon series

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Family Member Identity Conversation Guide #4—Being Family with Multigenerational AdultsIn this episode, Christy sits down with Bryan Galloway (shepherding pastor at North Durham) and Dustin Wells (pastor for young adults) to discuss what it looks like to live as family with multiple generations of adults. They talk through the unique challenges for Gen Z and baby boomers at the Summit and churches like it, and how we can move forward in unity, grace, and intentionality.

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Family Member Identity Conversation Guide #3—Being Family with Kids and StudentsIn this episode, Christy sits down with Toiya Williams (director of Summit Kids) and Jeremy Berger (NextGen pastor) to talk about what it looks like to live as family as adults, students, and kids. They cast a vision for living as family with the church, where everyone of every age has a place, and give practical advice for parents and other adults in the church living as aunts and uncles for kids and students.

God’s family is a real family—with grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles and teenagers and kids—and when we live with the local church as family, we live out our discipleship across generational lines, both giving and receiving from those older and younger than us, as well as those who are our age, in a complex web of relationships that overlap and interweave.Christy explores this through Paul’s second letter to Timothy with four main points: 1. The church is God’s family. 2. When we believe the gospel, it creates new family bonds. 3. Biological/adoptive parents have a unique responsibility for the children in their homes. 4. Every generation is responsible for guarding the good deposit of the gospel and passing it down to the next generation.

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Family Member Identity Conversation Guide #2—Being a Member of a Local ChurchIn this episode, Christy sits down with Summit Church Campus Pastors Eric Gravelle and Warren Neverson for a chat about church membership. They talk about the challenges people face when considering church membership, give clear encouragement for those who are hesitant about joining a church, and cheer on church members who serve faithfully!

The question is not if every follower of Jesus should be a member of a local church but simply which one. God’s design for our lives as disciples is to be members of a local church. It’s a nonnegotiable in what it looks like to be a disciple-making disciple.1 Timothy 3:15–16 reminds us that all the instructions about what a local church is and how we should act in one are rooted in the gospel and in God’s mission to make disciples of all nations.Local churches are characterized by a combination of components:Right preaching of the gospel according to the ScripturesRight observance of baptism and communion Leadership and service of the elders and deaconsCovenant commitment of the believing members to God and one anotherGod designed us to live our lives in a web of familial relationships of covenant commitment—making a promise to God and one another to grow as a worshiper, family member, servant, steward, and witness. And we live that out as we baptize one another, share in communion, follow the leadership of the elders and be cared for by deacons, go tell the world about Jesus together and celebrate when new brothers and sisters join our family, and encourage one another toward hope as we wait for Jesus Christ to return again in glory and lead us to eternal life in the new creation.Resources:One in ChristSummit Church Membership CovenantStart the Membership Process at The Summit Church

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Family Member Identity Conversation Guide #1–God Made Us for FamilyIn this episode, Christy sits down with Lesley Hildreth, John Muller, and David Talbert for a conversation about living with the local church as family. Each guest shares their own journey to living with the local church as family, and then gives pointed and practical advice on how to take your next step to living with the local church as family. Then, we land the plane by each of them sharing how people can join in the family community at the Summit Church through small groups, women’s and men’s discipleship.

To be a healthy disciple of Jesus, you must live your life in and with a church family because God made us for family and made a family for us.God made us for family, and specifically to share in his communion of love. Romans 8:5-17 explains how we have received the Spirit of adoption, and we cry to the eternal Father, as our Father and because of that, we know and the Spirit knows that we really are now children of our Father, God. Children, we share in the benefits of his Son, Christ, with whom we are now heirs.God made a family for us–the church. The Bible’s story of God creating a family starts way back with God’s promise to Abraham to be the father of many nations that was fulfilled in Jesus. That by faith in Jesus, we join God’s family.So, when we believed in Jesus, we received everyone else who has trusted him as brothers and sisters, and ought to live that out by living with the local church as family.

In this episode, Christy teaches about the God-ordained practices of baptism and communion.She explains that baptism and communion are God-ordained gospel responses for us to grow to be more like Jesus. Baptism is our gospel portrait, and communion is our gospel meal.These practices are gospel responses that we experience not just with our minds and hearts, but with our bodies. Christy then dives deep into how baptism is about the gospel and talks about God’s plan to use baptism to make his church more like Jesus.

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Worshiper Identity Conversation Guide #5In this episode, Christy sits down with Curtis Andrusko and Raudel Hernandez to talk about preaching. They share their own stories of how they became preachers and then pull back the curtain on their sermon preparation process. Then, they talk through some practical steps for church members to be actively engaged in the sermon and listen to preaching in a way that helps them grow more like Jesus.

God expects his people to gather together to preach and hear the Bible. In this episode, Christy teaches from Colossians 1:24–29 about how preaching brings the Word of God, in order that the people of God would be more like Jesus. She ends with some practical next steps to grow as a worshiper through preaching:Listen and Prepare with ExpectationParticipate in the SermonReflect on the SermonUphold the Preachers with Prayer and Prioritize the Gospel Above All

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Worshiper Identity Conversation Guide #4In this episode, Christy sits down with Kyle Wilkinson, Janetta Oni, and Abby Hernandez to talk about worship through song. They all share their stories of how God grew in them a passion for worship through singing and how music fuels their love for God. They also talk through some of the complexities of gathered worship through singing, including how music affects our emotions and the challenges of worship music in a multicultural church family.

God expects his people to gather together to worship. Our weekend worship gathering is his idea, not ours. The practices of singing, preaching, baptism, and communion are ordained by God for our gathering to help us grow to be more like Jesus. In this episode, Christy teaches about worship through song by looking at Colossians 3:16 and the three different directions for our singing in that verse:Downward—God toward usOutward—Us toward each otherUpward—Us toward God

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Worshiper Identity Conversation Guide #3In this episode, Christy sits down with Pastor Chris Gaynor to talk about the ups and downs of prayer in real life. Pastor Chris shares his story of how he became passionate about prayer and pours out rich wisdom from his lifetime in ministry. Along the way, he explains some helpful and practical steps to help disciples of Jesus grow in praying.

Prayer is one of the most basic discipleship activities. In a really simple way, we might say prayer is just communicating with God—speaking and listening to him.Which means, prayer is ultimately about relationship. Through his life, death, and resurrection in our place, Jesus reconciled us to God and into a loving relationship with him—where he loves us and now, we love him back with our whole heart. And prayer is the ongoing expression of that right relationship with God in Jesus. Prayer is the way we delight in and wrestle with and just live daily life in relationship with God.This one time, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, said “Pray like this” and then gave us an example of how to pray. A lot of Christians call this “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “model prayer.” In this episode, Christy walks through The Lord’s Prayer line by line to help us understand how Jesus taught us to pray.

Discipleship happens in relationships, and we want to help! We’ve put together a discussion guide for you to facilitate conversations just like this one with the biblical community in your life!Worshiper Identity Conversation Guide #2In this episode Christy sits down with Eric Stortz and Michal Rudolph to talk about all things Bible reading in real life. They share their own passion for Bible reading, and give  some really practical advice for reading the Bible in different seasons of life. We get down to some of the nitty gritty of what to do when you sit down to read and how to do that in relationship with other Christians. Resources:Michal’s Practical Guide for Bible ReadingHow to Read the Bible Daily Revival on the Summit App

You can’t be a whole disciple without the Bible. From the very beginning of following Jesus, Scripture has been there—shaping how we hear the good news, believe it, and live it.In this episode, we explore Peter’s words in 2 Peter 1:16–21, where he compares his breathtaking experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with something even better: the Word of God. The Bible, he says, is a lamp that shines the light of Christ into our lives.We’ll talk about:Why the Bible is better than even the most powerful spiritual experiencesHow Scripture brings the light of Jesus into our heartsWhat it looks like to read the Bible with expectation and careThe Bible isn’t just words on a page—it’s where we encounter the living Christ by the Spirit’s power.

Worshipper Identity Conversation Guide #1: Discipleship happens in relationships. Use our Worshipper Identity Discussion Guide #1 to spark conversations with your small group, friends, or family.Season 2 of The Whole Disciple Podcast is all about our identity as worshippers. In this episode, Pastors Jonathan Welch and Joseph Scarfone share their stories of becoming worshippers of Jesus—and what it looks like to worship God in the whole of life.In this episode about Worshipping God Above All Else, we talk about:How everyday moments—driving, eating, parenting—can become worshipHow to practice Bible reading, prayer, and church life without falling into “do more, try harder”Why worship is both a me-thing and a we-thing, and how to build rhythms of worship in communityResources mentioned:The Valley of VisionBe Thou My VisionNo Greater Love: A Biblical Vision for Friendship — Rebecca McLaughlin

Season 2 of The Whole Disciple Podcast is all about our identity as worshippers. Each episode will explore what it means to live as people created for worship—and how that shapes every part of following Jesus.What is a worshipper, and what does that have to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ?In this episode, we explore how the gospel—“Jesus in my place”—is good news for worshippers. God made us to know, love, and obey Him, but we’ve all traded His glory for lesser things. The good news? Jesus lived the perfect life of worship we never could, and through Him we’re invited into true communion with God.We’ll also talk about how worship is both a me-thing and a we-thing—loving God always leads to loving others—and how the primary practices of a worshipper (Bible reading, prayer, and gathering with the church) shape our lives around Him.