Well the cat is out of the bag. I feel personally that the D3 Network of discipleship material is the most life-changing curriculum available for the discipling of His people. It is profoundly simple and simply profound.
Authored by one of my great friends, Chad Craig, Divine Design for Discipleship is a book that has been a foundational text for me and the discipling of people in the ministries I have served in. This week’s episode, Episode 3 – D3 Network Teaching #1, is a 15 minute condensed teaching covering the topics in the first two outlines of the D3 Network material. The first two outlines are entitled “Introduction,” and “Ages, Stages, and Phases.” The episode covers quickly the main points from these two outlines to give you an overview of how the discipleship curriculum is laid out.
The foundational text for the curriculum is Hebrews 6:1-3: “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.”
These 6 elementary teachings about Christ are connected to 3 AGES, referring to the three major periods of time you will live through before you enter eternity. The first 2 elementary principles of Christ are repentance and faith towards God. They are the principles that brought you out of the first age of your life and brought you into a second age. The first age is the period of time when you were under the sway of the wicked one and you walked according to the lust of your flesh. After being born again, you now live in the second age or period before you enter into eternity. The second pair of elementary teachings about Christ are the doctrine of baptisms and the laying of hands. You, in this second age, are a part of the Body of Christ in which you administer the rule and reign of Christ upon the earth. The last pair of elementary teachings consists of resurrection from the dead and the eternal judgment. The third age is the coming period when Jesus Christ visibly reigns over the nations of the world for 1,000 years. These ages, coinciding with the 3 pairs of principles, can be summed up as follows: how to exit Satan’s kingdom and enter the kingdom of God, life once in the kingdom, and the end judgment of our faithfulness to the kingdom of God.
There are 4 STAGES on your journey toward maturity in Christ: babe, child, young men (women), and father (mother). These come out of 1 Corinthians 3:1 and 1 John 2:12-13. Your needs, diet, abilities, and knowledge differ according to the natural growth stage you are in. God does not deal with His children who are babes on the spiritual journey as if they were fathers in the faith. When you do not receive what God has for you in your current growth stage, you become the biggest enemy to your destiny of being conformed to the image of Christ and living out your calling for His kingdom.
The 5 PHASES of development that can be discovered in the the Word of God concerning God’s blueprint for His dwelling place are: foundation, transformation, formation, impartation, and multiplication. God has created each of us as spirit, soul, and body according to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The foundation phase relates to the spirit of man. The transformation and formation phases deal primarily with the soul of man. The impartation and multiplication phases deal primarily with the body of man.
I strongly urge you and your ministry to consider being a part of the D3 Network of churches that use the Divine Design for Discipleship curriculum. Here at North Cleveland, we use this teaching for all of our student ministries, middle school, high school, and college.
For information about the D3 Network and its teachings, check out the site http://chadcraigministries.org – it will bless your life! Through the site, you can initiate your journey alongside of us as we seek to labor together for the discipling of all nations.
