By Chris Moon
While many churches have been gearing up for Easter worship services and the crowded sanctuaries expected this weekend, leaders at Ekklesia Christian Church in Conway, S.C., have been thinking hard about the 50 days after Easter and how to disciple all those folks who show up on the big day.
For the past five years, Ekklesia has engaged hundreds of people in a post-Easter discipleship program that moves people from spiritual milk to meat, with a goal of baptizing many on Pentecost Sunday.
Having the “bloated attendance” on Easter weekend doesn’t mean much if all those new people aren’t brought into the life of Christ and the church, said Tina Wilson, Ekklesia’s women’s ministry leader and wife of lead pastor Matt Wilson.
“If it doesn’t produce longer-term fruit, it’s not really a win,” she said.
The goal is “immediately plugging them into the next step of discipleship,” Wilson said.
Ekklesia Christian Church has a video-based “40 Days with Jesus” discipleship curriculum that engages new believers in the basic tenets of Christianity. Those 40 days correspond to the time Jesus taught his disciples between his resurrection and ascension.
Ekklesia follows up those 40 days with a more communal “Ten Days to Pentecost” program. Participants meet each night at the church for 10 days to learn about the scriptural distinctives of the church and the particulars of Ekklesia Christian Church.
It all culminates on Pentecost Sunday. The church is planning a mass baptism at a local river that day.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic shut the marina to the church during the past two years, Wilson said, 30 to 50 baptisms would occur on Pentecost out of the several hundred people who signed up for the post-Easter discipleship program.
“I feel like it has been very, very successful,” she said.
THE BASICS OF THE FAITH AND THE CHURCH
Ekklesia leadership is working with RENEW.org to publish its curriculum later this year, Wilson said.
The actual discipleship effort starts well before Easter when regular church attendees are encouraged to invite people they know to come to the Easter services and participate in “40 Days with Jesus.”
Starting on Easter Sunday, participants begin receiving an email from the church each morning with a short, written synopsis of that day’s discipleship material along with Scripture texts to read and a link to a 20-minute video produced by the church.
The first 20 days are designed to answer basic questions about Christianity. Topics include the Trinity, prayer, and what it means to be saved.
On Day 21, the program goes even deeper by focusing on topics related to the Christian life, such as how to take control of one’s fears, how to reach out to people with the gospel, and how to use one’s gifts and abilities for God, Wilson said.
After those 40 days conclude, the “Ten Days to Pentecost” program gathers people together nightly in the church auditorium to dive into core truths about the church and, specifically, about Ekklesia Christian Church. Topics include the corporate responsibility of the church, the individual responsibility of each believer, and qualifications for leaders within the church.
The five core values of Ekklesia Christian Church also are discussed.
Oftentimes, people from other Christian backgrounds will want to know what it means to be an independent Christian church that doesn’t adhere to any official, written “creed.” What does it mean to simply follow the Bible and try to be a church like the one described in the New Testament?
‘A LIFELONG COMMISSION’
Ekklesia Christian Church started in 2014 and moved into its first building three years ago. Attendance tripled to 800 at that time, Wilson said.
Today, 1,400 to 1,500 people attend its four weekend services. The church is expecting 2,000 or more people for Easter weekend. It has to hold its services outside for the holiday.
Ekklesia’s “40 Days with Jesus” and “Ten Days to Pentecost” are key components of making new disciples at the church, Wilson said. The church’s context calls for deeper teaching about Scripture, she said.
“Christianity is very much viewed—traditionally has been viewed—as a ‘one-and-done, I’m saved, signed, sealed, and delivered, and there’s not much more to say about that,’” Wilson said.
The church, however, tries to remind people discipleship is a process of lifelong learning. As a person submits to Christ, he or she also engages in the Great Commission.
The “40 Days with Jesus” and “Ten Days to Pentecost” programs are a key part of that.
“It’s helpful to us because it really embodies that idea of a lifelong journey and lifelong commission,” Wilson said.
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
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