Continuing Discipleship....

We are currently in Chico, California for about 10 days of conferncing and workshops. The last 6 days have been for our Discipleship Training Schools(DTS), and then the next four days are our west coast staff conferences.

As I sit here in the lobby waiting for all our friends from other YWAM locations to show up and the rest of our staff I've been thinking alot about continued discipleship after students leave our schools. This was a topic that came up during our DTS workshop. As YWAM we have been so good at training students and "ruining them for the ordinary", but we have been horrible at seeing them continue in discipleship after they leave our little green house environment. We set up this super cozy super unrealistic environment for 5 to 6 months and then release them to the hounds once they leave our staff. We have them in 12 hours of lectures, 3 hours of intercession, worship 3 times a week, small groups, tons of accountability. Then we send them home to people that sometimes don't understand what has changed in them or how their worldview has been insanely changed.

So we are trying to create ways to have them flow into continued discipleship after they leave our base, and that we don't just drop them after they leave. We are going to try connecting with their pastor before they leave, what they expect, ways they can help them when they come home. Sending them materials when they get home. It's been really cool. It's something i'm going to try committing to see changed at our base and the way we run our DTS's in Pismo!

I'd upload some new pictures but we are in the middle of nowhere. So it would take forever. I may put some new pics on this weekend when we go to starbucks or something.