RESIDENCY

Boot Camp is one semester before a two-year rotation where residents are asked to join with the group in order to discern their fit and to prove commitment to the process. This will always be a Spring Semester before kicking off the two-year residency in the Fall. 

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Reading 

• The Bible, Old and New Testament

• Reeves, Michael. Delighting in the Trinity: an Introduction to the Christian Faith. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012. 

• Perman, Matt, and John Piper. What's Best next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017. 

• Confessions, Augustine 

 

*** Christ Fellowship churches will provide books for those involved in the Residency Program.

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Mentorship

A personal mentor will be assigned to each participant, with a commitment to meet at least once every two weeks.

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Meetings 

• Thursday mornings from 6:30 - 8:30 AM, 12 Weeks

  • Starting February 4, 2021

  • Final Week - April 22

• Celebration Lunch - April 29

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Assignments & Requirements

• Each participant must commit to meeting at least once every two weeks with an assigned personal mentor

• Spiritual Journal with 3-4 key themes / topics from each biblical book with application to participants life

• Two week chart of time management in 15-minute increments for 14 consecutive days, including:

  • 4 daily fasts

  • 1 day, 24 hour solitude and silence retreat 

• Develop evangelism circle and begin prayer walking and sharing

• Full personality work up using 5 Voices, Strength Finder, and other tools designed to develop holistic understanding of who the participant is for ministry 

 

Work in the Church

For boot camp semester, participants will not be assigned a ministry role but will be tasked with making themselves useful. Much of ongoing ministry is the ability to see a need and contribute to cultivating and caring for the world around you. To this end, participants will he asked to assess their gifts and the needs of their church and find a strategic way to make things better. 

 

Dates and Topic Outline TBD 

 

Participants must faithfully attend weekly labs, meet with a mentor, and contribute meaningfully to discussion in order to be consider for admission into two year program. 

 

SEBTS Course Credit

We are currently working with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to create a course option for this semester. Masters level course credit will be available for those interested. This is the only portion of the program that will require tuition costs. 

 

Additional Paper Requirements for Course Credit 

1. Book review of each of two books

2. Spiritual autobiography 10-12 pages 

Reading

• Tunstall, Frank G., and Robert E. Coleman. The Master Plan of Evangelism. Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press, 1990. 

• Stiles, J. Mack. Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014. 

• Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2016. 

• Clark, Elliot. Evangelism as Exiles: Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land. Deerfield, Illinois: TGC, 2019. 

  • Four Fields Field Manual

 

Mentorship

Participants must continue meeting with a mentor at least twice per month. In addition, each participant is expected to find a younger believer and enter into a mentorship relationship with this person. Ideally, this person would be the product of faithful evangelism in the participants circle of accountability. 

 

Assignments & Requirements

• Create a custom map for 7-10 sessions of meeting with interested non-believers or recent converts for the sake of evangelism and beginning discipleship. Participants can use an existing model as a template, but must demonstrate ways they are critiquing and making it better. 

• Evangelism journal containing the equivalent of one gospel conversation per week (12 total). These conversations should be with different people and should vary in terms of the type of relationship the person has with the participant (i.e. a parent, a long-time friend, a neighbor, a total stranger). 

• Write three sermons or Bible studies designed to equip believers in the church to understand and live out Gods mission. These sermons or studies should be anchored in three distinct genres of Scripture. 

 

Work in the Church

Participants will be assigned to a semester ministry assignment with a focus on one of the following ministry abilities. Over the course of the four semesters, participants will spend one semester in each of these areas:

1. Teaching / Preaching

2. Counseling

3. Administration

4. Mission 

Roughly, ¼ of the participants will be assigned to each area, with a desire that participants begin with an area of ministry that they (or their mentor) believes they have the most room to grow. 

 

Weekender

Weekend trip at some point in the semester to provide short term evangelism support to a church planter in our region. This will be a two-night venture where participants will both share the gospel regularly in a cross cultural setting and where they will serve to free up church members in a new location to share the gospel. 

 

SEBTS Course Credit 

Both Semester 1 and Semester 2 will be matched with corresponding courses at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and credit will be given for those students desirous of doing the additional work required for credit.

Reading

• Goheen, Michael W. A Light to the Nations: the Missional Church and the Biblical Story. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011. 

• Hammett, John S. Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: a Contemporary Ecclesiology. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2019. 

• Kuyper, Abraham, Nelson D. Kloosterman, and John Halsey Wood. Rooted & Grounded: the Church as Organism and Institution. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian's Library Press, 2013. 

• Keller, Timothy. Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2012. 

• The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000

• Survey of the Pastoral Epistles 

 

Mentorship 

Ongoing mentorship will continue, but during this semester assessment will be made as to whether the current mentor is the best fit and consideration will be given for forming new mentorship relationships. 

 

Assignments & Requirements 

• Weekly Reports on subset of Keller’s book

• Church Drop-In Reports. Systematic Review of various church models by assessing singular church expressing different forms of ecclesiological practice 

• Baptist Faith and Message 2000 review and discussion. Presentation on any hang ups 

• Summary review of SBC life and the work of the Cooperative Program. Presentation by key SBC leader

• Sit in on 2 elder meetings and write summary report of lessons and takeaways  

 

Work in the Church

• By this point they should be apprenticing or leading a small group and taking spiritual responsibility for a subset of the church under the care of a pastor 

 

Practice

• Pillar Network Next Up Immersion. 3-4 day training event for next round of leaders

 

SEBTS Course Credit 

Both Semester 1 and Semester 2 will be matched with corresponding courses at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and credit will be given for those students desirous of doing the additional work required for credit. 

Details TBD 

 

*** It is not until this point in the process that we would allow an individual to raise support for a paid position with the church.

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Details TBD 

 

May 2023 

Graduation/Commissioning