Drew explains how the student life department at the Bible Institute is exploring new ways to create a culture of discipleship for students who desperately need it.
Drew Burtis '11 & '12
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“We like to divide discipleship into three different categories. First , there’s relationship discipleship. This involves a home group setting where staff and students get to know one another.” In these home groups, a staff member hosts students for board games or a meal in a casual fellowship context. This comes back to the community factor; relational discipleship is about bridging the gap of Christ-centered relationships in these students’ lives.
Joe Schenke '82 & '83 is the director of biblical counseling at the New York Bible Institute campus. He oversees a team of intern counselors, each of whom are graduates of the Bible Institute program. These students gain hands- on experience in counseling students on campus, and they come away with valuable training and certification in biblical counseling for their future ministry. To illustrate the different types of discipleship, Joe draws from an analogy by Steve Viars from Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries 3 . “Discipleship can be described as a river,” Joe says. “The normal way we grow and change is in that discipleship river, and that river is headed toward Christ.” He explains that typical discipleship methods (both relational and intentional) help students enter the flow of the discipleship river. Every once in a while, though, we get caught in an “eddy" – a hardship or lifestyle that pushes us away from the regular rhythms of discipleship and growth. “Biblical counseling is the kind of discipleship that focuses on the person who’s stuck, so we can help them get back into the flow of the discipleship river.”
Drew goes on to share the second step of discipleship at the Bible Institute, which is intentional discipleship.
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“This is the more structured setting we refer to as a D-group. Every week or two, groups meet together to read God’s Word and discuss what they’ve been learning from their daily quiet time. There’s also a Scripture memory aspect to D-groups, as members learn a verse and recite it together. There’s accountability, as they push one another to become like Jesus. Finally, there’s a prayer aspect; everybody prays for a person they know who doesn’t know Jesus, but they also pray for one another on a daily basis.” Drew shares that the Bible Institute has been implementing this “D-group” model due to its efficiency and effectiveness in building a discipleship culture. “There’s a unique dynamic in the small group setting. It breeds the courage and transparency to share, often because of what someone else has shared. There’s a comfort for students in knowing they’re in this together and they’re not alone in their struggles.” Drew emphasizes that the goal is for every student to be involved in these first two forms of discipleship (relational home groups and intentional D-groups). The third type of discipleship is intensive discipleship, more commonly known as biblical counseling. Students today are facing many acute challenges in the area of mental health. Anxiety and depression abound on college campuses, and Christian colleges are no exception. Intensive discipleship, or biblical counseling, places a concentrated effort on addressing difficult issues from a biblical perspective.
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Joe Schenke '82 & '83
21 The Word of Life Experience
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