Discipleship, Evangelism, and Discipling at Cornerstone Reformed Church
What follows is a general guideline to help us in the basics of the Christian life: discipleship (our own walk with Christ), evangelism (sharing the gospel with the lost and trying to lead them to Christ), and discipling (our helping one another know, love, and live for and like Christ). I hope it’s helpful.
Discipleship
Discipleship is our covenantal charge to march under Christ’s banner as His family—sons and daughters, warriors and worshippers, bound by His Word, Spirit, and sacraments. It’s not a lone-ranger slog; it’s the rowdy, joyful life of Cornerstone Reformed Church, loving Jesus and stomping sin together until His kingdom fills the earth.
Getting Started
We launch with prayer, Scripture, and the covenant life of this church. These aren’t warm fuzzies—they’re the steel backbone of following our King.
Prayer
Prayer’s our war-room huddle with the Triune God. Rich Lusk calls it “the pulse of covenant life”; Doug Wilson says it’s “grabbing God’s promises and shaking’em till they drop.” Pray for your daily bread—God’s not too big for your flat tire—but don’t stop there. Pray like a priest and a soldier: for Cornerstone Reformed Church to shine like a beacon, for our kids to grow up swinging for Christ, for the lost in our streets to bow the knee, and for the gospel to kick every idol’s teeth in from here to the horizon. Pray Psalm 110—Christ’s enemies are His footstool, and we’re grinning with Him.
Prayer is especially important for rightly understanding and applying God’s Word. Before you read the Bible ask God to:
- Incline your heart to His covenant law—because you’re a stubborn mule without Him (Psalm 119:36).
- Open your eyes to see Christ’s glory shining through every page (Psalm 119:18).
- Unite your soul to fear His name—half-measures and half-hearted soldiers lose wars (Psalm 86:11).
- Satisfy you with His steadfast love, so you don’t chase the world’s trash (Psalm 90:14).
Engaging God’s Word
Scripture, like history, is His (God’s) story; but because we are the body of Christ it’s our story as well. Therefore, we dig in as a church because Scripture is God’s battle plan for His covenant people—it’s not a self-help pamphlet.
- Reading: Whether reading it out loud with God’s people, to yourself, or listening to it read, seek to catch the drift: God’s promises, our mutiny, Christ’s triumph. Take note of what stands out. Mark what hits you.
- Observation: Pay attention—circle God’s promises, underline our failures, scribble questions. What’s He doing? How’s Jesus the hero? Don’t simply breeze through the text.
- Interpretation: Wrestle it down. Who’s God talking to? Where’s the covenant glue—baptism, Lord’s Supper, church? How’s Christ crushing sin here? Check cross-references (is the passage quoting or referring to another passage), compare ESV and NKJV, lean on the Reformation Study Bible or the sermon of a trusted pastor. Every line bleeds gospel—find it.
- Application: God’s Word arms us to fight and live (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Is there a sin to axe? A promise to grip? A command to obey? Pick one or two, make a plan, and drag a brother or sister into it. Ask for help and accountability.
Praying God’s Word
Pray Scripture like a battering ram—Psalm 68: “Let God arise, His enemies scatter!” Beg for Cornerstone Reformed Church to stand tall, for our households to hold the line, for the gospel to storm the gates. Prayer’s our lifeline, but it’s also our cannon. It enables us to hold the line, but also advance it, banking on the power of God’s promises.
Memorizing God’s Word
Hide Scripture in your heart—“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Memorize verses, chapters, and whole books of the Bible. Sing it, write it, yell it. Do whatever you have to. It’s grunt work, but it’ll make you a sharper blade for Christ.
Participate in the Sacraments
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are God’s covenant handshake—real, not just props. Baptism objectively unites you to Christ’s perfect life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and glorious ascension—you’re His, soaked and sealed. The Supper’s a war feast—His body and blood fuel us to fight and bind us as one. Don’t skip; it’s where God meets and nourishes us.
Read Good Christian Books
Stock your shelf with covenant ammo. Read rich and deep, chew slow, talk it over with the church, and let it light a fire under you. Join or start a book study with other Christians and watch how the Lord grows you. Canon Press, Athanasius Press, Banner of Truth, Ligonier, and more… We are blessed beyond measure with access to great resources. Buy a book, or a grab a book off the church bookshelf, and take up and read.
Commit Yourself to the Church
Church isn’t a sideshow—it’s the covenant barracks. Hit every Lord’s Day—Word, Supper, Psalms and hymns belted loud. Join a study, serve—scrub a floor, teach a kid, haul a casserole. Give sacrificially. Know your crew: confess sins, share wins, laugh hard. We’re a family and we’re an army. Learn, laugh, love, and go to war.
Evangelism
Every soul at Cornerstone Reformed Church is enlisted to bring every area of life into joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ. A major part of this is proclaiming Christ’s Lordship and calling others to bow the knee to Him. It’s not about charm; it’s about telling the world Jesus is King, His kingdom’s coming, and they’d better get on board. We’re a covenant outpost, and evangelism is crucial to our raid on the darkness.
Pray and Prepare
Pray like it’s war—beg God to open hearts and to ready you for battle. Name your targets: that pagan neighbor, your smug coworker. Trust the gospel’s power (Romans 1:16), not your power of persuasion or communication. Know the message: God’s world, our treason, Christ’s conquest, our oath (God, man, Christ, response).
The Gospel
The gospel is the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ. But we need to lay out that good news in context in order for it to be understood properly. The context: God made it, we trashed it, Jesus fixed it. Lay it out:
- God: The Triune King built everything good and runs the show (Genesis 1:1). He’s holy, and He don’t play (Habakkuk 1:13).
- Man: We’re image-bearers gone rogue—sin’s our DNA, death’s our tab (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Hell’s the default unless God moves.
- Christ: Jesus, God’s Son, lived perfectly, died sacrificially, rose victoriously—He’s the covenant Lord who smashed sin, Satan, and death (Colossians 2:15).
- Response: Repent—ditch your junk—forsake sin and self and swear fealty to the King. He’s won; trust Him and live (Ephesians 2:8-10). Baptism’s your enlistment; faith’s your salute (Acts 2:38). Repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).
Step Out
Spit it out—at the diner, the job, the bleachers. Don’t flinch; the gospel’s a hammer. Win or lose, you’ve swung, and God’s grinning.
One-to-One Bible Reading
Grab a lost soul and study the Bible with them. Crack open the gospel of Mark and show them that Jesus stomps hell; or read Genesis with them so that they see that the world is God’s turf governed by God’s rules. Pray, pick a book in the Bible, and let Scripture do the heavy lifting.
Serve Your Community, Love Your Neighbors
Get dirty—mow a yard, grill a steak, open your home. Love is our apologetic; it’s the grease on the wheel of the gospel. Serve sacrificially, be hospitable, and tell them that Christ is King, and that’s why we care.
Invite, Invite, Invite!!!
Invite everyone you can to church—your barber, the store clerk, that neighbor with the loud truck. Get them to come hear the Word read, prayed, sung, and preached. Get them to come see the beauty of the gospel in and through Christ’s church gathered.
Discipling
In evangelism we are proclaiming Christ in hopes of people rightly coming to know, love, and live for Christ. If evangelism is having a baby discipling is raising that baby in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Discipling is locking arms with a brother or sister and charging toward Jesus. It’s iron sharpening iron—messy, loud, and covenantal (Proverbs 27:17). We’re a family and a brigade, building each other up for the fight.
Pray Through the Church Membership
Pray for the members of Cornerstone Reformed Church—every name, every battle. Ask God to forge us into His image.
Reach Out
Team up—pray with a pal, memorize Scripture with a brother or sister, read through a good Christian book with a fellow church member. None of us have arrived. We are all a mess in progress, so seek to grow together.
Live Life Together
Open your life by opening your door—seek to work, eat, play, and pray together as much as possible. Let people see how a covenant dad leads, or a mom trusts. Know the struggles and temptations of others and share your own. Lean on one another for encouragement and accountability.
The Mission
Cornerstone Reformed Church exists to bring every area of life into joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ. So plant Christ’s flag deep and wide—making disciples who live rightly under His reign through Word and sacrament, and His Word rightly applied in all of life. Discipleship steels us, evangelism storms the gates, and discipling builds the ranks. The earth is His, and we’re here to take it back, one soul, one street, one song at a time. Get in the fight, church!
May we come and experience and receive the culture of heaven each Lord’s Day, and then seek to cultivate and advance that same culture in our homes and to the ends of the earth week in and week out, for God’s glory, the good of God’s people, and the life of God’s world. Amen!