Radical Sources of Change: The Conviction and Practice of Our Disciple Community

Liu Zhenpeng, Assistant Professor of Practical Theology (Christian Ethics) In the past five years, "Baptism in God" has been moving towards the goal and direction of "discipleship". The "disciple group" refers to all the faculty, staff and classmates of the college; we are all disciples of Jesus Christ, so we learn to be disciples of the Lord together. This is exactly the fulfillment of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20): to make disciples of the Lord. For students, if they do not first learn and practice in the college community to become disciples of the Lord, how can they fulfill the great commission of "making people disciples of the Lord" in the churches they serve in the future? ...

Kwong Zhenhua Associate Professor of Practical Theology (World Religions) has adopted a "one-to-one mentoring system" for students' spiritual cultivation since the fall semester of 2009. This shift is significant. Thinking back to thirty years ago, when I was a seminary student, the college mainly cultivated students’ spirituality through morning assemblies, morning prayer meetings and evening prayer meetings, and spiritual growth was seen as a personal relationship with God. The help of morning meetings and prayer meetings in spiritual formation is unquestionable. But the Bible also shows that the master-disciple relationship is an important channel for spiritual cultivation, and the relationship between Jesus and the Twelve Apostles is exactly that. Therefore, cultivating spirituality through the master-disciple relationship is a time-honored method, and its effectiveness cannot be replaced by other methods. ...