Cultivating Lifelong Followers of Jesus
Discipleship Ministries (DM) exists to cultivate lifelong followers of Jesus Christ through small groups where students are known, loved, and engage in spiritual practices centered on the Gospel.
Discipleship Ministries is comprised of:
- Discipleship Small Groups (DSG),
- Upperclassman Discipleship Small Groups (UCDSG),
- and Strongholds
Every DM group is marked by 7 disciplines, which define each gathering:
- Engage Scripture (Open and Read the Bible)
- Pray for One Another
- Apply the Gospel
- Practice Humility: Listen in Love
- Promote Vulnerability: Confess Sin and Share Struggle
- Uphold and Celebrate Kingdom Diversity
- Meet Consistently
The goal for each group is to foster what matters most in life: entering into life with God together with others by engaging Scripture, prayer, accountability, support, spiritual growth, encouragement, and friendship.
All discipleship groups span throughout the course of a year, however, we encourage students who enter or transfer into Wheaton mid-year or return from being away to stop by the Chaplain's Office or email us to inquire about small groups they can join.
The following chart shows the various levels of undergraduate student involvement.
Types of Discipleship Ministry - Group Involvement
Discipleship Small Groups (DSG)
DSG strives to cultivate lifelong followers of Jesus Christ through the prayer-filled reading of God’s Word in life-giving community. The main priorities of DSG are to engage with Scripture, apply the Gospel, pray with one another, listen in love, confess sin, celebrate kingdom diversity, and meet consistently. These floor-based small groups (in either Fischer or Smith-Traber) are mostly first years and sophomores that meet once a week for 90 minutes.
Upper Class DSG (UCDSSG)
UCDSG seeks to inspire students to grow in their faith through the reading of Scripture and the development of spiritual disciplines in community. With the accountability of a small group of peers members will be challenged to read Scripture regularly throughout the week, will meet once a week for 90 mins for prayer, fellowship, encouragement, and to discuss and share what they have been reading and experiencing. Groups can be either single- or mixed- gendered and are open to any sophomore, junior, or senior. Members also have the opportunity to request being in a group with other friends who join UCDSG.
Strongholds
Every person has experiences with sexuality, but many of them never feel the safety to voice and tackle these experiences. Strongholds is a joyful, safe, and Gospel-rooted community that pursues freedom from sexual sin and restoration from sexual brokenness by engaging sexuality with Christ at the center. Groups meet once a week for 90 minutes to practice vulnerability, celebrate overcoming temptation, discuss Gospel-centered sexuality, and lift one another up in prayer. Groups are split by gender and welcome students from their first year through their final year.
Student Testimony
Bethany Faulds, '20
Psy.D. Student at Regent University
Christ calls us onto a path that is difficult and narrow. Christ invites us into a journey that is rewarding and life-giving. Nowhere did I see this tension and beauty – and experience the fruits of it – more than in Discipleship Ministries (DM) during my time at Wheaton. DM provided a loving, restful space every year for me at Wheaton. One of my dearest friends to this day was in my freshman year Discipleship Small Group. I still mentor two girls from the group I led by sophomore year. I keep up to date with the leaders I coached my junior year, and multiple members of the cabinet I led senior year have flown out to visit me after we all moved post-graduation.
Additionally, I still turn to Ray Chang and my own small group leader, Ms. Candice Eisenhauer (Health Professions Director who has committed to serving in DM), for advice. Relationships that are formed when a group of individuals gathers around Jesus together truly last a lifetime. DM gave me a picture of what it looks like for the Church to be a family. Not only did this usher me into deeper relationship with the Triune God while I was at Wheaton, but it has also given me a model of what to look for and help create in my new local community. Many people have never experienced the intentional encouragement, self-giving support, and loving mutual accountability that I found commonplace in DM. I now have a passion for fostering these types of environments in the world outside of Wheaton so that all may receive these good gifts from God.
Looking back now as an alumna I am able to see how essential these experiences were to my development as a Christ-following leader. The trainings and practical application opportunities I had in DM have equipped me for a multitude of scenarios.
I see the influence of DM in how my new roommates and I do life together, in my ability to listen well and facilitate conversation as I pursue my career as a psychologist, and in my confidence to step boldly with Christ into difficult situations. Because Ray Chang and others in DM believed in me and afforded me great responsibility within the ministry as Chair, I have learned how to use my voice to advocate for others, how to lead a team full of diverse perspectives and skillsets, and how to trust in God to meet our needs practically.
Today, I lead a Christ-centered small group in southern Virginia that seeks to encourage people in their faith, while also finding ways to work against the sin of racism. The ages, races, ethnicities, and nationalities in the group are incredibly diverse and the topics we discuss are extraordinarily sensitive, intimate, and personal; DM played a large part in my ability to partner with Jesus in facilitating such a group. I believe true discipleship in Christ is the key to many of the issues facing the world and Church today and I am unendingly grateful for the ways DM trained me up in the way I should go and impacted my eternity.