How to Build the Local Church with Disciple Making | Matt and Tina Wilson

Building a Disciple Making Church: One-to-One, Scripture, and Multi-Generational Ministry

In this session, Matt Wilson shares how Ecclesia Christian Church grew over 11 years from a living-room gathering to more than 2,000 weekly attendees by centering everything on discipleship and community rather than platform-building or treating churches as stepping stones. He emphasizes loyalty to where God places leaders, warns against rushing small groups without qualified leadership, and advocates one-to-one discipleship, slow leader development, and resisting “terrorist” pressure tactics from demanding members. Ecclesia built clear pathways (DNA/core classes), discipleship-oriented serving teams, and an annual Easter-to-Pentecost churchwide 40-day disciple-making initiative with prayer, fasting, meals, and baptisms. Tina describes “Step Into Scripture,” a reproducible whole-Bible, yearly reading and table-leader model that builds biblical literacy across the body. They highlight integrating all generations, empowering students (including “Student Takeover”), and honoring every ability through ministries like Shine for special needs, aiming to equip the church to reproduce disciples.

00:00 Welcome and Warmup00:54 Discipleship First Church02:56 Faithfulness Over Platforms05:27 Small Places Big Impact06:44 Groups Versus One to One08:49 Slow Leadership Pipeline12:02 Serve Teams as Discipleship13:20 Forty Day Churchwide Push15:23 Step Into Scripture Model21:07 One Body All Generations25:01 Special Needs Shine Ministry28:35 Maturity Milk and Meat31:59 Discipleship Come With Me36:03 Panel Family Culture QandA45:51 Empowering Youth Takeover50:31 Women and the Word51:38 Closing Affirmation

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