Written by Andrew Reneau
Dr. Carl Williamson and Grant Fitzhugh, the College Church of Christ campus minister, hosted last weekend a retreat for their discipleship program at Camp Areopagus in Faulkner County.
The weekend, titled the Disciple Making Groups Retreat, saw 85 participants from active discipleship groups. They bonded through guided prayer, snacks and exercises such as thinking about individual spiritual growth.
Evangelistic groups are meant to spread the gospel; so it was ironic when Dr. Williamson said the retreat was filled with cliques.
“It is the only retreat I know of that you are supposed to be a clique because you come with your disciple-making group,” Williamson said.
While the purpose of the retreat was to strengthen existing groups, group numerical growth happened after the weekend. Freshman Bella Harrington said discipleship groups are about reaching people.
“You are supposed to go by fours and multiply two-by-two as your group continues to expand,” Harrington said. “If one group started to multiply right now, in 31 years the entire world would be reached.”
The weekend’s classroom sessions were based on a definition of a disciple inspired by Matthew 4:19; A disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus and committed to the mission of Jesus.
In a retreat recap email, Williamson said he prays the discipleship program morphs into a church-planting movement.
Sophomore Ellie Kate Fitzhugh said she learned about herself over the retreat.
“I needed to be more expressive with my faith and not let people guess that I’m a Christian by the way I live my life,” Fitzhugh said. “I need to tell them about Jesus and share the gospel with them.
