Training School
Want to live powerfully and love like Jesus?
Join the EDM Discipleship School
We believe that a truly abundant life of personal wholeness and deeply supportive relationships is available to all.
This abundant life is primarily rooted in deep personal connection with God, through the saving grace of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us. Building on the foundation of relationship with God and relationships with people, we become healed and whole, filled with compassion and joy that overflows into our neighborhood, our city, and the world around us.
The Elmira Discipleship Ministries Training School seeks to grow and equip all Christians to be leaders, representing the love and service of Jesus in their unique areas of influence and calling. This will be accomplished through practical growth in intimacy with God and intimacy with people, building aspects of faith, wisdom, and practice such as:
- What is God really like? Is God loving? Angry? Punishing? Rewarding? Is there something in my experience that may be blocking my clear view of God?
- What does God think about me? What does God think about the people close to me?
- How can I receive specific and direct guidance from the Spirit?
- Can I actually live a life of victory, or am I designed to mess up?
- What does it mean to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ as the Bible says? How do we ‘encourage one another and spur one another on to love and good works’?
- How can we grow in emotional health, mental health, and physical health? How do these things relate to spiritual health?
- What does it look like practically for me to love my neighbor? How do I share the love of Jesus with my community and city.
Due to the personal nature of some of these questions, students should expect a high relational component of the school. While we will incorporate some studying and learning in a more traditional academic fashion, we are intentionally structuring our training to be less academic and more relational than the word ‘school’ often implies. This is because of our firm conviction that to be a mature disciple of Jesus is not to have the highest level of academic knowledge, but to learn to love God and love people, the way that Jesus loves.
Details:
The EDM training school is a 9-month program running September-May each year. The school is intended to equip Christians to live out their faith in everyday life, so the time commitment is intentionally chosen to leave ample space for normal employment or additional schooling to occur in parallel with the EDM school. The time commitment will be 1-2 meetings per week, with each meeting running 3-4 hours, for a total of about 6 meetings per month on average. The cost of the school is $150 per month.
The EDM training school is non-residential and open to all ages 18+. In special cases, we may be able to arrange housing with a host family for students who are not native to the Elmira region.
The foundational principles of the Elmira Discipleship House program are taken from the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37-39.
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Our program is centered on these three objectives for a holistic discipleship approach:
- Love God
- Love Neighbor
- Love Self
Our desire is for students to graduate from the the Training School:
- Knowing their Father and having a solid independent relationship with Him.
- With a healthy understanding of their identity in Christ that allows them to receive value for themselves and others. And to be able to teach and lead others closer to Christ.
- To know their purpose in Christ and to be healed and prepared emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, to carry out the various callings of the Lord on their lives.
One of the main ways we learn to “Love God, Love Neighbor, and Love Self, is through intention community and deep relationships with God and others.
Applications Due
August 24th, 2019
Student Ministry Year
Start Date: September 9th, 2019
Graduation: May 30th, 2020
Applications for the 2019-2020 ministry year are now being accepted!
Pray, ask God what He desires for you, and if the Elmira Discipleship Training School is a good thing then click below!
Costs and Next Steps
Costs: Tuition for the school is $1350. ($150 per month) It can be paid in full, or monthly. $100 deposit (also first month payment, is due by all accepted students on September 1st).
Next Steps: Download and fill out the application! Please note that school is limited to 20 students, and we encourage you to send your application sooner rather than later.
