The CGGC recently brought in Steve Pike, author, pastor, multiplication leader and founder of Urban Islands Project (https://urbanislandsproject.org/) to speak to our Ad Council and staff about the CGGC’s role in disciple making. One of the key take-aways was the importance of “platforming”. By platforming Pike means creating a space for thinkers and leaders to share wisdom, bring innovation, and generate discussion. Bringing in Pike was itself an example of platforming. Likewise, so was bringing in Brad Brisco for Triennial Conference back in July. This kind of platforming is something that the CGGC office feels is core to our role and mission. Providing pastors and church leaders with access to scholars, innovators, and leaders, especially in our current tumultuous climate, seems invaluable.
In that light, join us in meeting our two speakers for the upcoming 2022 Discipleship Forum.
Pastors Brian Phipps and Rob Wegner are coming to Findlay on October 24th-25th to share their collective experience and wisdom from years of disciple making, deployment, and micro church development. Phipps and Wegner both draw from a long history of ministry experience in prevailing model churches. Wegner served at Granger Community Church in Elkhart, IN for 21 years before joining the staff of Westside Family Church in Lenexa, KS. Similarly, Phipps served as the discipleship pastor at Westside Family Church for nine years and helped create Westside’s discipleship and leadership development pathways. Wegner was particularly influenced by his experience of witnessing disciple-making movements in Asia. Both men served successful, large churches and yet they saw the limitations of attracting the masses to Sunday-centric gatherings, especially in light of the growing numbers of unreached or even uninterested people in their city. Was it possible to shift from gathering the faithful masses to deploying disciple makers to every segment and neighborhood of their city? It was through this reality and tension that Disciples Made was birthed.
In addition to their work together at Disciples Made, they’ve co-authored a book together and their individual achievements are also worth noting.
Brian Phipps
Brian is the founder of Disciples Made, a disciple-making organization in Kansas City, which focuses less on inputs than outcomes, seeking to build genuine Christlike character, and help leaders find their disciple-making calling. As a Next Steps pastors for nine years, and also an experienced church planter, Brian has developed the tools necessary to help churches make an Intentional Disciple-Making Environment (IDE). It’s clear that Brian is passionate about creating systems and environments that help people become better followers of Christ, and that this would naturally result in better discipleship.
Brian received his BA in Religious Studies from the University of South Carolina, and a Masters of Divinity and M.A. in Counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
Brian and Carol were married in 1994 and have three children, Hannah, Sam, and Caleb.
Brian is the co-author of Finding your Place: Locating Your Calling Through Your Gifts, Passions, and Story, co-authored with Rob Wegner.
Rob Wegner 
Rob Wegner is the founder of KC Underground, a network of micro churches, disciples, and leaders in the Kansas City area. Likewise, Rob is on the Disciples Made executive team with Brian. He has served for 21 years as a served as Teaching Pastor at Granger Community Church (Granger, IN). During the last 25 years Rob and Michelle Wegner have been involved with thousands of church plants. Rob and Michelle trained church leaders who planted 700 churches internationally in just 4 years. (KCUnderground.org).
Rob and his wife Michelle have three daughters— Madeline, Whitney and Belle. As a family, they love living deeply in their neighborhood, hiking, photography, and being silly together (Disciplesmade.org).
Rob is a prolific author of the following books:
Missional Moves: 15 Tectonic Shifts that Transform Churches, Communities and the World (Exponential Series, Zondervan)
Made For More, coauthored with Todd Wilson.
Find Your Place: Locating Your Calling through Gifts, Passions, and Story, co-authored with Brian Phipps.
These two gentlemen will be the leading voices at The 2022 Discipleship Forum, which is set to run from Monday, October 24th, 2022 starting at 2:30 P.M. through Tuesday, Oct 25th, ending at 5:00 P.M.
If you’re interested in learning practical ways to do disciple-making in your local context, please click the button below.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 16, No. 40
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