God gave us the free gift of Jesus. All we have to do is recognize that we need him and  believe that he died for us, then we are welcome into the kingdom. Those are the only steps necessary when people are deemed “Christians” or “Born Again.”  All done. You are a Christian.  The end….

Except that’s not the end. We are called to make disciples not just converts. 

People, in Uganda, are hungry for more of God. They are so hungry that we see them repeatedly attending the many tent meetings, conferences, crusades, evangelism outreaches, and prayer meetings that come through our region. They raise their hands to be counted as a “born again.” Sometimes this is for the first time, but often it's for the 10th time. The result is thousands of coverts to Christianity that can be tallied and marked as a job well done, but there are no disciples of Christ made from these moments.

Making disciples is our goal, knowing that after someone accepts the free gift of Jesus, they will then need help learning how to follow his teachings. We help people work through the Bible in a really simple way by focusing on small, attainable obedience steps that people set for themselves (with the help of Holy Spirit). People take small steps, focusing on getting one foot in front of the other. Each time their community meets to seek God together, they encourage each other to continue that slow but important growth in their faith. 

This is accessible discipleship, small incremental changes leading to lifetime growth. 

Up close it doesn’t look like much, but when you zoom out, you see many people who are growing in their faith as directed by the Holy Spirit. In time, these people will be confident disciples of Christ because He matured them through these small steps, week-by-week, through a simple methods anyone can do and fit into an already busy schedule.  

We are all called to disciple people. We at House to House are simply providing tools to help that happen. 

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One of our greatest realizations as we developed our model for House to House, was that when someone became a believer in Jesus they would stop interacting with their friends and grow an entirely new set of friends within the church. We realized that by doing this, people were cutting off their former friends from the opportunity to hear God’s truth through this new believer. So when this happens, one person becomes God’s disciple, but we left behind their entire community! 

We see this often happening with the attraction model of church. If the goal is for people to go and bring new people to the church to hear from a Pastor about God… eventually you are going to need a building big enough to house everyone. And a church attractive enough to keep people there! 

We, at House to House, have different goals. Our goal is to spread God’s word INTO new GROUPS of people! When someone gathers their friends and family to learn about God together, they can do all of the things the bible calls us to do as a church. Church just happens, not in a building, but when people are meeting in houses, under trees, in businesses and anywhere people naturally gather. Then those people will want to share about their experience with other people in other parts of their lives and they will be able to go and replicate this simple model of church with other groups of friends and communities. These new groups of friends and communities will want to share what they are doing and they will want to go and create this simple church with more communities.

So while people are embracing relationships they already have, God’s message is moving IN. 

We want to help make disciples who make disciples. Disciples who share about God’s love from person to person or in groups or whenever they make a new relationship. It’s slow going, but it’s ongoing.

Wouldn’t things go faster if House to House had a discipleship school?

We hear that question all the time when we talk about our focus on discipleship in Uganda. Many of our own staff have been through, or even taught at, discipleship training schools. We understand that a concentrated amount of time to focus on learning about God can be valuable and help with the maturation of a believer rapidly… but it is not replicable.

We strive to be replicable in all of our methods so that the spread of God’s word throughout Uganda is as grassroots as possible. Creating a discipleship school simply isn’t going to work with that goal in mind.  

There are some obvious reasons that a school would slow the organic spread of discipleship. Creating a school takes time, money, a location, books, material, people to administrate, and people to teach the students. Schools are costly, and finding the financial resources to sustain a school is difficult and time consuming.

The less obvious but more important reason that a school disrupts the organic spread of discipleship is that if it comes in the early years of a believer’s life, it can hamper their ability to share their faith. Young believers share with their friends the little bits they learn about God as they slowly grow in their understanding of him. The slow exploration into learning about God’s character through his word and the Holy Spirit is new and exciting knowledge. Naturally, they take each little piece of new knowledge they acquire and try to apply it to their lives. This process is slow for a reason; it is a complete transformation of their character. 

If they attend a discipleship school before they are able to be confident in God’s training plan (growth through trusting God, his word, and the Holy Spirit) then once they attend a school, they are filled with a flood of knowledge of the Christian life and have no way to convey all of it to someone else. It’s just too much.

We have seen time and again that putting a believer through a school at the wrong time in the maturation of their faith can hinder their ability to trust the Holy Spirit’s leading. Sharing what they are learning through the bible and the Holy Spirit is enough to evangelize to those around them.

With the heavy knowledge download that is a discipleship school, a believer can become more reluctant to share their faith with others. How can I convey all that I now know about God to someone else on my own? they ask themselves. A training school at the wrong time in a believer’s life undermines their confidence to make disciples and turns them into a neon sign pointing toward a discipleship training school instead.

We at House to House know God’s original training plan is enough. It is an act of trust in God, his ultimate training manual (the bible), and his best trainer (Holy Spirit) to grow people in their faith.

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you. (John 14:26, GNT)

When we allow new believers to rely on God’s training plan and they are pursuing that plan within a small gathering of believers who hold them accountable to grow and develop, then we see them grow in their faith and their ability to share their faith increases.

Uganda is a beautiful country with a difficult history of oppression and tribal division through British Colonization, the horrific reign of President Idi Amin, and the over 20-year terror of the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army. Ugandans are resilient, strong, forgiving, and kind people, and they desire to thrive.

This is where we are stepping in, into a people who are finally free of war-time life and are seeking to find themselves, their value, their authority all over again. They are such a strong people but a people who have been oppressed by governments, rebellions, and even aid groups. The repeated message to Ugandans has been, “You are helpless. You cannot do this yourself.” They have been made to feel like victims with no authority. They have been exploited and stereotyped as “poor helpless Africans”.

We want to be different. We want to empower. We don’t want to “fix” Africans, because they are not broken. We take our foreign perspectives out of the picture, as much as possible, to allow space for God to work through Ugandans. Through reading the bible and hearing the Holy Spirit, we know that Ugandans are able to grow in their confidence of discipling one another. We know that God has called each of us (not just Westerners) a chosen people, that all who know God to declare His praises.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. -1 Peter 2:9

We love working with Ugandans, and our calling is to provide them the resources and discipleship they need in their process of becoming more confident leaders and disciplers of others around them. Ugandans have a unique understanding of who God is, that they bring to their conversations with other Ugandans. When they are able to share God’s love in their lives with others, that is the beginning of a ripple effect that can transform all of Africa.

When we started this journey of trying to make disciples in Uganda, I had so much fear. What if they only believe false teachings? What if I don’t lead them onto the right path? How will they know God, and how to follow him, if I don’t show them every step? CLEARLY, I need to guide them!!! Man was I wrong. I was afraid and more importantly I didn’t trust that God could do it without MY help. (Yikes!) Fortunately, God worked in my heart as we started this venture in 2016 and we started our own house church in our home, in Gulu, using the Discovery Bible Study Method (DBS). DBS is an amazing tool that helped me get out of the way and give authority over to God where it belongs. It’s beauty is its simplicity to allow the bible and Holy Spirit to speak to the individual participating. It was a refining year in my spiritual life and I learned that I had to dial my enthusiasm to teach way back. What I want to teach, might not be what that person needs to hear! But scripture and Holy Spirit ALWAYS speak right to the heart where I can’t.

So for those of you interested in a method that might help you get out of your own way and create discipling relationships that are life giving and pointed directly at our loving God, then you might want to give this a try! Below is the DBS method we’ve written out for Ugandans.

Discovery Bible Study Method Steps

UP


1. Vision: State simply and clearly your reasons for meeting together: “We want to learn how to Love God, Love one another and Love the Lost together”


2. Thankfulness: What are you thankful to God for right now? (go around in circle and allow/encourage each person to answer)


3. Needs: What is the greatest need in your life right now? (go around in a circle and allow/encourage each person to answer)


4. Pray for each other's needs (either together out loud or separate depending on the culture)

IN


Reporting:

1. What was last week’s story?
 (someone gives a summary in their own words)

2. How did you do obeying what you said you would obey? (go around in circle and answer)

3. Who did you share it with? (go around in circle and answer)


4. Did you pray for 1 person in our group?

Bible:


1. Bible: Read the passage, reread at least 1 more time


2. What does the passage say about God? (all people answer)

3. What does the passage say about People? (all people answer)  

OUT

1. Obedience: How will I obey what I am hearing from God in this passage? (go around in a circle and answer)


2. Sharing: With whom will I share what God is doing in my life? (go around in circle and answer)

3. Prayer: Commit to praying for 1 person in this group at least once this week. Pray for their obedience step and the person they will share with. (each person designates who they will share with)

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Motorcycle Taxi Stage in Gulu

House to House's headquarters are in Gulu, Uganda. Though there are many tribes in Uganda, a large portion of Gulu is made up of the Acholi people. The Acholi Tribe has just over 1.5 million people who live in the North of Uganda and straddle the border into South Sudan.

The isolation caused by the rebel activity of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) has led Gulu, Kitgum, and Pader districts to be almost entirely populated by this one tribe in contrast to the diversity seen in other regions of Uganda. Gulu district has a population of over 400,000 and is a hub of activity for the Acholi people.

Since the LRA left the region in 2006, there is now a sense of peace in the area. The time for emergency relief and recovery is over, and the time for rebuilding social structures has begun.

As an agricultural society, farmers commute daily from smaller villages to sell their crops in the larger cities. This combined with breaks in the farming seasons leads to lots of travel between villages and major cities throughout the year.

Woman in the Gulu Market selling local brooms

As the gospel expands in Gulu, we envision the gospel following natural relational lines into the villages throughout the region. We believe the gospel will expand from Gulu out to access surrounding areas and countries that have unreached and unengaged people groups.

Our hope is to engage and empower local congregations to reach out to the surrounding regions and tribes.