This is the story of God at work in a 175-year-old church located in the Chester County town of Edgemoor. People are becoming Christ-followers, small groups are multiplying, and the pews are filling up. But Pastor Woody Oliver wants to be clear about what is happening in Harmony Baptist Church.

“We are growing disciples that make disciples,” he said. “What God is doing here at Harmony is not based on a program. It has been a process. It involves relationships, which can get messy, but we are seeing fruit. Our church is learning through this that we can be authentic as we share Christ and disciple others.”

While Oliver is quick to own his passion for discipleship, he is slow to take the credit for what is happening in this rural, blue-collar community. A former football coach, Oliver admits he was not discipled after becoming a believer and said he has seen other church members who are in the same situation.

“I think the attitude toward discipleship has been, if people show up at church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, then discipleship would naturally take place. In the church, we have gone from one program to the next looking for that magic bullet that will transform our local church,” he said. Instead, the relational discipleship that is happening through the congregation is breathing new life into Harmony Church.

In the summer of 2013, Oliver approached some young couples in the church who had expressed a desire to grow deeper in their faith. The group committed to a 12-week discipleship study. By the end of the study, a few couples were identified as leaders for future groups. Members of the congregation, new believers, and other interested people from the community were then invited to join one of five new groups that began in September.

“Relational discipleship at Harmony Baptist Church is really the multiplication model of growing in Christ and reaching the lost,” Oliver said. “It has to begin with creating abiding relationships where we connect with one another at a heart level and through creating an environment where we intentionally pierce the surface of relationships to really know and accept one another.”

So how does a church start relational discipleship groups? At Harmony Church, key leadership attended Immersion, a two-day training on disciple-making offered through the South Carolina Baptist Convention, which prepared them with the basic principles for the process. Then Oliver chose NavPress’ “Real Life Discipleship Training Manual” for his church’s initial groups.

Oliver said he sees God “revitalizing an old church through spiritual transformation.”

“People are excited and want to get deeper in their study of Scripture,” he said. “New member-led ministries have begun, and congregational relationships are getting stronger.”

Harmony Church has baptized 19 people in the first half of its church year. Relational discipleship is transforming this community one life at a time.

— Adapted from the August 2014 edition of LiveIT magazine. Used with permission.