Who We Are?

ESI is a three-year mutual discipleship process designed to encourage pastors and church leaders to honor Christ being true to His Scriptures. ESI is not a church, denomination, or seminary, but rather a context in which pastors and church leaders from different Evangelical denominations and local churches can walk together in the gospel, seeking to grow in our walk in Christ. It is a process of mutual-discipleship that uses our personal study of God’s Word followed by group discussions to build up one another. ESI is designed to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Our focus is Jesus. That is why we commit time to study His Word. We are passionate to honor Christ by strengthening local churches to make disciples and evangelize so that no one will live or die without having the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Our Vision

In our ESI Group Meetings once each week, we discuss the Bible, pray, and give personal updates of our progress in Christ. We commit to stop walking alone, but rather to form gospel-centered friendships and help each other grow in our walk in Christ. We pursue Biblical unity based on a common commitment to the central truths of the gospel, agreeing not to separate over non-essential matters of Christian freedom in practice or preference.

Our Mission

      ESI’s plan of study is based on the Bible. The Bible is the final authority for all we do. We believe the Holy Spirit will guide God’s people into God’s truth as we study God’s Word. We do this in order to know Jesus, rely on His help, and become increasingly like Him in our daily walk and service with the help of the Holy Spirit. We ask God to transform us by His grace to faithfully reflect Jesus in our lives, marriages, families, ministries, and churches, for the glory of God.

God used Martin Luther 500 years ago to light a torch that brought the gospel back to its rightful place at the center. At a time when the Church had largely abandoned the central message of the Bible for thinking and for living, Luther’s study of God’s Word convinced him that salvation is not a diploma to be earned through self-achieved righteousness, as many taught, but rather is a gift from God – the gift of Jesus’ righteousness that we receive by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! After Luther’s gospel-discovery, the gospel continued to spread, transforming the lives of many around the world. The church grew, disciplining generations of believers to walk in the grace of Christ with His gospel at the center.

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How tragic that so many people lately have lost this gospel-focus. Operation World reports that in nearly every country, the church has fallen into the error of nominalism. Christian nominalism is something that outwardly resembles Christianity but does not give Christ His rightful place. Nominal (or cultural) Christianity often ignores the Bible, or sees the Bible as either a rulebook to follow, a talisman for magic powers, or a book of heroes (like David and Moses) to imitate their good example. But this is not why God gave us the Bible! The Bible is God’s story of rescue. The central message of the Bible is Jesus, His righteousness, and His work on the cross by which we are rescued and reconciled to God!

The gospel is the message of the depths of the riches of the love of our Heavenly Father toward us! Those who remove Jesus from the center of Christianity dishonor God by turning away from the light of His gospel, weakening His church, and leaving people in spiritual darkness, without God and without hope in the world.

     ESI began in 2002, committed to helping pastors and church leaders get Jesus and His gospel back at the center of our lives and His church. We seek to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures in the way we think, live, and serve Biblically in reliance on the Holy Spirit. ESI is an opportunity for pastors and church leaders walk together in gospel unity and Biblical friendship, to study the Bible personally, and then meet in small groups each week to discuss what we have learned. We ask God to help us grow in our love for Jesus and in gospel transformation. We ask God to make us useful instruments as He grows His church into the beautiful, holy, mature, healthy Bride of Christ.

What We Hope to Accomplish in ESI

• Form gospel-centered friendships that will encourage us in our walk of faith, in our fight against sin, and in our growth of gospel transformation.

• Strengthen local churches, helping pastors and church leaders honor Christ by thinking, living, and serving Biblically – understanding that the central message of the Bible is Jesus and his gospel.

• Equip God’s servants, putting into their hands a set of materials, useful to pastors and people involved in ministry in their local church. These we use in the ESI process to help each other grow in character, knowledge of God’s Word, and Ministry Skills (Romans 15:14) – encouraging one another to serve God by faithfully teaching and preaching the Bible with the gospel at the center, in order to mobilize local churches in evangelism, discipleship, and raising up the next generation of leaders.

• Train trainers to start new ESI-Disciples Making Disciples groups among pastors and church leaders in new cities. Our desire is to strengthen local churches to take the gospel where Jesus is not known or where churches do not have a gospel-focus.

I. What Do ESI Weekly Group Meetings Look Like?

The first part of ESI is an individual study which has two parts:

a) Bible Study: every participant studies a pre-assigned Bible passage and writes down what he or she has learned.

b) Ministry Skills Study: every participant reads a pre-assigned article or chapter of a book each week on a particular topic that is designed to develop Ministry Skills. We ask everyone to write a short paragraph each week summarizing and interacting with this material.

      This group meeting lasts 2.5 hours once each week. We normally meet in a local church room that one of the group participants will make available for his or her group. This group meeting is divided into three parts.

a) The first hour group discussion over what we learned individually in our assigned Bible passage homework. Each participant will take a turn at leading this weekly hour-long group discussion.

b) The second hour group discussion over what we learned in our individual Ministry Skills Reading/Study homework. Again, just as in the first hour, each participant will take a turn at facilitating this weekly group discussion.

c) Personal Reporting: the final 30 minutes of each Weekly Group Meeting we divide into Transparency or Accountability groups of 3-4 people each. Here we share how we are doing in our walk with God, and we pray for one another. The purpose of these smaller groups is to encourage our growth in Christ as we walk together (not alone) in our fight against sin. (In the case of a co-ed ESI group, the personal reporting group must be either men or woman, never mixed, due to the often-sensitive nature of things shared.)

d) Graduation: all the ESI groups in a city or region get together at least once a year to thank God for growth in our lives and to give each participant a certificate recognizing progress through the ESI process.

THE ESI METHOD HAS TWO PARTS EACH WEEK.

1) HOMEWORK

2) GROUP MEETING

    ESI’s three-year process consists of six Modules (coinciding with the local school semester system). Each semester Module lasts 15 weeks. An ideal ESI group has 10-15 participants. During this three-year ESI process, we study Romans, Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles. The ESI leadership has selected supplemental books and articles with great care, and these have helped many of God’s servants in their growth in Christ and in keeping His gospel at the center.

   We are committed not just to learn Bible information, but also to experience the Bible’s truth in daily gospel transformation. Paul identifies three types of evidence of gospel transformation in Romans 15:14 when he says, “I am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.” We ask God to make us like Jesus in these 3 areas: in 1) character, 2) knowledge of God’s Word with the gospel at the center, and 3) competence (skill) for ministry in reliance on the Holy Spirit.

II. Emphasis of Each ESI Module (6 Semesters):

    MODULE 1 – Foundations for Studying the Bible

    • Including an in-depth study through Romans Chapters 1-4

    MODULE 2 – Foundations for Understanding the Gospel

    • Including an in-depth study through Romans Chapters 5-8

    MODULE 3 – Foundations for Holy Living

    • Including an in-depth study through Romans Chapters 9-11

    MODULE 4 – Foundations for Biblical Preaching

    • Including an in-depth study through Romans Chapters 9-11

    MODULE 5 – Foundations for Biblical Church Leadership and Counseling

    • Including an in-depth study through II Timothy 1-4

    MODULE 6 – Foundations for Impacting the World Biblically

    • Including an in-depth study through Ephesians 1-6

III. Emphasis of Each ESI Module (6 Semesters):

1. Active in Ministry in their local church: each ESI participant needs to be involved in ministry in their local church, growing in the qualities of I Timothy 3:1-7.

2. Willing to walk together in Gospel Unity: Since ESI is mutual discipleship with people from different churches and denominations, we agree to set aside personal or denominational “theological boxes” to think Biblically in our group meetings – allowing the Bible to be our sole authority.

3. Growing personally: in reliance on the Holy Spirit, we seek to grow in personal holiness and to be active making Christ known.

4. Fill out ESI Application Form: Because of our desire to affirm the authority of local church leadership, we ask applicants who wish to enter the ESI process, to complete the ESI Application Form with pastor’s or other authority’s signature. Upon completion of each Module, we request the same approval for participants to continue to the next Module.

We invite you to join us growing in Christ through this mutual discipleship process!!

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