Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

discipleship

“Valuable read for all church leaders”

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Happy Birthday to my book baby: The Discipleship Opportunity turns two today!! 🥳🎉🎊

Thank you to those of you who have read and reviewed the book on Amazon or Goodreads. It’s been super encouraging to see pastors, professors, denominational leaders, disciple-makers, and other leaders use this book in their ministries, as reflected in some of the reviews.
 
I pray that we will seize the discipleship opportunity before us to focus on the interested seekers and disciples in our churches and communities, while continuing to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to nudge and stir the hearts of the uninterested sleepers and consumers.

Spiritual Formation + Relational Neuroscience

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Spiritual formation, relational neuroscience, and how they intersect and interact with one another is going to be the focus of my doctoral studies for the next three years.

That’s right—12 years after graduating with my M.A. in Global Leadership—I’m starting my doctorate! I just got accepted into the Doctor of Ministry program at Western Theological Seminary. So, beginning this summer, I’ll be layering schoolwork on top of my existing and ongoing role and responsibilities as the Lead Pastor of Beulah Alliance Church. And what’s awesome is that I don’t need to relocate to Michigan to do the program. I can do it right from Edmonton.

This interdisciplinary program combining spiritual formation and brain science is the first of its kind, and I’m thrilled to dive deep into how the two areas integrate and learn from the cohort mentors, Dr. Geoff Holsclaw and Cyd Holsclaw.

But this isn’t purely an academic pursuit. Rather, the primary questions that are driving the pursuit of this doctorate for me are the following:

In this post-pandemic, post-truth, post-modern, post-Christian, and post-everything world, how can we lead our churches to effectively disciple people toward Christ-likeness? To lead our people to know Christ, be known by Christ, and to make him known?

Yes, our responsibility is primarily to sow and water seeds, while God is ultimately responsible for making them grow (1 Corinthians 3). And yes, when we sow seeds, they will all fall on different types of ground (Matthew 13), but how can we do our part even more effectively, faithfully, and fruitfully in light of the science behind attachment theory? In light of contemporary research in relational neuroscience? And in light of ancient Christian spiritual practices?

So for the next three years, I’ll be diving deep into:

  1. Attachment Theory and Theological Anthropology
  2. Ancient Spiritual Formation and Contemporary Relational Neuroscience
  3. The Connections between Theology, Therapeutic Culture, and Trauma toward the end of creating communities of care and transformation

So that’s it! That’s the announcement.

And I’m thrilled to see how everything I learn will not only integrate into our vision at Beulah to awaken Greater Edmonton to King Jesus, but to also see the people of Alberta, Canada, and the world experience genuine, lasting transformation in and through Jesus Christ.

How does the size of your gathering affect your culture of discipleship?

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“What are some practical ways to shift the church culture from a monthly men’s Bible study to an accountable discipleship group? Do you start with a handful of guys and just abandon the others who only come to the monthly study, or what?”

By ordering my new book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World, Paul was able to submit this question.

So in the following video, I answer his question by unpacking how the size of your gatherings will affect your culture of discipleship.

If you would like to submit your question on discipleship, evangelism, or preaching that I’ll answer via video, check out my order offer here.