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CrossCreek’s approach aims to multiply disciples, churches, leaders
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rossCreek Church member Kyle Phillips, 67, grew up in a church heavy on community but light on Bible study. She accepted Christ as a teenager and a decade later, expecting her first child, fell in love with God’s Word.
“When I realized what I was missing, I was just like a sponge,” Phillips said. She and her husband, Jim, came to CrossCreek (then First Baptist Colleyville) 35 years ago. When Senior Pastor Craig Etheredge and Spiritual Development Pastor Glenn Underhill started the Grow Series discipleship training at the church in 2017, she was among the first recruits.
“The pastor picked the pilot group. He needed people who would turn and teach others,” Phillips said.
The Grow Series, a 21-week intensive three-book study authored by Etheredge, emphasizes knowing God and making disciples. Etheredege notes a high percentage of the church’s adults have participated in Grow Series groups and gone on to disciple others—even outside the church.
For Phillips, the series was transformative, and she has led 18 women’s groups since 2017. Of the 61 women who have participated with her, nearly half have gone on to lead groups of their own.
“The Grow Series is duplicable,” Phillips said. While she prefers the group dynamic, she has also done one-on-one discipleship using the program, as she has done with Ann.
Kyle and Jim met Ann and her husband on a cruise and struck up a friendship. One day, Ann admitted she struggled with anxiety. “I have no peace,” she said.
“I just listened and prayed,” Phillips recalled. After the cruise, Ann and Kyle stayed in touch. Eventually, Kyle phoned her friend and reminded her of that longing for peace. Would Ann be interested in studying the book of John? The answer was yes, and Kyle sent Ann a copy of the small booklet Explore, a precursor to the Grow Series that focuses on Christ.
The ladies completed Explore together over the phone, and Ann asked Kyle if they could do another study together. Ann also began attending church with her husband. During the second week of the Grow Series, Ann asked Jesus to be her Savior.
She has since been through all three books and is now discipling a friend.
“I never want to stop investing in people,” Phillips said.
“Our process is the ‘hub and spoke’ approach. Our goal is to create hubs in key locations where they will spin off multiple churches.”
‘Investing in leaders and raising them up’
Underhill and Etheredge say the same. Etheredge came to CrossCreek as pastor 16 years ago and soon brought along Underhill, who also serves as executive director of DiscipleFIRST, a training organization affiliated with CrossCreek.
“When I first came and brought Glenn, there wasn’t a disciple-making philosophy of ministry at CrossCreek,” Etheredge said. They saw the need to develop a firmer foundation.
“For three years, we didn’t preach about discipleship. We just did it,” Etheredge explained. “We were investing in leaders and raising them up.”
As an outgrowth of the emphasis on discipleship, CrossCreek also embraced church planting. To date, the church has sponsored 16 disciple-making church plants in such locations as New York City, Israel, Canada, Burkina Faso, Pennsylvania, and Zambia—with plants in Nevada and Montana soon to follow.
“Our process is the ‘hub and spoke’ approach,” Etheredge said. “Our goal is to create hubs in key locations where they will spin off multiple churches.” Already, the pastors are seeing generational growth as “first-gen” plants are producing second- and even third-generation plants.
“Our philosophy is to invest and release, not attract and retain,” Etheredge said. “The CrossCreek residency program, launching officially this fall, will be built around making and deploying disciple-making leaders.” Paid residents will undergo training, work in the church, assist with plants, and serve in various ministries from youth work to guest services to adult programming.
‘Embracing the lifestyle of a disciple’
DiscipleFIRST arose as an outgrowth of the pastors’ emphasis on discipleship. In 2013, they held a conference for CrossCreek leaders, bringing in like-minded speakers. Pastors heard about the event and asked to attend.
Etheredge and Underhill soon developed materials as demand for the conferences increased. With attendees flying in from across the country, DiscipleFIRST began hosting conferences in cities such as Atlanta, Birmingham, and Houston.
The Grow Series developed from these events, and Etheredge and Underhill gradually replaced speakers with written material based on the intentional way Jesus developed His disciples.
Underhill describes the Grow Series as a fourfold pathway to discipleship that begins with Explore for the “irreligious and disengaged,” followed by other books designed, as their titles suggest, to help people learn how to Walk with God, Reach Their World, and Invest in a Few.
“We want to see them embrace the lifestyle of a disciple forever,” Underhill said. “Then they are ready to multiply.”
Etheredge offered the example of Zach, a high-level business leader on a corporate fast track. Underhill discipled Zack and a few other men. He invited Zach on a mission trip to Zambia, where Zach realized they were “fulfilling the Great Commission right now.” He left the corporate world, came on staff at CrossCreek, and discipled others, including Ben, who is now the DiscipleFIRST director of ministry partnership.
“We intentionally do not say one word about it in worship. … We want people to be invited into the process by someone God has placed on their hearts.”
Organic and unstoppable
With the Grow Series as the curriculum, discipleship at CrossCreek and in its plants is largely organic, Underhill emphasized.
“We have worked hard not to make it programmatic,” he said. “We intentionally do not say one word about it in worship. … We want people to be invited into the process by someone God has placed on their hearts.” As such, it can be hard to keep track of how many are discipling others.
In fact, the Grow Series has grown far beyond CrossCreek and DiscipleFIRST. Etheredge and Underhill admit they often hear of others outside the church using the material.
“We may never know this side of heaven,” Etheredge said of the numbers of those who have used the Grow Series. They do know more than 7,000 pastors and leaders have undergone face-to-face training. Factor in those who have attended webinars or used the publications and the number swells.
DiscipleFIRST now hosts 15-20 in-person trainings throughout the country annually, Underhill said, adding that it partners with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention as well as other Southern Baptist state conventions.
The SBTC was among DiscipleFIRST’s earliest partners, sponsoring and promoting conferences for Texas pastors and publishing Etheredge’s first book, Bold Moves, which details seven methods to make a church into a disciple-making congregation.
“The SBTC helped fan the flame,” Etheredge said. “We are very thankful.”
For more information on the Grow Series and DiscipleFIRST materials, visit disciplefirst.com.
