Narrative Description of Life Discipleship International, Inc.

      The mission of Life Discipleship International, Inc. (LDI) is training and equipping believers in Christ for ministry and service around the world. We exist to make disciples, followers of Christ, of all nations through sharing the freeing message of God’s grace (called the Exchanged Life). Our goal is to multiply the number of people sharing the message of the Exchanged Life both in the U.S. and internationally. We measure as success individual lives that are transformed and have personally experienced the abundant life and freedom God desires for them and in turn become equipped to serve, guide, and train others to do the same. This is when true life change and multiplication takes place.

      Our strategy to accomplish our mission involves four levels of training: teaching, advanced training, equipping, and serving. We believe discipleship, helping people mature spiritually, is a process. Each level of training moves deeper into the process helping an individual grow stronger and healthy as a believer but also equipping them to share these truths with others. Since the trainings are progressive, an individual must complete level 1 before moving onto level 2, etc. Not everyone will complete all four levels.

      The first level of training is teaching. The teaching is done in a conference format and called The Grace Life Conference. This takes place over a weekend with 12–15 hours of teaching (7–8 lectures). It may also be broken up over several nights depending on the needs of the group. The trainers are individuals who have been certified through the Association of Exchanged Life Ministries. Mr. Ledford, President of LDI, is also a certified trainer who will be teaching and training at all 4 levels. The Grace Life Conference covers the basic principles of the Exchanged Life and how to apply them in your own life. The conference goal is to come to a deeper understanding of your identification with Christ and identity in Christ. Topics include: The Nature of the Flesh, The Exchanged Life, Journey to the Cross (Brokenness), The Believer’s Identity, The Believer’s Victory, and Living the Exchanged Life. The materials used will be the approved curriculum of the Association of Exchange Life Ministries (AELM). The conference is open to anyone interested in attending. The training will take place at the LDI office or at a host church. The group size will be approximately 20 people. We are planning a total of four conferences in 2007 with the first conference planned for March at the LDI office.

      The second level of training is called Advanced Discipleship Training (ADT). An individual must complete the level 1 Grace Life Conference before participating in the ADT. The ADT is a much more intense discipleship training over a period of 10 weeks (400 hours). The format depends on the availability of the individuals attending. It can vary from one night a week for 18 months to weekend trainings over a period of months.

      The ADT is divided into two parts, Spiritual Formation and Leadership Training. Spiritual Formation is inward focused and addresses personal issues in the life of the participant such as forgiveness, anger, and self-sufficiency. A trained leader helps the individual work through any issues keeping him or her from being spiritually healthy and mature. LDI believes that a person cannot teach as reality what they do not know in their own experience. The second part of ADT, Leadership Training, is outward focused. This is where participants learn to pass on to another person how to have a personal and growing relationship with Christ based on a total dependence on Him. The training is Biblically based and involves many hours of one-on-one mentoring. A participant is trained in interpersonal skills, understanding and application of the Bible, and relationship building. There is required reading in addition to the AELM curriculum used. Most of the training will take place in the LDI office. We anticipate 14 participants going through the ADT in 2007. This will begin after the first GLC in March.

      The third level of training is equipping for ministry. This involves a hands-on apprenticeship experience for a period of three months or two years. An apprentice would work alongside certified AELM trainers as they train and equip individuals and groups. This level of training is still in the formation stage. It could include an international mission trip and actual conference training experience. The cost of the apprenticeship has not been determined and we do not anticipate our first LDI apprentice until 2008. Prior to applying for an apprenticeship position, an individual would need to have completed both the level 1 teaching and the level 2 ADT.

      The fourth level of training is serving in ministry. At this point an individual has determined that God has called them to work fulltime with LDI whether locally in the LDI office or internationally as a missionary ready to start a LDI ministry abroad. LDI is continuing to build relationships abroad and has scheduled a ministry trip for March 2007 to Russia and Ukraine. This area has been selected because of existing relationships already in place. During these trips Mr. Ledford will conduct GLC and will continue to build relationships with existing ministries and organizations that would be interested in helping support a local LDI ministry. In the fourth level of ministry service, LDI will assist an individual with the administration necessary to start an LDI ministry and will offer ongoing training and support. Trainings will take place at least two times each year. We will bring other AELM certified trainers into the local office for training, networking, fellowship, and encouragement of all LDI ministry plants. The process of planting LDI ministries will begin as we move individuals through the four level training and have commitments for long-term service.

      The training process will represent 100% of the time and resources of LDI. The 2007, level 1 teaching and level 2 training will represent 85% of the ministry’s time with the planning stages for level 3 and 4 representing approximately 15% of the ministry’s time and resources. Moving into 2008 and beyond, level 3 equipping and level 4 serving will represent approximately 40% of LDI’s time and resources.

      The long-range vision of LDI is to expand into five different countries in the next five years. We will work on developing a ministry model to expand both in the U.S. and abroad. We also plan to develop additional curriculum that can be used to teach and train various age groups so that the truths of the Exchanged Life can be effectively shared with a younger audience. Our vision is to eventually reach the world with the message of Christ and the Exchanged Life. To LDI, successful discipleship is when individuals are experiencing spiritual health and freedom as they continue to mature in the grace and experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they are free to function independently of their teachers and trainers—guiding and equipping other believers for the same abundant living and Christian service while in total dependence on God.