Beginning the Discipleship School

• Complete an "Application To Use Literature" and send it to us along with your first order for materials.
• Choose a name for your Discipleship School.
• Determine the address to use for your Discipleship School.
• Get an address stamp made. Your materials will come without an address and must be stamped with your address before sending them out.
• Order initial stock of lessons (start small) in quantities of 25 or 50 of each lesson. Even though your focus is on the military you will want to have a ministry to their families. Therefore, you will want to order lessons for each age group as well as non-military adult courses for their spouse.
• Promote lessons. Make contacts through tracts, enrollment cards, and coupons. Be creative.
• Stock your lessons in an orderly manner on shelves, in a file, or in a box with dividers to keep them neat, clean, and available.
• Student files must be maintained. You can use 3" x 5" or 4" x 6" cards. You may prefer a notebook or a computer for your records.

The Student and the Courses

• Enrolling Students may be done through distribution of initial lessons, enrollment cards, or brochures to those you talk to about the Lord, and through coupons inserted in tracts and other literature for distribution. You can also print enrollment information in your newsletters and other literature that you hand out. You can put enrollment information and forms on your website. You can mail or email to anyone with whom you have contact information.
• Use the courses for follow-up for radio, television, evangelistic campaign, any and all types of outreach.
• Grade carefully, but do not be over strict. You want to be sure that they are understanding the material.
• Record the grade, the number of lessons going out, and the current date on your file card. Also whether or not the students are Christians and indicate if they were saved as a result of studying the courses. Record the date the certificates (diplomas) were issued.
• Mail: It is normally best to send the first lesson or booklet to the student one at a time. Mail the graded test and next lesson back to the student as soon as possible. This helps you to build and grow a relationship with the student. Send a self-addressed return envelope with each lesson.

Helpful Suggestions

• Study the lessons personally and complete the test. This will give you a grasp of the materials.
• Grading keys are furnished along with the Discipleship School manual or are available separately upon request.
• Manual: The Discipleship School Manual should be studied in depth and kept for handy reference.
• Pray for wisdom as you begin this ministry. Pray for your students. Encourage others to pray.
• Write to your student whenever they have questions or need encouragement. Personalize your correspondence to show concern for your students.
• Keep anything that they communicate to you strictly confidential. They may begin to open up to you. Do not share even names or contact information with others.
• Encourage your students to attend churches that believe and teach the Bible.
• Witness: Encourage students to witness to their friends by enrolling them in the courses.
• Reports are requested so that we may rejoice with you in the fruit of your ministry. It helps us in development, planning, and printing.
• Postage: In some cases you may want to consider sending a stamped self-addressed envelope out with the lesson. It is entirely possible that the student may not have the funds for or accessibility to stamps. Even postage cost can be a problem for some, like prisoners.

Some things to consider before you
start a school:

• Funding, the cost of buying lessons
• Enrollment postcards
• Postage to mail lessons
• Envelopes, address stamps
• The space required for the school
• The time and people required to grade the lessons and run the school

We desire that you will have a fruitful ministry with Source of Light Bible courses. You will receive much more information for operating your school in the Discipleship School Manual. Call, write or email if you have questions. SLM is eager to assist you in any way we can. We will look forward to hearing from you.

"Is not the commission of our Lord still binding upon us? Can we not do more than we are now doing?"  -William Carey

Source of Light Ministries International
1011 Mission Road
Madison, GA 30650

Phone: (706) 342-0397
Fax: (706) 342-9072
E-mail: slm@sourcelight.org
Web Site: www.sourcelight.org