ST. LOUIS – Discipleship is looking a little different at Parkway Baptist Church recently. EQUIP is the Sunday evening gathering for the congregation to come together for learning and fellowship.
“Before coming to Parkway,” Cheston Pickard, senior pastor, said, “I served as a discipleship pastor. I could see that it would be a great thing for Parkway. Also, as I moved in, I talked to two long-term members and discovered that they didn’t really know each other.”
According to Pickard, EQUIP is serving both of those needs. “We meet on Sunday evenings,” he continued. “I teach for about 45 minutes to an hour and, then, we have table talk on what I just taught. I give each table conversation prompts, but it is up to the table whether they cover one or all of them. This is life-on-life discipleship.”
“We chose Sunday evening,” Pickard said, “because it is the Lord’s Day, and we only had some Bible Studies going. We wanted to get more members and others involved.”’
Matthew Creath, associate pastor for administration and education, agreed that Sunday was the right choice for EQUIP. “The story at Parkway is redeeming things,” he said. “Sunday night programming was on the decline, and we are redeeming it by bringing purpose, energy and life back to the time.”
“We are excited to see about 80 to 100 coming regularly,” Creath continued. “We have a heart for discipleship, and it is exciting to see this intergenerational group come together to grow and to study the Bible together.”
The intergenerational grouping is by design. “We organize the tables,” Pickard said. “We put the tables together by gender with one friend, so they won’t feel alone; next we mix the ages at the table. Then, every semester, we switch it up.”
The first topic covered was “How to Read Your Bible,” followed by “Systematic Theology” for the second semester.
“Each group responds differently,” Pickard said, “It is exciting to see how they are pouring into each other. One group may be laughing about something, while another group is crying over something someone shared. The elderly are energized by the young people sitting at their table.”
Creath also described an additional aspect of EQUIP. “We ask that each table get together two or three times during the semester to do something fun,” he said. “They can gather at a home, park or restaurant or just go out for ice cream or have a game night.”
“These groups are getting to know each other better,” he continued, “and they are learning to love each other.”
Pickard is seeing a lot of growth in the congregation. “The members are going deeper into the topics. I offer books each week for additional reading on the topics and more hands are going up to read the books.”
“We want all participating in EQUIP to build their toolkit as disciples to share with others,” Pickard said.
