Nashville’s Ethos Church has created a program specifically designed to teach aspiring missionaries.
The program – entitled “Onward” – is something of a discipleship training course, according to Ethos pastor and Onward Director Aaron Etheridge.
“Onward exists to make disciples who will plant churches,” Etheridge said. “It is an immersive church-planter training experience run in partnership with Ethos Church.”
Currently, the Nashville-based Onward program is providing church-planting and leadership training to 12 young men from around the world.
“Onward is trying to develop and train leaders and we don’t just want to fill their heads with knowledge, but we also want to give them opportunities to develop as teachers because they’re going to teach a lot of people, no matter what,” said Onward Coordinator Joshua Solowey.
In order to give Onward students an opportunity to hone their teaching skills, Lipscomb’s newest breakout chapel, “Onward Chapel,” is embarking on a new semester of lessons that will revolve around studying who Jesus is.
“Last semester this chapel was all me and my friend Isaac so that was amazing,” Solowey said. “This semester is going to be even more awesome because our Onward people are going to be teaching now, starting with Chris.”
Chris Malone was the first current Onward student to have the opportunity to teach at the Lipscomb breakout chapel this past Thursday.
“Onward has definitely stretched me spiritually in ways I’ve never experienced before,” Malone said. “This weekly chapel is a major opportunity to grow and I’m just super thankful to Lipscomb for opening the doors for us like this.”
Malone plans to plant churches in San Diego, California after his graduation from Onward this coming fall.
Marland Thomas, 22, is a native Jamaican who is also currently enrolled in the Onward program and is looking forward to speaking at Lipscomb.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to teach at Lipscomb’s chapel because it gives me a chance to share God with students my age and get to see their passion for the Word,” Thomas said. “It gives me the opportunity to do what I love, which is to serve God and people.”
Thomas plans to move back to Jamaica after graduating Onward in order to plant churches in his home country.
Lipscomb students are also gaining insight from the new chapel experience, according to Chapel Coordinator Josh Self.
“I think it has been and will be a huge success here,” Self said. “Every student I talk to that has been really loves it and there are a lot of people that plan to go back each week so that’s really great.”
Anyone interested in getting involved with the Onward program should contact Solowey at joshuasolowey@ethoschurch.org.
Photo courtesy of Ethos Church