Why this program exists, what it asks of every student, and where it is headed.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Discipleship is teaching disciples to prayerfully read, study, and meditate on God's Word, and to interpret, apply, and obey it, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Abide is built on the conviction that Bible engagement is a discipleship issue — not just an information issue. The program does not exist to produce people who know more about the Bible. It exists to produce disciples who live differently because of it. The measure of success is not comprehension. It is obedience.
In simple terms: Abide wants every student to move from “I heard a Bible verse” to “I understand what it means, why it matters, and how I will obey it today.”
For too long, the training needed to read Scripture well has been locked behind seminary walls or a generous church budget. Pastors and professors learn how to interpret the Bible with discipline and precision — but that same training rarely reaches the person in the pew.
The result is a church full of believers who love God, own Bibles, and attend services faithfully — but who have never been taught how to draw meaning out of the ancient text on their own. James names what happens next:
But become doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
The mirror analogy is uncomfortable precisely because it is so familiar. Hearing without doing is not neutral — James calls it a delusion. The Abide program gives believers the tools to look intently and not walk away unchanged.
The call to engage Scripture deeply is not a modern innovation. It is woven into the oldest commands God gave His people. From the Shema forward, the mandate has been total immersion — not occasional devotion, but a way of life:
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way successful, and then you will be prosperous.”
The pattern that emerges from Genesis to Revelation is consistent. In every era of the biblical story — the Torah, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles — God's people are called to the same three things:
The blessed man of Psalm 1 is not the one who has read the most. He is the one who has meditated day and night — and become like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in its season.
The Abide program is not content to leave students inspired. It aims to leave them equipped. Paul's charge to Timothy sets the bar:
All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Word is not just profitable — it is thoroughlyequipping. The goal of every Abide lesson is to put one more tool in the student's hands so that this fourfold work — teaching, reproof, correction, training — can do its full work in their life. The depth is real. The barrier to entry is not. Every concept taught in this program is accessible to a motivated high school student.
Jesus' final command was not merely to make converts. It was to make disciples — people who have learned to keep what He commanded, not just to know it:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Discipleship, in this sense, is the transfer of skills. By equipping believers to engage the Word with their whole mind and heart — to draw meaning from the text and act on what they find — we move the church from consuming pre-chewed food to becoming self-sustaining followers of Christ who can feed others.
The Abide program is designed as a spiral — not a one-time class. Every phase returns to the same core conviction: Scripture studied accurately, applied faithfully, and lived out in community. The curriculum is organized into two series: the 100 Series builds the foundation; the 200 Series deepens and multiplies it.
Long-term, Jeff hopes to support group sessions — virtual or in-person — where participants work through the lesson content on their own first, then come together to open Scripture, study collaboratively, and practice what the lesson teaches. Learning the tools is one thing. Using them in community is where they take root.
If you are a church elder, ministry leader, or small group facilitator interested in exploring what this could look like in your context, Jeff would love to hear from you via the Abide Discipleship Ministries LinkedIn page.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what pleases Me, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”