By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
As far as Stan Albright can tell looking through his church’s 181-year history, they’ve never had a year like the most recent one — not even close.
“Best we can tell, 36 is the most we’ve ever baptized,” said Albright, pastor of First Baptist Church, Oxford.
But in 2017 they baptized more than 80.
“It’s been an amazing time for our church,” he said.
And as he looked at the things that made a positive impact, it really came down to two, he said — the goodness of God and the spread of D-Life.
“D-Life has been a major contributor,” Albright said.
D-Life is a disciple-making model started by Bill Wilks, pastor of NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, and produced by Life Bible Study headquartered in Birmingham. It offers a year-long reading plan that has participants reading one chapter of the Bible each day on their own, then coming together once a week in small groups to discuss it.
When they meet, one person facilitates. Another leads a prayer. A third retells the story that’s assigned for the week, a story they will have all read in their personal time in the Word. A fourth person will read it from the Bible to see if anything was left out.
Each group chooses its own time and place for meeting up.
And right now, First, Oxford, has more than 200 people meeting weekly in 40 groups.
“They are learning how to study God’s Word in a way of communication and fellowship,” Albright said. “People who have never read through the Bible before are learning things about God’s Word and being able to apply it to their lives in ways they never have before.”
Not only that, they are inviting their friends, and they’re introducing it to other churches, Albright said.
“We know of at least five other congregations that have started D-Life whose first exposure was out of one of our D-Life groups,” he said.
“I can’t say enough about how it’s been a major inspiration in the life of our church.”
Wilks said that more than 50 churches in Alabama have started using D-Life to equip their congregations for lifestyle evangelism. And it doesn’t stop there — churches in 28 states and six countries have started using D-Life methods too.
Two upcoming workshops led by Wilks will offer training for any churches interested in starting D-Life groups in their own congregations:
• Central Alabama Boot Camp, held at Samford University in Birmingham, Jan. 20
• South Alabama Boot Camp, held at University of Mobile (UM), Feb. 24
Both are statewide workshops and are sponsored by Life Bible Study, The Alabama Baptist, Samford’s Ministry Training Institute, UM, Birmingham Baptist Association, Mobile Baptist Association and Passion Tree.
For more information, visit www.livethedlife.com or contact Bill Wilks at 205-228-0030.
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