The corporate practices listed below are required. They are to be intentionally built into your 50 hour learning week in the Lecture Phase as specified in the DTS Guidelines and incorporated into the Outreach Phase as specified in the Fruitful Practices for DTS Outreach Document. You can choose to include a number of other practices into your DTS design as God leads. (See following samples.)
- Worship
- Intercession
- Community Living including Table Fellowship (live/learn)
- Smaller Group Interaction
- Weekly One on One Sharing with Staff
- Prayer
- Instruction with Application (Lecture Phase)
- Work duty
- Gospel Witness
- Community Service (outreach)
Designing the DTS including Corporate Practices
Keeping the purpose and outcomes of the DTS in mind, design your DTS Lecture Phase by arranging a number of corporate practices in a 50 hour learning week. Be sure to include those that are required. Then build week upon week, weaving themes and practices together in several ways. In the Lecture Phase, you will pay particular attention to the practice of instruction in the Word (teaching/application). There is no right order for the flow of teaching weeks. However, there should be a natural progression from week to week. (See the DTS Samples 1 & 2.)
You may find it helpful to introduce and engage students in the biblical narrative with its Key Concepts early in the Lecture Phase. Just the simple overview of the Bible Story from beginning to end can help the DTS see where we are in God’s Story as well as give a framework for the many topics and activities to come.
Please note that from the beginning of the DTS, we want to practice praying, serving, sharing the Gospel, interceding for nations, surrendering rights, forgiving those who have hurt us and much more. We do not wait until the teaching week on such a subject before we start to practice it. With that in mind, you may find it helpful to start the DTS with topics that aim to strengthen our relationship with God, followed by relationships with one another, followed by our Gospel witness and service in the world.
Build week 1 through 12 in ways that have a natural flow. Remember every week you are facilitating the development of many godly desires and habits in the students through the various practices of the week in addition to the specific formation desired through the teaching topic.
In the Outreach Phase, you will pay particular attention to Gospel witness (sharing the Gospel, Bible stories, testimonies, Bible Studies) and service in the world (mercy ministry such as feeding the poor, visiting the sick, building, cleaning, etc.) as stated in the Fruitful Practices for DTS Outreach Document. The Outreach Phase should include regular corporate times to facilitate the ongoing ‘putting into practice’ of the principles learnt in the Lecture Phase (Bible studies on the life and ministry of Jesus, times to right any issues in team relationships, times to reflect and celebrate what God is doing through the team, community living, table fellowship, etc.). While the corporate practices of worship and intercession are a mandatory part of Outreach Phase design, as with the Lecture Phase you can choose to include a number of other practices as God leads.
The Lecture and Outreach Phase design is a combination of both weekly and one-time corporate practices. These corporate practices help the DTS community:
- nurture desires and attitudes
- deepen awareness of God and what he is accomplishing in and through them
- build community
- provide time for reflection, engagement, response and application
- impart life-long habits that can contribute to ongoing spiritual growth
