Implementing a contextual discipleship curriculum to impact biblical knowledge and application for women in a large church in Ghan

The purpose of writing Implementing A Contextual Discipleship Curriculum to Impact Biblical Knowledge and Application for Women in a Large Church in Ghana was to add to the body of knowledge concerning discipleship curricula for women in developing countries. Christianity is growing most rapidly in developing countries, and women play a pivotal role largely due to their influence on the children, the future generations. Yet there is a dearth of information on how to disciple the women in these areas. This project tested a 16-week contextual discipleship curriculum at Rhema Outreach Church in Ashaiman, Ghana, West Africa. The students were members of the Women's Ministry, and most of them were market women. The average class size was 50 women. The program was geared towards oral learners because some of the women were illiterate. The project centered around lessons in biblical knowledge, biblical leadership, and biblical financial awareness/stewardship. This project used mixed research methods, relying heavily on qualitative analyses with an embedded quantitative analysis. The data strongly suggested that a contextual curriculum can be effective in enhancing the discipleship knowledge and practices of women in developing countries. The results also demonstrated that discipleship among women in developing countries is a critical area that the global church needs to address.;Chapter 1 states the thesis and hypothesis as well as the rationale for the project, and the community and church context. The biblical, systematic, and ecclesiological/historical foundations of the project are also discussed.;Chapter 2 discusses literature related to the topic in the broad categories of discipleship, lessons learned from practitioners in the field, contextual theologians, and the voices of selected African female theologians.;Chapter 3 presents the research methodology used, the rationale for the methodology, and how it was applied at the Rhema Outreach Church in Ghana.;Chapter 4 presents the findings from the research instruments, including the voice of the women at Rhema Outreach Church. Some of their opinions differed from that of the researcher and peer reviewers.;Chapter 5 offers reasons for the disparities between the Rhema women's opinions and the findings of the qualitative and quantitative analyses. It also offers suggestions for future research in this area and implications of the project's findings for the larger Christian community.