Why Join Soma School?

What Past Participants Are Saying

From Ken D’Sa, an elder at West Village Church in Victoria, BC:

We were invited to attend Soma School in the fall of 2019 and were blessed by the humility of the leaders and the depth of knowledge that was shared with us. We had no huge expectations heading into this training, but simply trusted God and we were open to the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We learned much from the teachings and the stories of God’s people, restored by grace and mercy. Below is a brief summary in five points that summarizes our learning:

1) Ecclesiology – We were reminded that since we are the church, we should stop “acting” like the church and actually, start “being” the church; We do not GO to church but we ARE the church!

2) Gospel Fluency – That the gospel should fuel everything that we do. We learned about the concept of gospel fluency which is to know, believe, and allow the gospel to work in and through us. If we are “gospel fluent,” we can help every person have a daily encounter with Jesus in word and deed. We learned that we must know, love, and believe the gospel personally because we talk most about what we know, love, and believe.

3) Story of God – The Bible is God’s story and covers Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration and we are privileged to fit into His story. This is granted through grace given by Jesus Christ.

4) Missional Community – We learned about missional communities, the roles and responsibilities involved, their primary goal of making disciples, and the rhythms of life in a missional community. These rhythms include story-formed moments, listening to God, self, community and culture, celebrating, blessing, eating, and recreating, all with gospel intentionality.

5) Everyday Discipleship – To live a life that is so radical, it will demand a gospel explanation that will allow disciples to make disciples as Jesus directed us to do.

There were a host of interactions that truly edified us in the work of discipleship and learning to live on mission. We saw people living with the willingness to sacrificially serve Jesus and others and doing it with joy that truly demonstrated the Lord’s strength and stamina in them through the Holy Spirit. We were reminded and learned that we should always welcome people for who they are (children of the King) and to never treat them as a project because by doing so, it shows them how valued they are by Jesus!

Finally, we learned about the concept of living that demands a gospel explanation. While it stretches the very best of us, we need to keep Jesus as the center of our lives, for He fills us with His Holy Spirit. If not, then our plans and goals and desires will be futile and will fizzle out. If we are led by the Holy Spirit, we will put a priority on character development, godly relationships, and spiritual values as we sow to the Spirit, and by the grace of God, we will seek to bear witness to Christ in our world wherever we are planted to live and be on mission to make Jesus known!

We would definitely recommend attending Soma School to be equipped to be on mission and to expand the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.