Cowboy pastor disciples leaders by using the ‘Absolute Basics’

JOURDANTON—Pastor Pete Pawelek had a problem many pastors face—not enough leaders. The scale of his problem may have been a little more severe than most, however.

Pawelek had been asked to help start a Western-heritage church in Atascosa County, the place he had grown up. He was looking forward to starting seminary in the fall, but after his college graduation in May, he headed home.

He didn't make it to seminary that fall. Cowboy Fellowship of Atascosa County grew from a dozen families to more than 350 people by July, and he was asked to stay on. In less than 18 months, the congregation had grown to more than 600 people.

"The biggest problem we had early on was discipleship. About half my core team of leaders had never been involved in church. They went at Christmas. They went at Easter. But they were casual Christians, if you will," Pawelek said.

"I probably only had about half a dozen people in the church who had ever been a Sunday school teacher or a deacon, or had risen to any level of spiritual maturity where they had been in a leadership role in a church.

"Here we have this growing ministry with all these baby Christians, a lot of them saved and baptized right here in our church, and they don't know anything. You ask them to find the Book of Psalms, and they can't do it."

To alleviate the problem, he and the core team went to a Christian bookstore seeking suitable discipleship material but couldn't find what they needed.

"Everything either was too simple, or it was too hard," Pawelek said. "Everything either took five minutes a day to do or 50 minutes a day to do. Everything was just so easy you didn't really get anything out of it, or it was so hard the people were intimidated by it and wouldn't do it."

The church tried some of the easier materials, but it wasn't as challenging as they desired. Then, some of the harder materials were tried and "the ones who stuck with it got a lot out of it, but the problem was that most wouldn't stick with it," he said.

With the need to develop disciples still present, Pawelek began writing his own Bible studies that over time have been developed into the Bible study curriculum The Absolute Basics of Christianity.

"I didn't set out to write a book or establish a new Bible study curriculum, but over time, the Bible studies I was writing were tweaked and refined and we thought, 'Hey, this is pretty good,'" said Pawelek, a B.H Carroll Theological Institute graduate.

Soon, other churches began to hear reports of the Bible studies, and Pawelek began e-mailing the material several times a week. Not long after, a publisher called to inquire about compiling the Bible studies.

"For us, it's that happy medium. It deals with heavy issues, but in a simple way. Instead of five or 50 minutes, it takes 15 to 20 minutes a day. Instead of five days a week, Absolute Basics only has four days of lessons a week, so if you miss a day or two, you're OK," he explained.

The key to the study is the memory verses, Pawelek said.

"They're not going to remember what's on page 42. They're not going to be able to quote a bunch of lines out of this, but they're going to have the concepts down, and if they get the Scripture down and begin applying it to their lives, that's when we see things happen," he said.

Pawelek emphasized that the work of changing people is the work of God.

"It's not a how-to book. It's really just a book that gets them into the Bible and gets them turning the pages, and they start reading stuff. And the Holy Spirit starts working in their lives, and God just changes them, and those leaders rise up over time," he said.

Cowboy Fellowship has a continuing discipleship program, and members are strongly encouraged to be a part of it. The first year of that program is spent going through The Absolute Basics of Christianity.

The curriculum starts out with fairly easy material the first four sessions and gradually deepens, Pawalek. There are many Scripture references for students to look up, which make them more familiar with their Bibles.

Also, Pawelek has provided online bonus helps for some portions of lessons, some in text form and others in a video format.

Organized with session titles from A to Z, the curriculum is 26 sessions long. At Cowboy Fellowship, there are breaks, so that it is spread over a year.

Cowboy Fellowship attracts more seasoned Christians now than in its beginning years. But regardless of their church background, everyone who gets involved in the church's discipleship program starts with Absolute Basics.

The second year of the discipleship program is a survey of the Old and New Testaments. From the third year on, members have more in-depth studies of individual books of the Bible of their choosing.

Cowboy Fellowship now averages almost 1,000 people each Sunday and baptizes more than 100 each year in a town with a population of about 10,000.

To help minister to the congregation, Cowboy Fellowship now has 40 lay leaders and 10 lay pastors.

"Like every pastor in the world, I would like to have more leaders, but we've come a long way. Some of it is the Absolute Basics, but ultimately it's the Holy Spirit that has moved inside of people," Pawalek said.

"Any Bible study you do, they're really just a catalyst for what God wants to do in people's lives."