A discipleship school that was forced to close its doors due to the pandemic is welcoming students once again and excited to be building up leaders in God's Kingdom.

"Gospel Mission Discipleship School is a school that actually launched a couple of years ago and then last year with COVID and all the craziness going on there, it wasn't able to run, and so we are really, really excited," the director of the school, Bryan Neisteter says.

The school is based out of Gospel Mission Church in Winkler. Neisteter says the location is important.


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"I'm really excited to be able to have something in southern Manitoba.  You know, this school is primarily a place where students can come who are from the Pembina Valley region and just go deeper in their faith. We want students, and I want students, rooted in intimacy with God to really grow their prayer life to get a firm foundation in the Word and just really give them tools to live a life of passion and love and obedience for the Lord all the days of their lives."

As students head in for their first day of classes on Tuesday, Sep. 7, Neisteter says they can expect a bit of a different experience than a typical Bible college. That includes a large focus on prayer and worship.

"We want students whose hearts are burning with a love for Jesus, and so that means that part of our regular curriculum is worship and prayer, I have a lot of freedom in how we design our program, so it gives us the freedom to focus on the relational things, not as much as maybe on the academic side."


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But, Neisteter says, that doesn't mean they're throwing academics out the window. "I've taught at the academic level, I have a Masters degree, and so I can do those things and we'll do some of that stuff. But really, our heart is that our students would come out of this here looking more like Jesus and be equipped with the practical things that they need, especially in the area of prayer in the area of worship, in the area of walking out their faith on a daily basis that will equip them, hopefully, for the rest of their lives."

Outreach part of the goal

The program will also focus on getting out of the classroom and building with a large outreach component.

"We really want to incorporate an outreach dynamic to what we're doing, and it's one of the reasons why we're excited about having a school in our own area because we want our students, our students to grow and just walking out their faith."

Neisteter says that includes local evangelism as well as serving in the community. But students will also head out of the Pembina Valley to do outreach in Winnipeg once a month. He says they hope to partner with organizations in downtown Winnipeg.

"I really think that that's an important part of what we do. We don't just want that head and the heart getting involved. We want the hands getting involved as well."