Making Disciples and Leaders

Although he had been pastoring Lifeway Church in Buckeye, Arizona, since 2003, George A. Molina says in 2017 he sensed God telling him to shift to an emphasis of discipleship rather than fellowship.

After a year of training leaders, Lifeway in the West Valley of Phoenix relaunched small groups, all of them gender based.

“Men disciple men and women disciple women so they can be totally open,” says Molina, 49. The same pattern goes for youth life groups.

“Discipleship touches all ages,” Molina says. Currently, the Assemblies of God church has more than 30 such life groups, with the primary emphasis of helping individuals grow in their relationship with Christ.

In 2019, Lifeway Church started a School of Discipleship, an intense 26-week foundational training course. The gatherings contain three components: experiencing the presence of God through praise and worship; the informational teaching of God’s Word; and a coach relationally walking through material, answering questions and holding participants accountable.

Once congregants complete discipleship training, they may partake of the church’s School of Leadership. The 52-week, four-level course involves teaching practical leadership and implementing Kingdom principles.

The shift in focus has resulted in 275 adherents regularly filling a church sanctuary that seats a maximum of 125. Life Church must hold three Sunday morning services to accommodate the multiethnic English-speaking crowd of Hispanic, Black, and white attendees, who span a diverse age range.

“We have a small building, but lots of people,” Molina says.

Church Mobilization, a department of AG U.S. Missions, has committed to helping Life Church construct a new facility. The process is at the permit stage.

Buckeye, the westernmost suburb of Phoenix, has been the fastest-growing American city twice in the past five years. The population totaled 91,502 in the 2020 U.S. Census, up from 50,876 a decade earlier and only 6,537 at the turn of the century.

Despite oppressive summer heat, people are flocking to the area. By land mass, Buckeye, which straddles the White Tank Mountains, is the second largest city in Arizona with 375 square miles. It trails only the capital Phoenix, the fifth most populous city in the nation, which has 1.7 million residents.

“There is a lot of space in Buckeye,” Molina says. “Housing is less expensive than in the East Valley, there are plenty of jobs, and people like the warm weather.”

Molina’s wife of 30 years, Rosie, teaches and preaches with him. The couple have four children, ranging from ages 11 to 21. George and Rosie met in a Southern Baptist church sixth grade Sunday school class in their native Texas. George is the son of a Southern Baptist pastor, but an encounter with the Holy Spirit at age 16 led him to Pentecostalism. He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Molinas moved to the Phoenix area in 2000, and George spent three years as youth pastor and worship leader at West Valley Assembly of God in Goodyear.

Bobby Palma says Molina’s integrity and depth of character immediately impressed him when he began attending Life Church in 2016.

“George’s discipleship focus has made a huge impact in the lives of people,” says Palma, who is project manager for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. “His approach to ministry is a blessing.”

Palma, who worked 21 years as a correctional officer, says the discipleship and leadership training have made a huge impact on him.

“I’ve grown in spiritual maturity and grown as a person,” says Palma, who now teaches the discipleship class himself. “I’ve learned how to worship properly, built relationships, and followed the pattern Jesus did with his disciples on earth.”

Another AG congregation in Buckeye, Vescent Church, is led by Keith Wayne Howard.