Endorsement for Growing Deep and Strong

Bobby Aitken, leadership trainer and business coach

Ground-Up Discipleship

Discipleship That Builds Leaders

Growing Deep and Strong is the most comprehensive, genuinely interactive discipleship pathway I’ve found in over twenty years as a Christian. Rather than being talked at for a few weeks, you’re sent back into Scripture each week to study, dig, and apply what you’ve learned—building real, disciplined habits rather than head knowledge.

I went through Laying the Foundation and The Power of Godly Character myself before recommending it to anyone I coach, and the two Encounter Weekends took it further than I expected: they created space to bring long-buried issues—old baggage, unforgiveness, patterns I hadn’t even recognised—to the cross and actually deal with them.

In my work training and coaching leaders, I’ve seen how essential this kind of ground-up discipleship is, especially for anyone in leadership. I recommend it without reservation.

Tammy Broadhead smiling beside her husband

Coach Endorsement

A Bond of Trust You Can’t Buy

As a coach with Growing Deep and Strong, I saw an incredible bond of trust build—between the coaches working as a team, and within the small groups themselves.

People come from all kinds of backgrounds, some very damaged, and it’s not easy for them to open up. But the atmosphere was so warm and caring that people felt safe to be real and to learn as they went—safe is the word we heard again and again.

People who started out as total strangers left with a bond you can’t buy; some of us are still in touch with people from those groups today.

And the Encounter Weekend itself was incredible—people were set free and healed, and would come out saying things like, “I feel like a million dollars.” I’ve seen firsthand what God does through this program.

Alan Currie seated with Growing Deep and Strong course material

Marketplace Ministry

The Vision for Marketplace Ministry

Growing Deep and Strong is the vision for marketplace ministry in the marketplace—it’s been designed so you can do it in any location, with your team, wherever business calls you.

I’ve been a Christian for 46 years and, remarkably, never done a structured discipleship program in all that time. This one is tremendously well-structured, well biblically structured, and built for people in business—people called to work in the marketplace who can’t stop work for three years.

It’s 20 weeks, only 15 minutes a day, done at home—no need to take time off work at all. You catch up once a week, even over coffee with friends, and go through what you’ve learned. It’s way better than anything that asks you to step out of the workplace. I’m already planning to run it with friends of my own, meeting weekly to work through it together.

Spirit and Word

A Deep and Lasting Choice to Grow Up

When Carl John Fechner reached out to me to comment about the newly available Growing Deep and Strong® discipleship course, I was somewhat hesitant. Church curricula in the past have tended to be pedantic—scholarly—but not very rooted in what ordinary Christian living needs.

So I was delighted as I began to dig into what has been developed. From the first video, Behind the Scenes, I realised that this is about spiritual reality: the actual war between light and darkness, between clashing worldviews, and the need to learn how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and then obey Him.

Christianity is not head knowledge but heart relationship. Head follows heart, and not the other way around, as we develop our walk with the Lord. But knowledge of God’s Word as revealed in the Bible opens us up to understand and respond to the draw of the Holy Spirit—to reveal Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Many years ago, in the early days of Charismatic renewal in the UK, I heard David Watson say, “All Word and no Spirit, and we dry up. All Spirit and no Word, and we blow up. Spirit and Word, and we grow up!”

May the Lord use this wonderfully developed tool to help many find their way into a deep and lasting choice to grow up.

Kingdom Transformation

A Biblical Pattern That Develops Leaders

Dear Carl,

It is with great pleasure that I write this endorsement of your Growing Deep and Strong® program for the discipling of new and maturing Christians.

In Growing Deep and Strong®, God has given you a biblical pattern that will develop Christian leaders and disciplers.

Growing Deep and Strong® provides the resources needed both to teach the discipling process and to make disciples, so that people’s lives will be impacted and bring Kingdom transformation to our society.

Your work in developing the teaching material, videos, coaching manuals and retreats provides a strong foundation to equip people on their spiritual journey, enabling them to step into God’s high calling and purposes for their lives.

In the fullness of our God’s blessing,

Whole-Life Discipleship

A Comprehensive Pathway to Christian Maturity

Growing Deep and Strong® provides a new Christian with a comprehensive pathway and process towards becoming a biblically informed and mature Christian.

It covers the essentials but goes further, including personal spiritual healing and growth—not only biblical knowledge.

I have seen it work in the life of a new Christian. It is a very useful discipling tool.

Established in Faith

A Unique Series for New and Established Christians

I certainly recommend this unique series and am impressed with its ability to establish Christians in their faith.

The modules have been prepared in a manner that both enlightens the newly converted believer and increases the knowledge of the established Christian.

The program not only instructs in Christian living but disciples believers in reaching out to others. The Coaches’ Manual, with filled-in answers and questions for review and group discussion, is of inestimable value.