A local discipleship school is closing after two successful years.

Founder Ty Franz explains health issues played a big part in the decision. Franz suffers from a severe case of Crohn's Disease.

He notes their dream for the school was to create a culture of grace and vibrant worship.

"We wanted to create a place we could see Jesus so clearly our only response was excitement, awe or surrender," he says.

Founder Ty Franz

Located at Rock Lake, just West of Pilot Mound, the school emphasized creative evangelism.

"We had students representing Jesus simply through photography, through skateboarding... just learning to be intentional with what we've been giving," he says.

"Evangelism, if it's not fun we're probably doing it wrong," Franz says.

School of the Kingdom included teaching phases with guest speakers, followed by an outreach phase sending students to a major North American city before returning to base to debrief and process what they've learned.

From there, Franz says students were launched back into the world, "back into schools, into workplaces, into families... but releasing that Kingdom of Heaven into every sphere of society."

Photo courtesy School of the Kingdom

Now that the school is closed, Franz says the hardest part was turning down a number of applications for the next year.

"With the responses we were getting, we knew it was going to be the biggest year yet," he says. "And so for me to go and close the school just felt like I was ripping someone's heart out, that was the hardest thing to deal with."

Looking back, Franz says the only choice is to grow and keep moving.

The story of the disciple Peter walking on water resonates deeply, "nobody talks about him as a failure because he couldn't stand on the water, he's known as the guy who walked on water."

"If you give something a shot and it doesn't pan out... there's so much more glory, the weight of glory is so much greater than the weight of failure."

His advice to others is simple: act on your ideas.

"With the responses we were getting, we knew it was going to be the biggest year yet."