The Discipleship CircleHow It Began
Built from
a yes.
Before there was a name, a community, a gathering, or a plan, there was a yes.
Teri had entered a season of surrender, leaving behind what she believed God was asking her to release and moving from Florida to Charlotte in obedience.
It was quiet. Unfamiliar. Stretching.
Much of that season was spent in Scripture, prayer, and learning how to follow God more closely. One of her few consistent points of human connection was Bible study with Latilda Dials, who would later become The Discipleship Circle’s Elder.
Latilda became a spiritual backbone in that season — someone Teri could study Scripture with, ask questions of, process with, and receive spiritual guidance and covering from while God was doing deeper work in her life.
Not having everything figured out.
Not knowing what came next.
Just giving God the next yes.
01 / THE CALL
Help My
People.
Not long after, during a moment of worship in her kitchen, Teri was overcome with a burden for people — especially young people and newer believers trying to find their way with God.
She asked God what He wanted her to do.
His instruction was simple:“Help My people.”
Her immediate response was essentially:
I just got here.
She was still learning. Still being discipled. Still trying to understand what obedience looked like in her own life.
Then God gave another instruction:
TikTok.
It was not a ministry strategy Teri developed or a platform she chose because it seemed like the obvious next move.
God said TikTok.
So she obeyed.
There was no blueprint yet.
Only the next instruction.
02 / THE FIRST GATHERING
The fast that
became a circle.
In the summer of 2025, another woman shared that God had called her to lead a worldwide fast.
Teri supported it publicly, and soon people began asking her to create a smaller community where they could receive guidance, ask questions, and stay connected while fasting.
At first, she said no.
People who simply did not want to walk through it alone.
So Teri asked God for confirmation.
He gave it.
And she said yes.
From August 29 through September 1, around 150 people participated.
There were prayer touchpoints, encouragement, biblical guidance, and community throughout the fast.
Teri expected the assignment to end there.
Instead, God gave another instruction:
“This is just the beginning. Bible study.”
That instruction came with tension.
Teri had never led a Bible study. Until then, she had been the person sitting in Bible study with Latilda — learning, asking questions, and being poured into herself.
Now God was telling her to stand on the other side of that conversation.
She did not feel ready.
But readiness had never been the requirement.
Obedience was.
So she said yes again.
03 / SEPTEMBER 2025
The month that
changed everything.
Teri had already planned to take the entire month of September away from her corporate career.
She expected to travel, rest, celebrate her birthday, and regroup.
God said no.
Stay.
So she stayed.
What was supposed to be a month to get away became a month God used to build.
The fast became Bible studies.
The Bible studies became regular gatherings.
And in September 2025, The Discipleship Circle took its name.
Around 50 to 70 people moved into the next phase of the community.
The first Zoom gathering as TDC had only a handful of people.
The numbers were smaller.
But God was building something deeper.
Not simply an audience.
A circle.
04 / ANOTHER SHIFT
Then everything
shifted again.
During that season, Teri told God how fulfilled she felt serving in this way.
She wondered aloud what it would be like to do it full time.
Less than a week later, she learned that her entire department was being laid off.
She had not quit to start a ministry.
She had not manufactured a transition.
But once again, God was asking her to trust Him with something she could not fully see.
Since then, The Discipleship Circle has become her full-time ministry effort, and God has continued to provide.
There was still no blueprint.
Only obedience to the next instruction.
05 / THE LATE-NIGHT HOURS
A commitment
kept.
By December 2025, another commitment Teri had made to God began taking shape.
She started going live on TikTok late at night — often in the hours when people were awake questioning, wrestling with faith, curious about Jesus, or simply needing someone willing to listen.
This was not a content strategy.
It was a commitment.
And while Teri could not yet see where those conversations would lead, God already could.
Pieces were being connected that would not make sense until later.
06 / BEYOND THE SCREEN
Faith was never meant
to stay on the screen.
Then God put another instruction in front of Teri:
Take the community in person.
So in January 2026, TDC held its first in-person gathering in Charlotte.
It came together quickly.
Teri wondered whether anyone would come.
They did.
What began as another step of obedience became a room full of people.
And from there, God kept opening doors.
07 / LOS ANGELES
Then God said
Los Angeles.
Los Angeles was not simply the next city TDC wanted to visit.
God made it abundantly clear that TDC was supposed to go.
So in May 2026, The Discipleship Circle hosted an outreach event in Los Angeles, partnering with a local church and bringing together people God had been connecting through different parts of the ministry.
And several threads came together there.
Three people were baptized.
Two of them had been part of The Discipleship Circle from its earliest days.
One of those baptized had first connected with TDC through the late-night TikTok Lives — from the very beginning of that commitment Teri had made to God months earlier.
What had begun as obedience in the middle of the night was now standing in the water in Los Angeles.
And God was not finished.
One of the speakers at the outreach event was someone who had been wrestling with — and running from — a calling to ministry.
Los Angeles became the first event platform where he stepped forward and publicly shared his testimony.
Through that testimony, a mother and her child made the decision to give their lives to the Lord.
One person’s yes had made room for another person’s yes.
And that yes made room for someone else’s.
That day held baptisms, testimony, salvation, fellowship, vendors, food, laughter, and people who had once known one another primarily through a screen finally standing together in the same place.
It made something visible that had been happening all along:
God was not simply building meetings.
He was weaving people together.
08 / WHAT COMES NEXT
Still saying
yes.
There is still no complete blueprint.
Not for every city.
Not for every gathering.
Not for every partnership.
Not for every season ahead.
But there has been a pattern from the beginning.
God speaks.
We obey.
People respond.
And God keeps building.
The Discipleship Circle did not begin because Teri had a ministry plan.
It began with surrender.
Then an instruction.
Then another.
And another.
God is the Builder. We simply keep giving Him our yes.
So we are not asking Him to bless our plans.
We are asking for the courage to keep following His.
You do not have to know the whole plan to
Go All In on the next yes.
09 / THE STORY CONTINUES
This is only
the beginning.
Who is The Discipleship Circle today?
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