Discipleship Groups
Life-on-life
We expect each discipleship group to be in each other’s lives. This means spending time with each other, playing, working, and just finding ways to make your lives overlap. This will involve trips, meals and outings, but it could also involve watching your kids, studying, or even working together. Visit each other in your homes. Spend time with each other’s families. Really get to know each other not just on Sundays or a couple meetings a week, but in actual day to day life.
This is very important because true spirituality is an integrated spirituality. We might act a certain way on Sundays, but how do you act when you’re playing video games or having a conflict with your spouse. We all have blind spots in our lives, and it might be uncomfortable, but we need to help see and point out blind spots for each other. You might think that you have moments of anxiousness, but your discipleship group might be able to point out that you are a very anxious person and begin to explore where that comes from. You might think you have moments of losing your temper, but your discipleship group might be able to point out that you have an anger problem. They might even be able to help you identify where that is coming from.
Practical Wisdom
Not all practical teaching can be done through a sermon. How do you get along with your in-laws? How do I feel less anxious when I’m preparing for a test? How do I make friends? How do I get along with annoying roommates? My kids are driving me crazy! My husband and I are drifting apart. I don’t feel like I can connect with God.
Most of these things don’t have a simple answer that’s directly from the Bible. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t spiritual or that the Bible has nothing to say about them. Often they are situational and it takes a lot of time, experience, study in God’s Word and wisdom to know what to do in those situations.
Mentorship
We call them “Discipleship Groups” because in the church world more people will know what that means, but really they’re mentorship groups. Disciple means “learner” or “student” and we should be learning from Jesus in everything that we do at church. So for many churches, discipleship means learning the basics of the faith. That’s not what our discipleship groups are. Our discipleship groups are a focused place where a small group of people in similar situations can learn from someone who has been through that situation or life stage before in a very practical way.
Committed
Discipleship groups are higher commitment level than home groups. You need to want and be committed to growing spiritually. You need to commit to spending more time and effort. You need to be ready and invite deeper relationships from others. You need to but okay with hearing difficult things from your mentor or other people in your group.
Many deeper spiritual things cannot be learned without a deeper level of commitment. If you want to learn to play an instrument, anybody can watch a 10 minute youtube video. But to actually learn, you need to practice, make mistakes, get corrected, ask questions and practice more. Sometimes you need to pressure test your skill by playing in front of others. That extra time of practice requires commitment. Allowing a teacher or mentor to correct you requires a lot of commitment. Asking questions and troubleshooting requires another level of commitment.
Discipleship groups aren’t forever. A 6 month period is probably a good place to start. But during that time period, you do need to fully commit to it otherwise it won’t work.
Based on life-stage, gender, who signs up, we’ll contact you about joining a discipleship group.
Some of you may prefer 1 on 1 mentorship or have other preferences. So please let us know. Also feel free just to talk to Pastor Daniel about the discipleship groups to get more information.