Discipleship group suggestions

Last week I talked about the importance of discipleship in building a movement for God.  This week I want to give you a quick picture of what discipleship looks like.

Discipleship is more than just leading a Bible Study:

Discipleship happens when people are spending time in the Word together (Bible study) with the additional elements of talking about how to apply the things they are learning from the Bible to their lives.  Discipleship is about allowing your life to be transformed by God and His Word and it is about growing and maturing in character and in faith.  It is also about learning how to be a faithful laborer in the harvest.

Discipleship generally includes the following elements:

• studying God’s Word together

• prayer (for life change, for personal ministry to others; in praise and worship of God)

• talking about your vision for what God wants to do at your campus

• sharing and talking about how to apply the things in your life that God is teaching you

• working on areas of personal growth and development

• training in ministry skills

• going out to do ministry together (sharing the gospel together, taking a new believer through follow up, helping them to disciple others, etc)

• making plans for reaching the campus with the gospel of Christ

You might have one disciple or you may have a group of disciples.  These above elements are important to include in any context.  You don’t have to meet each day or week and go over every single one of these elements each time.  The important thing is to try to touch on a couple of these areas each time you meet, covering each of these areas during the course of each semester.

One quick suggestion for discipleship material: 

I often suggest using the book, The Purpose-driven Life as I think it gives a great foundation for areas of growth and development in the process of maturing in Christ.  I like it because it can be used for “personal discipleship” (you may be the only person in your discipleship group!); it can be used if there are just 2 of you and so you can get together to discuss what you have learned; and it can be used in a group setting.  It is well-rounded in grounding new believers in the basics as well as challenges more mature believers to apply God’s Word to their lives in various areas. 

The best thing I like about it and why I recommend it so often is that it is an easy resource to use – you don’t have to prepare any Bible study lessons!  (Starting and leading a movement takes a lot of your time.)  You may want to pick out some passages that Rick Warren touches on to discuss further or find some related passages, but in general it’s a material to use that requires little work.

I spent a lot of time last fall in sending you ideas for evangelism.  We often talk about ‘movements of evangelism’, but I don’t want us to forget that you can’t build movements without spiritual multiplication!  Don’t overlook this area! 

Let me know of materials and resources you have found for the area of spiritual multiplication, I would love to pass them on to others!