My previous discipleship group of guys completed our 18ish month course in August. As a requirement for completing our time together, I was charged with starting another one. Another 18 months seems like a long road ahead, especially when you don't know these guys yet. But so did my last group, and it wasn't long enough. I truly miss them.
First week was pretty casual. I wanted to get started on the right foot and not let us feel superficial or light after the first week. So after sharing my sappy thoughts and vision for discipleship, we all shared our life, family, church and spiritual background with each other. Holy cow it went well. These guys are serious! I thought it would take a while to ramp up our interaction, depth and challenges. But now I gotta step it up!
Location
I wanted to check out a cozy coffee shop that I knew about in the heights, but the cafe part had been shut down for a while. Since I couldn't blog about our group if we met at Oliver's Pub on Taco Tuesdays, our backup was the nearby Starbucks. Not my top pick
Our group is pretty diverse. One is married with two kids. One is pretty fresh out of college. The other two are in my career Sunday school class with very different backgrounds. We've got professions represented all over the board. It's not just a Cat group!
Things about discipleship (relationships in Christ in general really) I've become passionate about:
Grounded in God's word. Open Bibles are not optional!
Being challenged. Do I have to explain that any more? Challenges don't have to be general, they can be directed at YOU. Your priorities will always make themselves known, even if you don't notice. I get very defensive when someone calls me out on something. But if they can show how they came to that insight (and if I cool off), their ability to observe me from another angle becomes much appreciated.
Being open/deep. Not saying one deep thought on occasion to say you did. If there's something that you wouldn't tell them, then you probably need to. If you're in control of your own personal and spiritual development, you've put a serious restraint on how far you'll get.
It's not a side note in your life. That's why we meet so often and for so long. Keeping in touch throughout the week as well. You can't emulate or be encouraged in any meaningful way if they don't play a significant part in your life.
Discipline. Just "feeling" like you're getting something out of it ain't gonna cut it. There's nothing more subjective, growth killing and even harmful than basing your level of success in life on how you feel. Your comfort level or if you are at peace with it. What you can look back on in life is results. Changes. Though I'm highly disappointed with alot of areas of discipline in my life, there is a HUGE difference in what, why and how well I glorify God in life after living with Rodney (bottom of post) for two years. That discipline was based on some good conversations and a good example. In these groups, it has been more direct and followed-up challenges. We will look at some challenging questions that have been asked by men wiser than I, and hitting up God's word in memorization.
Yeah Discipleship!
2 comments:
Stay away from Kade's, it's taken!
I totally just remembered two occasions where I had been to a Starbucks in Peoria to have a deep conversation with people in the last year. This blog is lies, all lies!!
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