Discipleship-Intro
The soul that loves God has its rest in God and in God alone. In all the paths that men walk in, in the world, they do not attain peace until they draw nigh to hope in God. St. Isaac the Syrian
Gregg’s Reflection
My 25 year career in the family business began with little responsibility or stress, and as I rose in the ranks, both continuously increased. By the last five years, I was spending 50+ hours a week at work, and my mind focused on work for most of my waking hours. After selling the business, I realized how much our culture values and promotes workaholism. The business left no share of mind for true discipleship.
I have been involved in small groups of various sorts for thirty years. They have been wonderful experiences, some of them in mixed gender groups with my wife, and some in groups with just men. These groups have been affirming, inspiring, and places of deep community where we could share life’s challenges and know friends would walk with us and pray for us. These groups create settings where we can be inspired by the faith journeys of friends and mentors.
Yet, despite the wonderful good that came from these groups, the friendships, the support during tough times, the learning and wisdom gained, I found one thing lacking. The groups were very low in accountability. Very warm and inviting, but rarely challenging. As I learned in this 3DM workshop on Discipleship and Mission, Jesus always brought a mix of invitation and challenge. First He shows he loves us, then He challenges us to grow up.
The Learning Circle is a tool of accountability that can make the difference between small group and discipleship group. The Learning Circle is designed to help us understand two basic questions: What is God saying to me? What am I going to do about it?
The first half of the Learning Circle calls us to Observe the moment in which God speaks. After observing or hearing something from God, the circle asks us to stop and reflect. My spiritual director suggests journaling when we have a moment like this to help in reflecting upon what it might mean. After we observe and reflect, we are to discuss our observations and reflections with a trusted circle of truth-tellers to help us find deeper meaning. Often Spirit speaks to us through those who know and love us. This step completes the first half of the learning circle, opening us up to turn back towards God in deeper ways.
After discussing a Kairos moment with our small group, we are tasked to make a plan. Sharing our plans with the small group brings accountability to respond to God’s nudging with action. In Jesus’ time, the word believe was inherently defined by a change in behavior, not just a new way of thinking. So, as this slide illustrates, we are called to an inflection point, where we decide what we will stop doing, and what we will start doing.
As we plan, share that plan with accountability partners, and then act, we complete the Learning Circle of Repent and Believe. Each trip around the Learning Circle following a Kairos moment provides a small course correction as we are seeking and following God’s Faint Path. May you, too, find that accountability is a blessing in your Christian walk.
When we think about what effect Invitation and Challenge look like in churches, this illustration is helpful:
Find the rest of the Discipleship post here.
And, here is an audio introduction:
Journaling Prompts:
What does discipleship look like in your church and your life? Where have you encountered invitation and challenge? Pastors, have you moved from only loving people to challenging them to grow up as Jesus did? What would that look like?
Scripture
Committed study of scripture can bring about much more than merely head knowledge. You can bring God himself into all the recesses of our being, for “the word of God is living and active,” Hebrews 4:12. In studying Scripture, and living it, we take on the heart and mind of God.
RENOVARE Bible notes on Ezra 6
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. You are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:11,15
Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; walk in it and find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16
Those who put Jesus’ teaching into practice will become wise and live lives that rest on solid foundations. Growth in wisdom is a pillar of Christian discipleship.
RENOVARE Bible notes on Wisdom of Solomon, p. 229
Then he said to them: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
Luke 9:23-24
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.
John 8:31-32
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1
It is Christ who is growing in us, rather than we who are growing in Christ. Christ is formed in us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we respond to his ever-present grace in our lives. This occurs in daily, ordinary life as we “practice the presence of God” in our work, our play, our relationships, and all of life.
RENOVARE Bible Notes on Galatians, NT, p. 324
The Christian faith is contagious. If we are to endure as Christians, it must be through apprenticeship-observing more experienced and well-formed Christians, following their moves, taking up their way of life, inculcating their virtues. Through such observation and imitation, we take up the practices of faith and come to embody those practices for ourselves. The church must look for ample opportunities for its members to be observed by and to observe one another as we mature in the faith.
RENOVARE Study Bible notes on 2 Timothy 3:10
Apprenticeship to Jesus in the fellowship of his people is the only assured path of life under God. On that path we move from faith to more faith, from grace to more grace, and are able to walk increasingly in holiness and power.
RENOVARE Bible Notes NT p. 481
Ancient Writings
The soul that loves God has its rest in God and in God alone. In all the paths that men walk in, in the world, they do not attain peace until they draw nigh to hope in God.
St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 56, 89
The acquisition of holiness is not the exclusive business of monks, as certain people think. People with families are also called to holiness, as are those in all kinds of professions, who live in the world, since the commandment about perfection and holiness is given not only to monks, but to all people.
Hieromartyr Onuphry Gagaluk
When you begin to read or listen to the Holy Scriptures, pray to God thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, open the ears and eyes of my heart so that I may hear Thy words and understand them, and may fulfill Thy will." Always pray to God like this, that He might illumine your mind and open to you the power of His words. Many, having trusted in their own reason, have turned away into deception.
St. Ephraim the Syrian
Modern Writings
'Stand Still'-keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, 'Go Forward.' If the Lord makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord's people have always been a waiting people.
Charles Spurgeon, Sermon: The Waiting Soul’s Expectation
Growth enables us to perceive ourselves as becoming. We are neither defined nor held captive by our past. The discipline of growth liberates us from the crushing impact of failures and misdeeds. We can live in the present and prepare to move into the future with readiness and a fresh spirit for encountering life and God.
Gregory Ellison II, Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman, p. 170
Seek one thing alone: to purify your love of God more and more, to abandon yourself more and more perfectly to His will and to love Him more exclusively and more completely, but also more simply and more peacefully and with more total and uncompromising trust.
Thomas Merton, What is Contemplation, p. 55-65
Anyone who is resolved to meet the Lord daily knows how challenging it is to keep such a resolution. In fact, such resolutions don’t usually work. We have to take a stand and make a declaration: I am a person who meets the Lord each day as a friend and disciple, sitting at his feet to receive a word of life.
Basil Pennington, Lectio Divina, p. 81
The great conversion in our life is to recognize and believe that the many unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions in our projects, but the way in which God molds our hearts and prepares us for his return.
Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 7/10/22
For Jesus, “discipleship” is about being in an intimate, loving, and challenging relationship, much like that between parent and child. To be disciples of Jesus, we have to let ourselves be loved as he did. It is in receiving that love that we find our strength and power. First, we must learn how to be God’s children, allowing ourselves to receive love, to be loved, to be cared for, and believed in, so that we can be entrusted to go about our “Father’s business” as Jesus did (see Luke 2:49).
Richard Rohr, CAC Morning Devotion, 3/15/20