Membership to Discipleship: Growing Mature Disciples Who Make Disciples by Philip Maynard

Author:Philip Maynard [Maynard, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Excellence in Ministry Coaching
Published: 2016-07-13T07:00:00+00:00

Small groups are asked to frame their time together around the 3 B’s of:

• Belong = Being part of the body of Christ—a focus on building relationships with each other and with God (worship).

• Become = Becoming more like Jesus—a focus on studying and applying Scripture to our lives (identifying next steps) and being accountable to the group for our progress.

• Be = Being Christ to the world—a focus on joining Jesus in ministry/mission to the world.

In my ‘tribe’ (the denomination of which I have been a part of ministry leadership), there are several statistical measures that are tracked as indicators of church health. One of them is described as “the number of persons in discipleship groups.” While this is often touted as a way to measure the level of discipleship happening in a congregation, I don’t think it is really accurate as a true measure of transformation. What it really measures is the number of people we can convince to join a small group.

A step forward in the use of this statistical measure would be to more clearly define what a small group does. Otherwise, how do you determine if a particular group is accomplishing your goals for transformation? Is the choir a small group? What about the praise team? Or the UMW? Or the mission team? Or a Bible study? In my congregation, we described small groups as those following the 3-B framework. If you wanted to be considered a small group that was living up to our expectations for how we would promote and nurture transformation, you had to do three things:

• Have a time of fellowship (relationship building) and worship.

• Have some type of focus on becoming more like Jesus—studying Scripture, developing spiritual practices.

• Do some kind of service beyond the walls of the church every month or two.

Any group could become an official Discipling Small Group by using the three guidelines as a framing tool for their time together. Wesley Fellowship Groups Retired Bishop Dick Wills, in his last appointment to a local church (Christ United Methodist Church in Ft. Lauderdale), developed a small group ministry that became a model for many congregations across the country, called Wesley Fellowship Groups. These groups, comprised of four to five persons, met regularly following a ‘recipe’ of five ingredients:

• Fellowship: Meets the need to belong. People get to know and love one another. Be sure to play! Fun is essential to group health.

• Worship: Gives the opportunity to connect with God. Listen to/ sing praises. Share personal prayer concerns and offer prayer for those in need. Encourage participants to keep a journal.

• Study: In study we discover the truths of the Bible and discuss how to apply those to our lives. Some groups use a coaching approach to identifying next steps, gaining commitment for transformational change.

• Accountability: This is ‘self-disclosure’ to the group. It is when we ask the group to help us honor our most sacred commitments (e.g. prayer habits, family commitments, service, etc.).

• Mission: The journey inward must lead to the journey outward.

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