Making disciples is key to obeying the will of God and being the church that lives out God's mission to reach and redeem the world. But what do we do when the cultural mindset/religion is at direct odds with Christ's desires for his kingdom? Alan Hirsch has some great words of wisdom.
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How do you see small groups playing a key role in disciple-making as Alan is describing? How does the church and especially small groups come against the encultured mentality of consumerism?
'til next time,
akd
Comments
To answer your question Allen, I am convinced that Small Groups will only make disciples through intentional accountability. Ascending Leaders accomplishes this though "triads" It is small groups dividing into smaller groups of 3 at the end of the time together and seriously asking each other the hard questions of what each person is doing to grow more Christ-like as a result of the lessons recently covered. It works.
-Pete
Hi Allen, (Dale here)
Hello Pete, to borrow a phrase - you had me at - It works.
Please tell me more about successful triads - I am intending to launch such in in the fall.
Dale
Sure Dale,
Ascending Leaders has curriculum such as "Charting Your Course" "Spirit's Fruit" and "Giving Forgiveness. In the course of each lesson there is an accountable covenant that is read and agreed to. Toward the end of the small group time ( i usually do it after the lesson/teaching/ or discussion time, we break off for 10 minutes into groups of three (go to two not four if you have an even number of participants. There in the "triads" which is self-led, the people ask about an action point they were going to work on or what action point they will take away for the next week as a result of the just completed lesson. Each one shares successes and failures. It's high accountability and taking growth in Christ seriously.
Have Fun.
Pete
What Alan shares reminds me of James K Smith's book Desiring the Kingdom. This past January at the Worship Symposium at Calvin College he talked about how the mall is a religious institution. It was eye-opening to me as I began to see more comparisons such as sports stadiums. We are loaded with consumeristic religion. This is a great explanation of the lack of committment that churches are finding and we also see that when someone "gets it" in terms of a relationship with God and each other then they die to themselves or to the consumeristic religion.
I just witnessed it this past week at a youth group SERVE project where the kids were allowed to use their cell phones, iPods, etc. but because of the fellowship and worship that they were a part of those electronic devices were rarely used. Without knowing it those kids understood that consumerism is a fading shot of happiness.
Shalom,
Craig
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