How God Breaks Through in Discipleship Groups

I wanted to tell you about our Wednesday night service. We have been working on switching it to a class meeting, or as we call them, Discipleship Groups. We do that, as Jessie says, to remind us that the purpose is discipleship, and also to make sure we don't foster the idea that the groups are necessarily “small.” We definitely try to avoid calling them “small groups.” Some are pretty small. Wednesday night is not. We had 27 there tonight.

So after praying and having some basic Bible study, we launch into The Four Questions:

How are you doing spiritually?

Where are you struggling with sin?

Have you taken advantage of the opportunities God has given you to do good?

Have you used the means of grace?

Tonight was awesome. It was the second question where it blew up. That strikes me as odd, because it is the one question we are least comfortable answering. But tonight, someone lit it off by admitting there was some real disappointment about two things that were in conflict in his life. He was dealing with some resentment. I asked if anyone had any ideas about how to deal with resentment.

That's when it opened up, and the purpose of the discipleship group was happening. It was not my issue, but resentment is an issue I face, and I know I came away with some really handy ways to deal with my next bout of resentment. I know a lot of people did. Iron sharpened iron tonight. We were sharing Scripture and encouragement.

The other amazing thing is, this is not just for people in our church. I know that so many people outside the church are dealing with all kinds of stuff, Life feels out of control. Some folks are makng the same mistakes over and over again. They need a place to get the junk out and be encouraged to seek peace with God through Jesus. And they need a group of people who will have their back.

Invite them to Wednesday night, to any of the other discipleship groups. Start some new ones.

Totally not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.