Part 1: RECEIVE LIFE
“We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know him by making his love known to us.�
J.I. Packer
PART 1 OF OUR DISCIPLESHIP
CULTURE BEGINS WITH THE VERB
“RECEIVE.�
This may be the most foundational and
important verb of the Christian life. New life in Christ begins (and matures) through receiving. Salvation, new life, a relationship with Jesus, the discipleship journey starts with God, not with us. God is the initiator in this relationship, we are the responders. God is the giver in this relationship, we are the receivers. In a culture obsessed with achieving, we are learning the countercultural path of receiving. Grace, abundant life, eternal life, acceptance, belonging, being loved by God, and being recognized as somebody of value is received, not achieved.
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Habit 1: SELECTION SELECT YOUR PEOPLE, PATH, AND PLAN.
As individual disciples we want to intentionally and creatively practice the
steps in this guidebook as we gather and scatter as a church. Your week is full of opportunity to use this guidebook and our 2 Discipleship Questions a launching pad for enhancing Garden City’s discipleship culture. Whether you’re gathered on Sunday at a worship service or buried in emails on Tuesday at the office, you can always act on the questions: What is God saying to you? What’s your next step? But, this guidebook will bear the most fruit in your life and our church as you work through it with a group of disciples/friends (a Discipleship Group). Forming this group starts with selection. Salvation starts with selection—God selects, elects, chooses us. And a discipleship journey starts with selection, as modeled by Jesus: he selected people to disciple. This pattern is then repeated throughout the New Testament by various leaders who select people (either in a hierarchal/top-down model, or a peer-based/side-to-side model) to make, mature, and multiply disciples together.
Note: The amount of time you want to spend with each Habit/chapter will vary by habit and by group dynamics. Some habits you may want to cover in just 1 or 2 meetings, while other habits you may want to devote several months of attention, time, and energy to. Let the Holy Spirit guide your pacing.
MEMORIZE
And he chose from them twelve. - Luke 6:13
SELECT YOUR PEOPLE
Jesus started his discipleship movement through selection, prayerfully se-
lecting a small group of teachable disciples to share the gospel and his life with. We do the same thing. Start talking to God and talking to people, then thoughtfully select 3-5 people who want to commit to a journey of making, maturing, and multiplying disciples together. Notice the word “want” in that last sentence. It’s important to form a group that desires to do this. We want desire-driven (not duty-driven) discipleship. Please also consider asking at least 1 non-Christian friend to join this journey. We’ve found the size of 3-5 to be ideal—it creates intimate, diverse, and flexible groups that can thrive and, after 6-12 months, send out 1-2 people to start a new group that makes more disciples.
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Especially if you are choosing a hierarchical/top-down discipleship model
(which is what Jesus did with his brief 3 year ministry on earth) your key word should be “potential.” Jesus chose disciples on the basis of potential—not on the basis of who they were, but on the basis of who they could become. Start with the end in mind. Select for potential. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you towards potential leaders, people who God can develop into multipliers and leaders of leaders. Once you’ve formed you group, reach agreement on who should be the primary leader of your group—the “quarterback” who keeps the team on mission and moving forward. Generally this will already be clear, it’s the person who took the most initiative to gather this group. If you’ve not been able to find a Discipleship Group for yourself, ask your Life Group leader, a staff member, or an elder for help.
“God wants us.”
- Elizabeth Elliot
“It all started by Jesus calling a few men to follow him. His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow. Men were to be his method of winning the world to God.” - Robert Coleman
READ LUKE 5:1-11, 6:12-16
As a newly formed Discipleship Group, write out a list of everything you no-
tice about Jesus’ selection of disciples. These texts reveal probably 5-10 key insights. Discuss and pray through together how you want these insights to influence what God does with your group.
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“Jesus saw in these simple men the potential of leadership for the Kingdom. They were indeed ‘unlearned and ignorant,’ but they were teachable…their hearts were big…Jesus can use anyone who wants to be used.”
Robert Coleman
SHARE YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH DISCIPLESHIP.
Has anyone discipled you before? Have you discipled anyone else before?
Have you ever been in a peer-to-peer discipleship relationship? Who are the people who have had the biggest influence on the person you are today, and how have they shaped you?
SELECT YOUR PATH
This guidebook asks you to select “your path,” to select 1 of the core books
that are central to Garden City’s DNA. Select together the core book that your group wants to study, and study this book together alongside the guidebook. In addition to these core books, each habit in this guidebook contains optional recommended books and resources to deepen your discipleship roots. If you’ve already worked through these core books or are more excited about one of the recommended resources that appear throughout this guidebook, select and study one of those books instead.
We recognize that not everyone loves to read (and some of us may not know how to read), but throughout church history the written word has played a dominant role in discipleship. If reading is difficult for members of your group, get creative: make use of audio books, read your core book out loud together when you’re gathered as a group, use your group to train someone in reading, etc.
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The Bible — Pick a book like 1 Thessalonians, Mark, John, or the current sermon series to accompany your discipleship journey. We encourage everyone in our church to own and use the ESV Study Bible as a key resource for your discipleship. The Relational Soul, Rich Plass and Jim Cofield Select to study what it means that we are created in the image of a relational God. The Prodigal God, Tim Keller Select to study how the gospel is a 3rd way of life, distinct from both breaking the rules and keeping the rules. The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert Coleman Select to study Jesus’ method of disciple-making. One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp Select to study a call to live a life of radical gratitude, trust, and joy in the midst of a
CORE BOOKS
broken world. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Select to study a life-changing and challenging book about following Jesus together. The Walk, Stephen Smallman Select to study the core fundamentals of following Jesus and making disciples. The Gospel, Ray Ortlund. Select to study how gospel doctrine can shape a gospel culture. God’s Good Design, Claire Smith Select to study God’s design of equality and distinction in roles for men and women. Total Church, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis Select to study a biblical vision of church life. The Emotionally Healthy Leader or Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Pete Scazzero Select to study how to become more emotionally aware, healthy, and whole. Desiring God, John Piper or Knowing God, J.I. Packer Select to study deep and rich theological classics written at an accessible level. Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller Select to study a robust biblical vision for work and life.
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“We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it…What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?”
J.I. Packer
SELECT YOUR PLAN
Select the practical when, where, how, and how long of your group. • When will you meet: 1x a week or 2x a month, in the evening or in the morning? • Where will you meet: In your apartment, at a coffeeshop, or as part of/an extension of your Life Group? • How will you meet: Will your time together and use of this guidebook to look like 75% discussion and 25% prayer, or do you want it the opposite; Will most of your time together take place huddled together in a home, out on the streets of our city serving some need, or in a public place like a coffee shop so that your group can be a visible witness? • How long do you plan to meet for? Set your groups sending/multiplication date based on how much time you think you will need to accomplish your mission. Go no shorter than 6 months (don’t rush this) and no longer than 12 months (don’t delay this, there are new groups to start and disciples to make). • Look at the tools and suggestions in Appendix 1, see if you desire to incorporate any of it into your plan.
“Building men and women is not that easy. It requires constant personal attention, much like a father gives to his children. This is something that no organization or class can ever do…There is simply no substitute for getting with people, and it is ridiculous to imagine that anything less, short of a miracle, can develop strong Christian leadership.”
Robert Coleman
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CRAFT TOGETHER A 1 PARAGRAPH STATEMENT OF THE MISSION OF YOUR GROUP.
Include in this paragraph your people (names of who is in the group), path
(book choice), and plan (the when, where, how, and how long of your group). Once you’ve reached clarity on this, begin to live out your mission together. Below is a sample plan:
“We (Lisa, Cheryl, Ting, and Bethany) commit to gathering as a Discipleship Group for 12 months, from January 15 to December 15, to grow in our discipleship and to make more disciples. We know that people get closer to each other as they pursue a mission together, and our mission is to follow Jesus and make disciples together. We will meet at least 2x a month (during our normal Life Group meeting) for 2 hours to study this guidebook and Desiring God by John Piper. We will emphasize putting into action what we learn, and will end each of our gatherings with each person sharing their “next step” they are committing to taking as a disciple. We’re aiming to draw at least 1 non-Christian into our group in our first few months, and we plan to send 1-2 people out to start a new Discipleship Group at the end of our 12 months together. As we get deeper into this journey we’ll see who God is raising up for us to send out.”
“The world’s religions have certain traits in common, but until the gospel of Jesus Christ burst upon the Mediterranean world, no one in the history of human imagination had conceived of such a thing as the worship of a crucified man.” - Fleming Rutledge
PRAY TOGETHER. SUBMIT AND SURRENDER YOUR DISCIPLESHIP GROUP TO THE LORD.
Use your first meeting to surrender your group’s journey together before the
Lord. Pray specific and pray big, asking God’s will to be done with your group. If there’s anything God is convicting you to repent of, then repent right now for a fresh and honest start to your journey together. This journey and this guidebook will regularly call us to repentance.
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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. - Psalm 51:1-2, 7
MEMORIZE
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU.
Something we see Jesus, Paul, and other great disciple-makers doing is the
simple act of taking someone with them wherever they were going as a way to share their life with them. Build a habit of taking someone with you as you go about ordinary life—running errands, a walk or a workout, eating a meal, taking a trip. Turn these ordinary moments into discipleship moments where you transfer truth and love through relationship. Much disciple making is caught, not taught, as a person begins to slowly absorb and imitate another’s example.
Never forget that the greatest impact you will have on people is usually through your presence, not your ideas. Presence matters most.
“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” - Philippians 3:17 “Our lives illustrate what God is like much more by what we are and do than by what we say.” - Elizabeth Elliot
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MAIN TAKEAWAY: We’re a church of disciples who practice the habit of selection—we live a rhythm of selecting a few, focused discipleship relationships to invest in.
What is God saying to you?
What’s your next step?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR HABIT 1: Made for Friendship, Drew Hunter A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson Mentor for Life, Natasha Sistrunk Robinson The Relationship Principles of Jesus, Tom Holladay The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni Sticky Teams, Larry Osborne
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