The Apostle Paul was very concerned that followers of Jesus grew in their faith (Ephesians 3: 14 - 19). The writer to the Hebrews scolded his readers for being ‘spiritual babies’ who weren’t growing in their faith (Hebrews 5: 11 - 6: 3). And Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him to invest time into people so they would grow in their faith and be equipped to then invest in others (2 Timothy 2: 2).
Just so we are clear, discipleship is a pro-active process of helping someone follow Jesus so they become mature in their faith and equipped to help someone else.
This is not just about acquiring Bible knowledge. Yes that’s important. However, knowledge that does not result in transformation is ultimately useless. We don’t want to just know the Gospel, we want to see the Gospel lived out in real and tangible ways.
This means being real with one another about what’s going on in our lives, being transparent about our struggles with sin, and being ready to encourage each other to look to Jesus for our identity and our hope.
In our Missional Community Groups we are keen to disciple people (particularly our members) who are available, faithful, teachable and reliable. These are people who are serious about what it means to have Jesus as Lord of your life. If that describes you, our leaders will organise for you to be part of a discipleship meet-up, to help you grow spiritually.
This may involve one-to-one meet ups, or meeting in a small group of a few. Rather than a one-size-fits-all Bible study, we aim to tailor discipleship to be the right fit for each person.
This will usually mean studying a book of the Bible together, but sometime we also use other resources that will help us understand the Bible better.
One of the tools we use when studying the Bible together is a formula with the acronym DNA. It helps us unpack a Bible passage in our discipleship time in a way that's easy to use, and easy to teach to others:
Our desire is for everyone at Disciples Church to be in a discipling relationship so that we can be encouraging one another to follow Jesus faithfully.
Just so we are clear, discipleship is a pro-active process of helping someone follow Jesus so they become mature in their faith and equipped to help someone else.
This is not just about acquiring Bible knowledge. Yes that’s important. However, knowledge that does not result in transformation is ultimately useless. We don’t want to just know the Gospel, we want to see the Gospel lived out in real and tangible ways.
This means being real with one another about what’s going on in our lives, being transparent about our struggles with sin, and being ready to encourage each other to look to Jesus for our identity and our hope.
In our Missional Community Groups we are keen to disciple people (particularly our members) who are available, faithful, teachable and reliable. These are people who are serious about what it means to have Jesus as Lord of your life. If that describes you, our leaders will organise for you to be part of a discipleship meet-up, to help you grow spiritually.
This may involve one-to-one meet ups, or meeting in a small group of a few. Rather than a one-size-fits-all Bible study, we aim to tailor discipleship to be the right fit for each person.
This will usually mean studying a book of the Bible together, but sometime we also use other resources that will help us understand the Bible better.
One of the tools we use when studying the Bible together is a formula with the acronym DNA. It helps us unpack a Bible passage in our discipleship time in a way that's easy to use, and easy to teach to others:
- D is for Discover - Discovering God's Word together
- N is for Nurture - we Nurture our hearts with God's Word to realign our worship
- A is for Act - we Act in repentance and faith
Our desire is for everyone at Disciples Church to be in a discipling relationship so that we can be encouraging one another to follow Jesus faithfully.