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Disciples - A Spiritual Growth Journey
Join a Small Group to continue on the road to discipleship. Our groups
following the the "Disciples"
curriculum. We are still in the first year and material for a second,
third and fourth year is also available. For more information on the "Disciples"
Curriculum, please visit their website.
We live in a fast-paced world that places high value on speed, productivity, and
efficiency. If we are honest, sometimes we measure our discipleship by the same
values. We want results! What if discipleship were first and foremost a
beautiful journey? What if we believed our relationship with God was the most
beautiful personal encounter we’ve ever had? What if we deeply desired to
pattern our lives after this awesome tenderness we know as grace?
During this journey we will have an opportunity to stop and ask the big
questions. Not so much the big philosophical questions but the big questions
about whom you follow, who you are, and how you are going to live. Because at
the end of your life, will you and your loved ones focus on how successful or
impressive your life was, or on how beautiful it became as you grew towards
maturity in Christ? Nothing is more beautiful than God and the evidence is all
around us. “Disciples” will help you to live more deeply into the life and heart
of God.
At the heart of the Christian story is the conviction that around 2000 years ago
God, the God who created and loves the world and is passionately determined to
redeem and renew it, did something astounding and almost inconceivable. God
became human; God joined the human race. For thirty years he lived an ordinary
life, which the Bible doesn’t tell us much about. Bur after he was baptized by
John, Jesus burst on the scene. The gospels tell us that almost the first thing
Jesus did was to call together some disciples.
In those days rabbis did that sort of thing, seeking the best, most promising
men to pass on their knowledge. Jesus called twelve quite ordinary men, mostly
fishermen, along with a few rather notorious crooks. The words he used still
ring with urgency: “Come and follow me.” His personality was so compelling, his
words so captivating, that they literally dropped what they were doing and set
out on a three-year journey of following him around. They ate together, traveled
together, laughed together and all the while Jesus taught them about what he
called the kingdom of God.
So the primary method Jesus used to spread his gospel, the good news of God’s
love, was to hang out with this group called “the twelve.” He “discipled” this
little community of people. That’s the way he prepared them to spread his word
when he was gone. Amazingly, starting with twelve ordinary people called
disciples, the gospel of Jesus Christ has spread through the whole world.
The small group lessons will help you
understand what it means to follow Jesus as his disciple – What is means to
follow him with all your heart. Jesus, God’s own Son, extends to each of us the
same compelling, adventurous, life-transforming invitation he made to his first
disciples: “Come, follow me.” You don’t want to miss it!
Rev. Dr. Albert Potgieter
(The content of this article was taken from the “Disciples” daily reading and
small group books.)
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