Our Ongoing Aim As

Belonging, Believing

Becoming

• BELONGING THROUGH THE BODY OF CHRIST

• BELIEVING IN CHRIST THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD

• BECOMING LIKE CHRIST THROUGH THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

As Ambassadors of Christ.

God's supreme worth

Is magnified manifold when our deep and lasting joy

is in Him.

Is The Turning To God

from all else and The Valuing Of GOD above all things. John Piper

Repentance

Our Ongoing Aim as a People is To EXALT Christ,

To Cherish Christ,

To LOVE Christ,

To HONOR Christ,

To DESIRE Christ above all else.

Dallas Willard - definition of a disciple:

“A Disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.

A Disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things.

Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.”

That God's great glory and the most exquisite pleasure of His people are intertwined.

Thereby Ensuring

Thus, the under-shepherds (elders) of the Church

Should be those people whose satisfaction in God is so contagious that they naturally draw others into that enjoyment of God through teaching and preaching and ministry and care. By John Piper

PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH Rick WarrenRick Warren

LIFE ON MISSION NOT LIFE WITH MISSION• WORSHIP Exalt - Glorify Gods Name • DISCIPLESHIP Edify• FELLOWSHIP Encouragement • MINISTRY-SERVICE Equip • OUTREACH Evangelism• APOSTOLIC Extending The KingdomUltimately each church will be evaluated by

only one thing, its disciples. A Church is only as good as its disciples.

Reaching The Community By Rick Warren

Community

Unchurched

CROWD

Regular attenders

Congregation

Members

Committed

Maturing members

LEADERSHIP

My Church Family Gives

Me

• Gods purpose to live for Mission

• Gods people to live with Membership

• Gods principles to live by Maturity

• Gods profession to live out Ministry

• Gods power to live on Magnify

BELONGING LIFE GROUP DISCIPLESHIP VISION

To help the body members

Love one another - Belonging

Through learning - Believing

Grow in Christ like character- Becoming

Contributing of themselves and their resources

BELONGINGRELATIONSHIP

BELIEVINGINFORMATION

BECOMINGEXPERIANCE

How Do We Invite Others?

Life Group Tensions1. Learn how to give people a sense of

belonging , wrestle with scripture to believe, lead good discussions, create a loving environment, listen to members needs.

2. Create an environment in which people can learn about faith, [believing] build truthful relationships [belonging] and grow spiritually

3. Learning the art of managing the dynamic tension that consistently exist in the context of groups, process disagreements and conflict, accomplish a mission and help new people to connect to the group

Relationships and experiences are far more effective in bringing about life transformation.

When we talk about relationships, we’re certainly referring to spending time with our friends and neighbors sharing meals, serving and having fun.

But if we want to be disciples who make disciples then our relationships must move to a deeper, more intentional level.

As important as information is

We want to get to the place where we’re able to ask the two baseline questions of discipleship:

• What is Jesus saying to you?

• What are you going to do about it?

Primary

Intentionally entering into others lives to help them trust and follow Jesus and to obey all of His teachings.

The end result is the disciple becomes like Christ, the kind of person who “naturally does what Jesus did.”

“Discipleship is

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in the faith just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

(Colossians 2:6 & 7)

We Also Need To See

What the life of Jesus looks like in the life of others and then use that in our own life.

This is why Imitation is so crucial to discipleship.

We don’t need perfect examples but we do need living ones.

Our Passion 1 Peter 4;11

Whoever speaks, [let him do it as one who utters] oracles of God;

Whoever renders service, [let him do it] as with the strength which God furnishes abundantly, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever (through endless ages). Amen (so be it). The amplified Bible,

Walking the small group TIGHTROPE

Bill DONAHUE Russ ROBINSON

Meeting the challenges every group faces

LIFE GROUP LEADERS BIASWORSHIP, FELOWSHIP, DISCIPLESHIP, SERVING,

OUTREACH

TEACHEDIFFICATION

EQUIPINGSERVINGMINISTRY

FELLOWSHIPENCOURAGEFUN & MEALS

SHEPHERD NURTUREPRAYER

APOSTOLIC &

OUTREACH

SHEPHERDINGCARING

DISCIPLESHIP

FELOWSHIP

The Principle of Polarity Management

Suggests in every area of life we must learn to manage the tension between two good things rather than to choose one thing over another

• In business we strive to make a profit and please the customer

• Churches must evangelize and disciple

• Mark 3;14 The twelve to be with Him, so that he could send them out

Discipleship in the Scriptures

Is about learning to follow Jesus in light of who He is and what He has said and done, then making other disciples who follow Jesus as well.

Meeting the challenge through balanced tensionsThe 6 Challenges The 6 Tensions 6 Purpose to Achieve

Learning

challenge

Truth + Life

Bible - Challenges

Spiritual Transformation

Truth Meets Life

Developing

challenge

Care +

Discipleship

Intentional Shepherding

Army & Needs

Relational

challenge

Friendship + Accountability

Authentic Relationship Mutual Accountability

Reconciliation challenge

Kindness + Confrontation

Healthy Conflict

Right Response

Impact

challenge

Task + People

Build Community

Serving Together

Connection

challenge

Openness +

Intimacy

Inclusive Community Gods Redemption Purpose

• Spiritual transformation –peoples lives are changing in conformity with truth

• Intentional shepherding- caring leader moving people towards growth

• Authentic relationships- friend care enough to challenge one another

• Healthy conflict-problems resolved reconciled

• Serving together- cared for tasks accomplished

• Inclusive community- new people ,enfolded into deepening relationships

LIFE GROUP VALUES

Relationships, which are genuine life on life connections grounded in Christ-like love are the environment for discipleship.

• In the context of relationship, truth can be transferred from one life to the next.

• Questions can be asked. • Real-life stories can be shared.

• Sin can be confessed.

• Accountability can be offered.

• Encouragement can be given.

This describes how Jesus made disciples. The ministry of Jesus makes it clear that disciple making is a relational process built on trust.

BELIEVING The New

BirthIt happens

to us, not by us

It always happens through the word of GodEven though God is the one who begets his children,

the seed by which he does it is the word of God, the gospel that we preach.

1 Peter 1;22Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25     But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Here is the way the apostle Peter puts it:

His Decision To Make Us Alive

Will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do.

But what we do

Will be a response to His making us alive. By John Piper “Finally Alive”

Discipleship happens

When the life-changing truth of Scripture is infused into genuine relationships over an extended period of time.

Scripture, Relationships, and Time. 

FAITH

• by John MacArthur

Did you know that faith can be seriously harmful?

Some varieties of faith actually lead away from the true God—

They substitute superstition, falsehood,

Or faith itself in place of truth.

Such faith inevitably leads to spiritual disaster. It is reckless faith.

Reckless faith goes to two extremes.At one end of the spectrum it

looks within—relying on feelings, inner voices, fantasy, or subjective sensations.

At the other extreme it fixes its hope on some external human authority—the teachings of a supreme leader, religious tradition, magisterial dogma, or some other arbitrary canon.

Note that at both poles,

Reckless faith seeks spiritual truth apart from Scripture—

And that is the very point at which it becomes reckless.

Both kinds of reckless faith also have this in common:

They are irrational and anti-intellectual.

“Anti-intellectual”Doesn’t mean they oppose intellectual snobbery.

It means they spurn (reject) the intellect and encourage blind, uncritical trust.

Anti-intellectuals often set faith against reason, as if the two were opposites.

That kind of faith is gullibility.

It is foolishness, and not biblical faith.

Biblical faith is never irrational.

Authentic faith, in contrast, can never bypass the mind.

It cannot be irrational. (Unfounded) • Faith, after all, deals with truth. • Truth is objective data

to be known, studied, contemplated, and understood.

• All those are activities that engage the intellect.

• That means genuine Christianity cannot be anti-intellectual.

The Truth on which our faith is based

Has depths that are mysterious— Unfathomable to the merely human mind, or inscrutable, hard to make out,

impenetrable) —

But truth is never irrational. (unfounded, illogical, unreasonable)

The difference is all-important.

God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

Therefore what God says is true— and antithesis (exact opposite, direct opposite ) of what He says must be false.

Truth cannot be self-contradictory.

Truth makes sense; nonsense cannot be true.

Moreover, the doctrine on which we base our faith must be sound

Which is to say it must be biblical

Sound, biblical doctrine therefore underlies all true wisdom and authentic faith.

The attitude that scorns doctrine while elevating feelings or blind trust cannot legitimately be called faith, even if it masquerades as Christianity.

It is actually an irrational form of unbelief.

1 Ti 4:6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

1 Tim 6;3If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions

2 Ti 4:2Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

Titus 1:9holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

Titus 2:1But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:

Sound, Biblical DoctrineTherefore underlies all true wisdom

and authentic faith.

The attitude that scorns doctrine while elevating feelings or blind trust cannot legitimately be called faith, even if it masquerades as Christianity.

It is actually an irrational form of unbelief.

God holds us accountableFor what we believe as well as how we think

about the truth He has revealed.

All Scripture testifies to the fact that God wants us to know and understand the truth.

He wants us to be wise.

His will is that we use our minds.

We are supposed to think, to meditate—to be discerning

BECOMING

Toyota AA World's oldest Toyota

1936