From the outset, let me again say, discipleship is more than a meeting. It is living all of life in devotion to Christ. A meeting isn’t sufficient and doesn’t necessarily guarantee discipleship. However, I find that being intentional about pursuing Christ with two or three other people is a very helpful tool to keeping myself sharp and push myself and others to be intentional about our pursuit of the Lord.
If you were to begin meeting with another person or a small group of a few people to encourage and deepen your fellowship with Christ, what would you do in that time together? What would guide your conversation and make it most helpful? You could simply keep it organic and spontaneous. I just haven’t found that to be the most helpful in the long run.
Over the next few posts, I will expand on each of these and suggest some practical ways to go about each of them. For now, here is a brief suggestion of how you could arrange an hour together, assuming there are three people meeting together. Obviously you can arrange this differently with different elements and times of which you engage. I’m simply suggesting a practical way to get started if you aren’t doing anything currently.
I suggest that each week, you take turns each leading one of these areas:
- Discuss what you are reading in Scripture or a specific book you are reading together and how it is specifically challenging and shaping you. (20 minutes)
- Review Scripture you are memorizing together (15 minutes).
- Discuss your application of a key question you were all asking yourself throughout the week previous (15 minutes). You might even consider having someone surprise the group each week with a question to which you spontaneously respond.
- Pray for each other (each pray – 10 minutes total).
Again, this is simply a suggestion. What would you add? What would you take away? If you are wanting to meet together with another Christian (or a few others) and help encourage and stimulate each other to a more significant gospel-driven life, what would you do when you got together that would make the most of your time? Begin with some format and adjust it according to what will help each of you be intentional in how you helpfully challenge one another to grow in Christ.
