by Bret Capranica | Mar 10, 2014 | Christian Living, Featured Articles, Reading
One helpful way to spur others on to growing deeper in your discipleship is meeting together with other Christians. I’ve previously given some suggestions on what such a regular gathering might consist. One tool to deepen discipleship in a regular meeting with others is to choose a book to read together and discuss it. What is involved in such a commitment? Here are a few suggestions on how to make the most of reading a book (outside Scripture) together. Commitments in Reading Material Together Determine exactly how much you will read and discuss each week. Make sure everyone involved is committed to complete the reading each week. Commit to not only read, but think through specific applications of what is being read. Commit to read the material chosen carefully, not merely complete the portion agreed upon each week. Don’ts for Good Discussion Don’t commit to something you cannot consistently contribute to significantly. Don’t allow each other to remain general in what they are applying to what they are reading. Don’t merely read quotations that you thought were good. Why were they good? How are they impacting you? Don’t only consider applications for yourself – but consider applications for the church and how what you are reading could build up others. Don’t dominate the time so that others can’t participate. Be mindful. Do’s for Good Discussion Mark up the book you are reading, including notes in the margin to remind yourself how/why what you marked has impacted you. Quickly glance over the the assigned section of reading and your marks before the discussion. Determine the most impactful element of the...
by Bret Capranica | Mar 3, 2014 | Christian Living, Featured Articles
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...
