How do we make disciples in Lifegroups?
I remember when I told my wife I wanted to start going to church. I didn’t know Jesus yet, but I thought it would be good. My wife was a believer but wasn’t going to church very often. I remember saying, “Let’s find a church to go to, but I don’t want to join one of those “foo foo care groups.” I had visions of holding hands singing Kum Bah Yah. I didn't see the need to meet in small groups.
It was only a couple weeks after I prayed to accept Christ as Lord of my life, that I found myself in one of those dreaded care groups. And... I loved it. We got into the bible and discussed it. We made great friends, we helped one another, and I thought it was the best. A few years later, I was leading my own life group. Crazy. I remember in the early years of leading my care group we started going through the book of Romans. 2 YEARS later we finished. I went verse by verse because we were REALLY going to understand it. Now, that group of people learned patience and perseverance but that is probably the extent of it!!
Part of the problem, in those early years, I had no idea what was the purpose of a life group. We prayed for one another and helped one another and went “deep” into the bible. Those are all good things, but we were a group of believers that were not on mission. We were growing in knowledge, maybe, but not in maturity.
It is important to state why we are meeting. Our goal is to make disciples!! At the end of the book of Matthew Jesus gives us the Great Commission:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Mat 28:18-20
So, we are to make disciples. What does that mean? Where are we to begin? What if we have been have known Jesus for a very long time?
I think we start with defining a disciple. What is a disciple? If we are making bread, we need to know what bread is and what it is supposed to look like when we are done. It is the same with a disciple. We need to know what a disciple looks like before we are tasked to take on this project.
So, the picture I had of a disciple is one who prays, gives, and knows his bible. There were many other words that would apply as well like humility, kind, etc. But the prevalent word for me, would have been student. For me a disciple was a student. He he read his bible, had his doctrine straight, and was able to expound on what he knew. These are not bad things and in many ways good things.
The problem came for me when I didn’t see disciples portrayed this way in the bible. James says it very clearly:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22
One of the truly “aha” moments for me came when someone gave me a different definition or picture of a disciple. Instead of a student, what if it looked like an Apprentice?
An apprentice has “hands on learning”. Knowledge wasn’t the goal but applying the knowledge and putting it to work on something. You work hand in hand with your apprentice and share knowledge as you are working.
So if we are being apprenticed, we are taking the bible and applying it together. Not only are we to make disciples, those same disciples are to also make disciples and so on. As Jesus did with his disciples and as Paul did with Timothy and Titus, it is our job to get into the bible with our life group, ask for the Holy Spirit to change us, and to go out and do the things that Jesus has commanded us to do (Mt 28:20).
Paul says as much to Timothy:
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2Tim 2:2-3
Jesus talks extensively about helping the poor, the disadvantaged, sharing the good news with those who don’t know it, being a good neighbor, being hospitable, forgiving, etc. We need to grow in these areas. In a life group, we get to be encouraged, work through these things with others, and also be held accountable to what we learn together. We get to do this with others (apprenticeship). And lastly, in Matt 28:20, Jesus promises that He will be with us always!!