This story is in the D-Path: Discipleship Landmarks.
Motto: Love one another – Go and make disciples
(With each story ask the Good News, Listening, Obedience and Multiplication Q’s)
(If there are no Muslims, omit the Surah)
Surah 19:34 That is Isa son of Mary—the Word of truth about which they doubt.
(Listen Q’s:) Who is the Word of Truth?
Matthew 18:20 Jesus said “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
(Listen Q’s:) When we gather in a small group, who is with us?
John 16:13 Jesus said “The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth.”
(Listen Q’s:) Why don’t we need a church leader to lead the group?
(This is why we have the “No Church” rule)
John 14:10 Jesus said to Philip, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
(Listen Q’s:) What was Philip struggling to believe?
Did Jesus try to come up with his own words to help Philip understand?
Who does Jesus rely on to enable Philip to believe?
(This is why we have the “No preaching” rule)
Mark 7:9 Jesus said “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”
(Listen Q’s:) What might happen if we just repeat what we have learnt from our church or other preachers?
How can we be sure to obey Jesus instead of traditions?
(This is why we have the “Answer only from the passage” rule.)
John 16:12 Jesus said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”
(Listen Q’s:) How did Jesus set the pace for teaching His disciples?
(This is why we have the “Go at your own pace” rule.)
(If any members of the group are willing to try to start a new group, or are sure they want to become a disciple of Jesus, go through the rest of this section with them.)
We offer a number of different types of group, but all depend upon the truth of these promises and use the same four questions and the same four rules. The groups can be used in families, churches, mosques, schools and out in the community and can include children and young people.
All the groups rely on the same discovery principle (see the D-Path Introduction for more detail). So, in one sense, all the groups are discovery groups, but we use the term “Discovery Group” in a specific way:
Discovery Groups (DGs) are for those who need to Discover who Jesus is, so they can listen to Him and obey Him. They are open to anyone who wants to start their journey of learning about Jesus. They are often mixed groups of Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths or no faith. They end when they complete D7 - Repentance. Apprentices should continue their journey of faith in a Growth Group.
Growth Groups (GGs) are for people who are serious about becoming a Kingdom-Apprentice. A Growth Group is two or three people who meet regularly (usually once or twice a week) to listen to Jesus, learn from the Holy Spirit, love each other and reach out to others. Experience has shown that three is the best GG size. Anyone who knows they want to be a disciple of Jesus should now be encouraged to start a Growth Group. They can continue in the DG if they wish, but should also meet with one or two others in a GG to discuss the stories in more depth. Remember Rule 4: “Go at your own pace”; the new GG can go back to earlier stories if they wish to spend more time in them, or progress through the D-Path at a faster rate than the DG, as long as they are listening to Jesus and obeying Him.
Missional Community groups (MCs) and Apprentice Training groups (ATs) are described later in the D-Path.
After a GG has completed the D-Path training, you can use the other training paths (Prayer, Go to the Nations, Simple Church etc. See www.kingdom-apprentices.net) or work your way slowly through 1Luke’s Gospel and then John, Mark and Matthew before moving on to other parts of the bible. We recommend you return to at least one of the Gospel’s each year.
Train: To start a new group you must train a new leader for that group by taking them through the “Using this Training” section at the start of this manual.
Start: Go with your new leader to start a new group. A new group should start the D-Path at D1, even if some of the members have already gone through some of the stories in a different group. This is to help ensure sure each member is experiencing the reality of the stories and being obedient to Jesus.
Observe: Let your new leader lead the meetings with you observing but not interfering. After the meeting you can share any advice you have.
Delegate: As soon as any member is able to answer the questions properly, get them to take turns to lead the meetings with your new leader assisting them. This is the next-generation leader.
Leave: Leaving the group is essential if we are to multiply. If we do not leave the group, all we can do is to add, not multiply, and we will get exhausted!
Asking people to gather to a public building like a church, mosque or palaver hut is like using a condom! It prevents reproduction. Timid people could not gather a crowd and lead them, so they will not reproduce. But they can invite a few friends and neighbours to share a Jesus story at their home.
Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” When we have “planted” a group we need to “water” it to help it to grow well. This will include faithfully praying for the group’s leader and members, phoning the leader to encourage them and visiting from time to time to sit in on the group to ensure it is still working well and help with any problems that arise.
Obtaining regular feedback from groups can help to ensure that they are being effective, and discover if they need extra help or training. However, many find that writing reports is tedious and difficult. Remember that Jesus said “My burden is light” - keeping records of activity must clearly serve our goal and not become a burden. There is a feedback form at the end of the D-Path you can use if you find it helpful.
Luke is the best story-teller. John provides lots of application, Mark is full of action, Matthew provides a bit of everything. This suggested order is our recommendation for all new GG’s . If you are going through discipleship training you will want to take time in your GG to go through the training stories. ↩︎
