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Showing posts with the label small groups; spaces of community

What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey?

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  What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey?  As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” What does it take to complete a successful journey? As pictured above, the success journey is to grow a movement of “disciples who make disciples?” A movement implies that a culture has formed in your church or ministry where there is momentum and energy because the value of making reproducing disciples has become a way of life. I am not talking theory, I have witnessed it firsthand.  There are three critical elements for a successful journey: 1. Vehicle (Relational Environment): To travel you need a vehicle, which is the relational environment. We keep the groups small (3s &4s) because the most important element in the relational environment is transparency and openness built upon radical trust. Transformation through the power of God’s word occurs when we lay our lives out before God and each other and apply truth to our growing edge. Without ap

Where do micro groups fit in the larger picture of church ministry?

  Where do micro groups fit in the larger picture of church ministry? This could certainly be listed in the category of the top 5 questions we get at GDI. The question also comes in another form: What role do traditional small groups have in a church that wants to move toward micro groups? The best way to answer this question is to show how different spaces can and should co-exist together. Joseph Myers first popularized the concept of making room or seeing the value of spaces in his book Search to Belong and is expounded on in Bobby Harrington’s Discipleship that Fits . I will describe the spaces in thumbnail fashion in this shorter blog.  The four spaces are public, social, personal and transparent or intimate. Public Space (50+): In the church public space is associated with the gathered community in worship. A person identifies with a group and considers themselves associated at some level. If asked, “Where do you go to church?”, a person would give a specific community, no mat