Grow & Go - September 2024
In Need of Discipleship
I can remember as if it was yesterday when the pastor who baptized me challenged me to grow in Christ. He took the time to share the importance of knowing and learning God’s Word with me. He gave me good books to read that were theologically and doctrinally sound, steered me away from false teachings when I asked, “What about this,” and most importantly he preached the Word faithfully every Sunday from the pulpit. Everyone in Christ needs someone such as this in our lives to come alongside and encourage us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). Not for us just to grow in head knowledge, but to show us how to practically live out our faith in Christ. What is even better is when it is more than one person who is encouraging us to grow in our faith.
One of the best ways we can grow in Christ is through intentional, verse-by-verse study of the Scriptures in a small discipleship group setting. Small discipleship groups can be in the setting of either one-on-one or within groups of five or fewer. I prefer groups of just a few adults to comprise the group because if you get too many people in a group, you will find that some are not encouraged to participate verbally whereas others are more comfortable talking in a group. The intimacy of a small group of people collectively sharing their lives, studying the Word together, and then asking God to bring about repentance and change where needed is very transformative. For example, I have experienced that when someone who has never been discipled by someone gets involved with a real, Bible-saturated gospel community, their lives begin to radically change. What brings about real gospel transformation is when a transparent, real, and true community of Christ’s followers receive and love others well into the discipleship or small group setting.
Let’s not get ahead here and define more directly what discipleship is intended to accomplish. Discipleship is for believers in the process of sanctification and to help them grow more into the likeness of Jesus. The root word “disciple” is used 262 times in the New Testament alone. I like what Leon Dufour said about the disciple “The disciple is one who at Jesus’ call follows after Him. He must observe the will of God, and even binding upon himself unreservedly to the person of Jesus, go as far as death and the gift of his life out of love.” 1 The world is not following Jesus, only His disciples are answering the call to willingly give entirely of themselves to the cause of following Christ and making Him known. Therefore, people in discipleship groups being discipled must be born-again baptized followers of Jesus.
Beginning after September 6th , we have multiple groups being offered here at Oakhill, making great opportunities for everyone to find something for themselves. Three times are available for women to be in a Bible study including one early in the morning, one mid-week during the evening, and another Bible Study online. These different time slots of Bible studies make it possible for most to find at least one time that works for them. Also, the men’s ministry has kicked off a new theme called FORGE. It begins on Friday night September 6th at a banquet when all of the leaders will divide up into D-Groups. There will be various times the men will meet to study “Biblical Manhood” by Stuart Scott where the intent is to help one another be men who lead and love their families to Christ.
Why a D-Group or women’s Bible study? Our groups exist to strengthen our community with God and one another in the body of Christ. We all need biblical community where we can share the difficulties we each experience in this fallen world, and then point each other to the hope we can find only through Christ and His Word.