A few good friends that love you and love Jesus will make a big difference
Discipleship Groups are groups of roughly 3-5 people of the same gender that get together regularly to open the Bible, pray and point each other to Jesus.
3 steps to starting your DG
1. Find your People - Think of a few people from the church that you could reach out to. Invite them to start a DG with you! If you don’t know anyone, that’s no problem at all. There are plenty of ways to meet people at Redeemer. Here are a few: Sunday gatherings before and after services, Church events, Gospel Communities and serving.
2. Make a Plan - Choose a regular time and place for your DG to get together. We have some “DG Guides” below to help you get started.
3. Let us Know About your DG - Take 2 minutes and click the button below to let us know that your DG has started! We want to celebrate it. We are happy to support and resource, if you want that sort of thing. If not, not big deal. Regardless, we would love to know about your DG.
A few tips for your DG
Be You - Spend time getting to know each other, laughing, sharing stories, and joking around. Jesus slowed down enough to have a relationship with friends. Let’s do that too.
Grow Together - No lone rangers here. Christianity is a team sport. Open the Bible together, pray for each other, point each other to Jesus. And remember, grace and grit are best friends.
A Good Tool - The Personal Discipleship Plan (PDP) helps us set goals for our relationship with God. Think of the PDP as your customized plan to help you look more like Jesus. So, let’s use the PDP in our DGs. You will be happy you did.
What about Gospel Community? (GC) - DGs and GCs are best friends! Don’t feel like you have to pick between the two. They complement each other. If you have to choose just one, do whatever is best for you in this season of life. There is tons of freedom here.
Questions? Email our Executive Pastor, paul@redeemernw.org.
DG guides
Have you ever done a “choose your own adventure”? DGs are like that. You have options. What works best for you? Great, go with that. We will be posting new DG Guides from time to time. For now, here are some good options for your DG to go through:
Simple, but Good Questions - Your DG could ask these questions for years and it would be great. Simple can still be good, really good. Ask these questions when your DG gets together:
What’s going well right now?
What’s hard right now?
What are you learning from God right now?
How can we pray for you?
Studying the Bible Together - It’s hard to go wrong when a few friends open the Bible together. You could pick a book of the Bible, or just a few verses. Don’t know where to start? Maybe do a smaller book like Philippians, Galatians or Haggai. Here are a few questions you can ask of any passage in the Bible:
What does this text tell us about God?
How is Jesus the Hero of this text?
How does this text call me to change?
How can I apply this text to my life this week?
The Walk - The subtitle is “steps for new and renewed follower of Jesus.” This is a great book to go through with a few people. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Chapters include: What is a Disciple, Prayer, Bible, Do I have to go to Church, the Gospel, and more. Click HERE to see “The Walk” on amazon.
An In-Depth 40-Week Journey - EQUIP is all about helping you grow in your love for Jesus and your effectiveness in making disciples of Jesus. You will be challenged, encouraged, and helped to move forward as a disciple of Jesus, empowered by His Spirit, able to make disciples that make disciples.
Books to Study Together - We like books, especially books that help us understand the Good Book more. Here are some of our latest suggestions:
Habits of Grace: a book on spiritual disciplines
God’s Big Picture: a book on the storyline of the Bible
Christian Beliefs: a book on 20 things that are good to know
You Can Pray: a book that can help you pray