Modeling Our Lives After His
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Modeling our lives after His Making every effort to reflect His character in all areas of life A Small Group Series by the Discipleship Team Table of Contents Introductory Material ! Notes and Acknowledgements . i. Lessons !Who I am In Jesus . 9 !Week 1 - So, What is a Disciple? . 11 !Week 2 - KNOWING Jesus . 19 !!Sacred Pathways Assessment . 24 !Week 3 - MODELING Jesus . 29 !!Modeling Jesus Activity. 34 !Week 4 - SERVING Jesus . 39 !!Spiritual Gifts Assessment . 44 !Week 5 - SHARING Jesus . 51 !!Evangelism Style Assessment . 56 !Week 6 - Putting It All Together . 61 !!How to use Individual Discipleship Path . 66 Activities !KNOWING Jesus End Material . 69 !!Spiritual Temperaments descriptions. 104 !!(Blue Pages) !MODELING Jesus End Material . 113 !!(Green pages) !SERVING Jesus End Material. 131 !!Spiritual Gifts descriptions . 135 !!(Yellow Pages) !SHARING Jesus End Material . 139 !!Evangelism Style descriptions . 144 !!(Red Pages) !Individual Discipleship Path (IDP) . 149 !!(White Pages) !What’s Next. 156 The Motivation Behind This Series and Workbook !In February 2012, Castleton Christian Church unveiled a three-year strategic plan on what we felt God was calling us to accomplish. We (the Leadership) called it iMOVE. This is designed to help our church live in authentic community, reach the world both locally and abroad, and to become better committed followers of Jesus. !The Discipleship Team was formed to work on the initiative of making better committed followers of Jesus. The task led the group to form a simple definition of discipleship (Discipleship is Knowing Jesus, Modeling Jesus, Serving Jesus, and Sharing Jesus). After completing the definition, the team recognized the need for KNOW. It is the first stage in completing a discipleship strategy. It is a five week series designed for those who are new to both the church and Jesus as well as those who have been following him for a lifetime. With KNOW being the first step in the process, the Discipleship team knew that a second step needed to be made available. This second step is for those who wish to understand who they are in Jesus. We decided to call it MODEL. We Model Jesus as he Models God. Though this series is called MODEL, it covers all four aspects of being a disciple as defined by the Discipleship team. In effect, you will study how to better MODEL Jesus as he KNOWs, MODELs, SERVEs, and SHAREs His Father in Heaven. The unique features and activities in this workbook are tools to help you grow no matter where you are in your journey with Christ. !The Discipleship Team is excited you have decided to participate. Do not let this simply become a checklist Christianity meaning you do the work for the satisfaction of saying you’ve done it. Let God work through you and in you during this six week small group series. The Discipleship Team !The Discipleship team was formed in November of 2011 after the completion of the three-year strategic plan. It consists of Jenny Fernsler, Don Reeves, Nickie Toles, Erica Willmore, and Jonathan Willmore. Together, they wrote the lessons and thought out a few activities for the participants to accomplish. They borrowed a great amount from Post Road Christian Church. The team has spent countless hours working together forming and shaping this curriculum and all the while the Spirit has been forming and shaping them. This has been an incredible time of growth for the team. A Special Thanks !The Discipleship Team would like to thank those who have helped them on this journey of creating MODEL. Post Road Christian Church and Gary Whorlow. Gary and the Church allowed the Discipleship Team to use many of their ideas from their Momentum curriculum to help provide direction. The Team would also like thank David i. Johnson because of his instrumental role and wisdom during the formation of Castleton’s definition of discipleship as well as the lessons. Finally, the Team would like to thank Justin Binne and his work creating the various logos and images which represent the Discipleship Strategy and individual logos. Color Designations (if your notebook was printed in color). The Blue Boxes mark the use of scripture. All scripture quotations are taken from the NIV 1984 version, unless otherwise marked. The Green Boxes will mark a title heading. The Orange Boxes/lines mark where you write in answers to a question that you will need to refer back to at the end of the lesson. The Red Boxes/lines signify the end of a lesson and possibly the space where you write in the final answer. This Outline Box directs your attention to the series memory verse. Mark 8:34 ii. Individual Discipleship Path We need to tell you about the Individual Discipleship Path. An Individual Discipleship path is a schedule to map out what your next step will be to help you become a better devoted follower of Jesus. At the back of this workbook you will find different colored pages. Each color represents a different part of being a disciple and it goes along with lessons of each week. It is important to know that you will not have In the first week, “What is a disciple?” you will not need to worry about looking through the colored pages in the back. In the second week, “Knowing Jesus” you will then go to the blue pages in this workbook and select an activity to do leading up to the next small group session. You will have three difficulty levels to choose from. They are listed and marked as so: Crawl Activities (just getting started as a disciple, wanting to go back to the basics or to try something different) Walk Activities (been growing for some time as a disciple or ready for a new challenge) Run Activities (for long-time disciples or for those who are seeking to go much deeper in their discipleship) You will pick which level you wish to do and then an activity from that section. There are many options so be sure to read through them all. Then, on page 28 you will fill in the appropriate information. Here is an example for you. Mark of a Activity Frequency Duration Disciple Praying scripture using the ACTS Knowing Jesus daily 1 week method Then, as the week unfolds you will mark down when you actually did it. Do not feel like if you miss one time then you have to quit. The goal is to get better so you will certainly stumble along the way. An example of keeping track is shown for you below. Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Praying scripture using the Acts method X X X X iii. In the third week, “Modeling Jesus,” you will then add to your Know activity another activity from the green pages in the back of the work book. You will go through the same steps as you did for know. This time your form will look like this: Mark of a Activity Frequency Duration Disciple Praying scripture using the ACTS Knowing Jesus daily 1 week method Modeling Jesus Survey of the Bible reading plan daily 1 week Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Prayer X X X X X X Bible Reading X X X X X you will keep track of week 3 on page 37. You will continue to do the same for weeks 4 and 5. In week six, you will talk about doing an IDP for a whole year. Those pages are the white pages at the end of the workbook and start on page 149. If you have questions about the IDP then be sure to ask your group leader. Each week, your group leader will open with discussion about how your IDP for that week went. It is okay if you had a busy week and missed, you can try harder next week. Allow these activities to transform your mind and heart so that you are not doing them for sake of doing them but because you want to out of love and respect for Jesus. They will not make you a better Christian, but they can be a tool with the right motivation to move further along the path of discipleship. iv. A Letter from David Johnson ! Welcome to the MODEL Small Group series. I’m delighted that you are taking this step in your desire to follow Jesus. The purpose of this series is to help you move forward in understanding your identity in Him. In Luke 6:40 Jesus said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Elsewhere in the New Testament, another word used to translate the Greek word “student” is “disciple.” Being a student, or disciple, of Jesus is a life-long process of becoming more and more like Him. Our desire is that this series will aid you in achieving that goal. !As you go through this study you will be asked to participate in several exercises designed for self-discovery. It is our hope that this process of self-assessment will help you see exactly where you fit among God’s people and discover your next steps in KNOWING, MODELING, SERVING and SHARING Jesus in your life. That is why it is imperative that you invest the time in these activities to respond prayerfully, openly, and honestly. This will help you achieve the ultimate goal of completing a plan designed to guide your growth as a disciple of Jesus. ! I am excited that you are interested in learning about ways you can be more like Jesus.