At 11:15 next Sunday, BG will start mobilizing for a new year of discipleship. On August 25th, September 1st, and September 8th, discipleship committee members and I will present ways that you can be involved in creating more community groups to deepen our spiritual formation together.
Last June, the committee set two goals for this year.
- Develop a wide variety of community groups to disciple people at every level of spiritual growth. The purpose of community groups is to help many different kinds of people connect relationally at BG and start new habits to grow in Christ. You can form a community group around a sport, craft, field of study, theological interest, or book. You can also form a traditional small group. The key is that BG be flexible in meeting a wide variety of people where they are.
- Coach and encourage community group leaders at regular gatherings. These gatherings—not only in person and online but also on social media—will raise our skills in conversation, creating safe discussions, helping others evaluate worldly influences, praying with others, and helping others take the next steps in their spiritual growth. The gatherings will also keep us up-to-date on how discipleship is going at BG.
This is a bit different from the way we often imagine discipleship happening. We’re emphasizing how vital relationships are in helping us become like Christ.
To aid BG in making this shift, we will devote our first session next Sunday to looking at Jesus the disciple-maker. How many different settings did he use to form his followers? (Hint: classrooms were not his go-to.)
I invite everyone at BG to be part of these important sessions. If you are brand new here, this is an opportunity to join a brand new effort in spiritual formation. I look forward to seeing you!
Discipleship Committee Members:
Steve Lantz (chairman)
Jonathan Butcher
Mike Feng
Esther Feng
Shaun Gendrue
Miranda Gendrue
Daniel Hicks
Phil King
Heidi King
Matt Raley
Doug Stauffer
Derek Wei
Sophie Wei