Session Two on Discipleship in Queensland was a two hour session about going beyond the basics. [Session One is here.] But the session was mainly attended by people who hadn’t been to the first session. So here’s some of what I did and what I had planned.
POEM – “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.
I said the bit that I have memorised.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
DISCIPLESHIP QUOTES
I used the cards again as most people hadn’t seen them. This again involved getting people in several different conversations in pairs. (In one session I briefly mentioned who some of the authors were.)
Discipleship_Quotes_Cards (PDF)
VIDEO – A Hero’s Journey
We watched some of this mashup Hollywood thing and I described the Joseph Campbell schema and asked whether or not real-life discipleship was like this,
DEEPER
My plan for the session was to explore what it meant for us to be more daring, adventurous, risky and indeed faithful in following Jesus.
Deeper People – mentors and ‘saints’
Deeper Experiences – border-crossing encounters and exposure
Deeper Understanding – opening our biblical and theological ears and eyes
Deeper Service – costly mission
So we started some conversation about this but it sort of got blended into the what came next. I told some stories about the above and invited them to tell some stories as well.
BIBLE – Acts 2:42-47
We looked at New Testament understandings of the nature of the church
- Leiturgia – worship & prayer
- Konionia – community
- Didache – teaching
- Diakonia – service, justice
- Kerygma – proclamation, witness
VIDEO – Dorothy Bass, editor of “Practicing Our Faith”
FIVE PRACTICES OF FRUITFUL CONGREGATIONS
We revisited Robert Schnase‘s five practices:
- Radical Hospitality
- Passionate Worship
- Intentional Faith Development
- Risk-Taking Mission & Service
- Extravagant Generosity
We explored the notion of practices or habits, although not in as much detail as I had in the handouts. I had wanted to talk about Brett Webb-Mitchell’s notion of “Christly Gestures”.
DOWNLOAD Deeper_Discipleship_Booklet-1
DOWNLOAD Deeper_Discipleship_Booklet-2
I introduced people to the set of 8 practices with which I’ve been working and we played the “Practices” game in small groups.
DOWNLOAD Practices_Cards
Each person in turn chooses a Practice Card and rolls a dice. Do the assigned activity. It’s fine for other group members to help contribute answers.
1 = Explain the practice in your own words
2 = Name a Bible character (other than Jesus) who exemplifies this.
3 = Name a Bible text that speaks about this practice.
4 = Give an example of this in the life of your congregation.
5 = Give an example of this in your own life.
6 = Ask a question about this practice.
The plan was then to choose a couple of practices and workshop how they might be expressed and encouraged to grow/deepen. We ran out of time.
Resources – check out the Practicing Our Faith website.
I have a whole bunch of related stuff on learning communities and practices but that’s for another day…