Last week I led a range of workshops in Brisbane and Toowoomba on discipleship and worship. This is the first of a series of posts on what I covered in various sessions. The makeup of the sessions varied in each place, but the elements are all here for you to take and use as you see fit.
This session was designed to run 9.30 am – 3.00pm.
Prayers – “The Celtic Wheel of the Year” by Tess Ward
Video – Training Fleas
Assembly Research Project – Three Emphases
- Congregations as life-long learning communities of discipleship
- Church leaders as effective educational leaders capable of guiding as community in forming disciples
- Congregations learning for and from engagement in mission: mission-shaped discipleship
Discipleship Quotes Cards
We used these cards to talk about discipleship. I handed out the cards and invited people to talk in pairs, and then to get swap cards and talk to someone else.
What does the quote say to you about what is important about being a disciple?
Download Discipleship_Quotes_Cards (470kb PDF)
VIDEOS – Jesus Calling the Disciples
We didn’t use all of these, but this is what I had lined up
- Gospel of Matthew DVD – also on Youtube
- Gospel of Luke – Time-Life Bible – This is the clip I played of Jesus and the fishermen based on Luke 5:1-11. Movie on Youtube – Part 1 and Part 2.
- Gospel of John DVD – also on Youtube
ACTIVITY – Discipleship in the Gospels
People were divided into groups of four. Each group was assigned one of the four Gospels and asked to study the text in the handout. ie. one group studied Matthew, one studied Mark, etc.
Discipleship in the Gospels – Bible Readings (PDF)
DISCIPLESHIP IN THE GOSPELS – WORKSHEET (PDF)
Questions
- What does the text say about what kind of Messiah Jesus is?
- What does it say about what Jesus’ followers are called to do and be?
Then people gathered in new groups of four people – one from each of the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The idea was that they brought the four perspectives together to answer these questions:
- Describe the Jesus whom you encountered in the text.
- Together make a list of characteristics of his disciples.
- What “word” is here for us today?
DISCIPLESHIP IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD
VIDEO – Dalek Relaxation Therapy
VIDEO – Donald Trump’s Weekly Address to the Nation
Quotes & Discussion – Jean Baudrillard
DOWNLOAD Baudrillard-Simulacra-and-Simulation quotes PDF
DISCUSS
- What does it mean to live in a post-truth world?
- What are we in danger of? What opportunity is there for us as disciples?
VIDEO – Shane Claibourne
The risk in our discipling is that we will succumb to the powerlessness of citizenship and the privatisation of religion and in so doing, conform people into a self-justifying, domesticated, insular faith, quite removed from Jesus’ mission in our world.
“The church lives in the midst of history as a sign, instrument, and foretaste of the reign of God.”
The Open Secret
DISCUSS
- What does it mean to be a disciple in a post-truth world?
- What does it mean to be church?
VIDEO – Dulux Colour Project
Here’s the “Let’s Colour” Project explanation video. Project website here.
Discussion about the video as a metaphor for being a sign, and instrument and a foretaste of the reign of God.
BEING DISCIPLES – Engaging with contemporary texts about discipleship
DOWNLOAD Williams-Bass-Andrews-Augsburger PDF
“Being Disciples” – Rowan Williams
“Practicing our Faith” – Dorothy Bass
“Plan Be” – Dave Andrews
“Dissident Discipleship” – David Augsburger
Each person invited to spend time with one of the four texts and to ask what it says to them about
- their personal discipleship
- their household or immediate family and friends
- their congregation or faith community
Then sharing responses in groups of four.
Discipleship is learned as it is lived.
Introduced the notion of habits or practices of discipleship using Robert Schnase‘s “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations”
- Radical Hospitality
- Passionate Worship
- Intentional Faith Development
- Risk-Taking Mission & Service
- Extravagant Generosity
If the gospel is to be understood,
if it is to be received as something
which communicates the truth
about the real human situation,
if it is as we say ‘to make sense’,
it has to be communicated
in the language of those
to whom it is addressed
and it has to be clothed in symbols
which are meaningful to them.
And since the gospel does not come
as a disembodied message,
but as the message of a community
which claims to live by it and which
invites others to adhere to it,
the community’s life must be so ordered
that ‘it makes sense’ to those
who are so invited.
Those to whom it is addressed
must be able to say
‘Yes I see’.
Lesslie Newbigin
Additional Handouts (PDF)
[…] Two on Discipleship in Queensland was 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 […]