If you have a chance to pick up a copy of Discipling by Mark Dever, do it. This comes highly recommended by our staff as one of THE best books on discipleship we've ever read. It's extremely helpful in its simplicity, and will help you see that purposeful relationships in the church are not all that complicated!
We know that God means to use us in each other's lives as we grow to love and trust Jesus more. But sometimes we over-complicate this in our thinking, or haven't experienced this process enough to get what this is actually like. But Mark Dever really does simplify it in such a helpful way; our goal is to spur one another on to Christlikeness, and to do all for the spiritual good of our brother or sister in Christ. So make every relationship, every conversation, every way we spend our time about this as much as we can. Reflect on these three quotes from the book:
Discipling involves transmitting the knowledge of God and his Word through every moment of life (28).
Discipling lasts all week as members meet to talk, pray, encourage, and assist one another in the fight for love and holiness (37).
Discipling is helping someone follow Jesus by doing deliberate spiritual good in his or her life (47).
Especially in this time of quarantine, when we can't get together even in smaller groups, we need to be extra creative as we keep up on our relationships. But even as we try to make texts, phone calls, Zoom meetings, conversations with neighbors in our driveways, and everything else effective for Christ, the simplicity of this book will clarify and fuel your efforts at all of this. And by God's grace, may we not lose any steam as we anticipate physical gatherings again!
You can't go wrong with this shorter book ($6 on Kindle, $12 print). If you give it a read, share and tag your quotes and reflections with #gracesimi.
Have a great week, church family!
