Life to life discipleship movement is an initiative of the North American Lutheran Church to help people and congregations to renew their commitment to our Lord’s commission to make disciples, and to reaffirm their desire to become the fulfillment of his commandment that we love one another as he Has loved us?
The world is bustling with consumerism and digital connection. Yet, there's still a bone-deep longing for something personal. In a world that has given you distraction and impersonal modes of communication, reach out to the Holy Spirit to guide you toward the most personal connection of all: one with God.
Christina Hergenrader invites you to travel with her and the Holy Spirit in four weeks to re-evalute your spiritual habits. Read personal annecdotes from Christina's journey on the same path and find yourself in her stories. Focused on four cornerstones of healthy spiritual habits—word, prayer, praise, and reflection—you can find fulfillment of that soul-deep want for connection with guidance from the Holy Spirit.
4 main sections
Word
Prayer
Praise
Reflection
This Bible study is perfect for individual study, groups of all sizes, or as an event kick-off. Each day ends with Bible verses to read or challenges to take your journey into your life and off the page. Pray at the end of each session to connect with God and the Holy Spirit as you go forward and reconnect, personally, with Him.
Many people have a distorted view of God's character that keeps them from being the disciples Jesus calls them to be. Fortunately there's an effective way to bring them closer to him. Jesus modelled it through a process that's so familiar it's often dismissed. That model is friendship. The Friends of God discipleship experience is a 12 Session experience that explores: SESSION 1: Discover friendship with God by exploring the qualities of friendship. SESSION 2: Explore what nature teaches about God's character. SESSION 3: Experience the heart of God by paying closer attention to his Son, Jesus. SESSION 4: Practice communicating with God and others through two-way conversations and prayer stations. SESSION 5: Explore how the Bible reveals God's heart through the power of questions. SESSION 6: Watch a full-length film that explores how discipleship is about relationship, not perfection and performance. SESSION 7: Fun experiences that playfully deepen your connection to Jesus. SESSION 8: Identify fruit in your life, and discover new ways to abide in Jesus. SESSION 9: Share stories of tough AND tender love from God and others, and experience Jesus' love personally. SESSION 10: Explore what makes a friend trustworthy and experience a trust-building experiment. SESSION 11: Ask for and receive the power of forgiveness. SESSION 12: Discover how friendship with Jesus has grown and explore next steps. The approach in friends of God is:
Bible study that deepens understanding when paired with reflection and story-telling
Spiritual discovery that grows through interactive conversation among pairs, trios, and small groups
Creative, fun discipleship adventures that launch participants into the community
The resource kit includes:
The Discipleship Experience Leader Guide
The Discipleship Diary Participant Guide
Friends of God Session DVDs
Promo and Session Graphics CD
Unheard Of - a feature length film
Heart of Jesus Sticky Note Pad
One Friends of God Glow Pen
One Friends of God Go-and-Glow Light
Three Jesus-centred practical guidebooks: Help! How Do I Read the Bible?, Help! How Do I Pray?, and Help! How Do I Know God’s Will?
This is a little book about Christian maturity. All of us have growing up to do. It's called maturing, and it's good for us.
But, how exactly do you grow up in your faith?
What does a mature Christian look like?
Are there any habits that mature Christians tend to practice?
This book answers these questions. Each chapter dives into a different aspect of the Christian life and examines what a mature Christian life looks like in that area: God's Word, Prayer, Church and Worship, Evangelism, and Daily Holiness. While we are called to grow up in, with, and under Jesus, we never grow out of Him. Actually, the more we mature, the more we realize just how much we need our Savior Jesus.
Readers who enjoy authors such as Acuff, Chan, Goff, Peterson, and Tchividjian will similarly be blessed by Peter Berauer’s words.
Sacramental Discipleship is a new initiative from Sola Publishing that will address the topic of Christian Discipleship from a uniquely Lutheran perspective, emphasizing a traditional Theology of the Cross and an understanding of the believer as “both saint and sinner” in their daily life of faith. We are currently developing a simple Bible Study series to serve as an introduction to our Sacramental Discipleship theme in the next year. The first study, “Disciples of the Cross,” will be a resource for small groups, women’s and men’s groups, and other Bible Study classes. Central to Sacramental Discipleship is the cross pattern life
The site includes:
Regular Blogs
Topical Links
Academic papers including Discipleship in Lutheran Perspective and Defining and Pursuing Discipleship
Joining Jesus on His Mission - being an everyday missionary will alter the way you see your life as a follower of Jesus and take you beyond living your life for Jesus to living life with Jesus. Simple, powerful and applicable insights show you how to be on mission and recognize where Jesus is already at work in your neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. You will feel both relief and hope. You may even hear yourself say, “I can do this!” as you start responding to the everyday opportunities Jesus is placing in your path. Contents What's Jesus up to? Joining Jesus The River moved Are you stalling? Could it be this simple? An inefficiently effective strategy Seeking what's already happening. The kingdom of God What does the Kingdom of God look like? The Mission of God Getting into position every day Seeking the Kingdom Hearing from Jesus Talking with people Doing good Ministering through prayer The missional party What will your story be? With a little help from my friends. Further resources relating to this book are available at https://dwelling114.org/book/ About the author Rev. Greg Finke is LCMS pastor, the founder and Executive Director of Dwelling 1:14, a non-profit ministry which seeks to help Jesus-followers connect in their neighborhoods, workplaces and schools for discipling and missional living (www.dwelling114.org).
Before founding Dwelling 1:14, Greg had been the senior pastor of Messiah Lutheran in Midland, Michigan for 18 years and Gloria Dei Lutheran in Houston, Texas for three years. Greg and his wife, Susan, have three daughters and enjoy life as neighborhood missionaries in League City, Texas.
“How different would life be if we all knew we were loved beyond our wildest imagination?” Like all of us, Peter Steicke has experienced his share of life’s ‘suddenlies’. You know them: the unexpected and often unwelcome interruptions to life that are beyond our control. The challenge is, life’s ‘suddenlies’ often prevent us from living out of the love we already have. This book is an intriguing set of narratives chronicling Peter’s journey deeper into the incredible love of the heavenly Father. Excellent life-related teaching expands on the stories in a way all readers will be able to connect with and apply in their lives. Through the stories and the teaching, you will learn what it is to live out of the fullness of God’s Father-heart, and develop a redeemed perspective on life—one that frees you to be a source of life to others.
In our quest to renew the church, Christians have walked through seeker-friendly, emergent, missional, and other movements to develop new expressions of the body of Christ. Now in the post-Christian world in North America we're asking the question again: Is there a way to be the church that engages the world, not by judgment nor accommodation but by becoming the good news in our culture? In Faithful Presence, noted pastor and scholar David Fitch offers a new vision for the witness of the church in the world. He argues that we have lost the intent and practice of the sacramental ways of the historic church, and he recovers seven disciplines that have been with us since the birth of the church. Through numerous examples and stories, he demonstrates how these revolutionary disciplines can help the church take shape in and among our neighborhoods, transform our way of life in the world, and advance the kingdom. This book will help you re-envision church, what you do in the name of church, and the way you lead a church. It recovers a future for the church that takes us beyond Christendom. Embrace the call to reimagine the church as the living embodiment of Christ, dwelling in and reflecting God's faithful presence to a world that desperately needs more of it.
View the table of contents What others are saying "David Fitch continues his constructive work in ecclesiology by emphasizing the presence the church makes possible in a world that desperately needs God's presence. The disciplines he calls attention to are life giving because they are the disciplines God has given us to be a faithful presence. Hopefully this book will be widely read and used in churches everywhere." Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus, Duke Divinity School "David Fitch can write this book not just because he has a heart for mission, but because he has attended faithfully to the presence of the Spirit of the living Christ poured out on all flesh. If you want to know more about Spirit-empowered mission, read this book. But be careful, as it will transform—discipline, even!—your life, your family, and your church according to the shape of the coming reign of God." Amos Yong, professor of theology and mission, Fuller Theological Seminary, author of Hospitality and the Other "Do you want some practical, pastoral, and theological wisdom and encouragement on how to be the church, rather than merely go to church? Do you want to be a people for God's name and faithful presence—for one another and the world? Read this book. Learn nonnegotiable practices that Fitch and his communities have learned through their communion with a faithful God. These disciplines (including being with and for children), practiced together by the power of the Holy Spirit, will conform us to Jesus. Joined to him, one another, and those he's given us to love with him, we are intentionally shaped for God's missional life among us." Cherith Fee Nordling, associate professor of theology, Northern Seminary "Like leaven in the dough, like a mustard seed in the soil, like light in the darkness, the church must be faithfully present in our communities as an outpost of heaven. David Fitch's new book will help us all to practice the kingdom lifestyle now. I encourage you to read, share, and live it!" Krish Kandiah, founder and director, Home for Good, author of Paradoxology "Are missional churches merely traditional churches with some justice projects added on? In Faithful Presence David Fitch says no. Instead, Fitch argues, following the missio Dei and living incarnationally only occurs as we practice faithful presence in the world. And such presence requires disciplines. Faithful Presence is a meaty and delicious book." Michael Frost, author of The Shaping of Things to Come and The Road to Missional "In Faithful Presence, a book long overdue, David Fitch provides a corrective to the work of James Davison Hunter. He offers a winsome vision for following Jesus into the world that Christians across multiple traditions will find challenging, compelling, and inspiring." Anthony B. Bradley, associate professor of religious studies, The King's College "When I get up on the average day, I don't know how to transform the world. But I know how to pray, show hospitality, and proclaim truth. With scholarly care and pastoral zeal, David Fitch reminds us that it's in long-term, communal devotion to small but transformative practices that we both discover and reflect the faithful presence of God. Faithful Presence gives us permission to step aside from our own efforts at greatness, encouraging us to give our time and attention to disciplines that reveal and proclaim God's presence in our churches, homes, and neighborhoods."Mandy Smith, lead pastor, University Christian Church, author of The Vulnerable Pastor "In Faithful Presence David Fitch brings heard-it-all-before church leaders both profound insight and a new imagination for spiritual practices that lead seamlessly to an authentic, faithful presence with God in the world—a faithful presence that results in intuitive and organic mission in all aspects of our everyday lives." Todd Hunter, bishop, Churches For the Sake of Others, author of Giving Church Another Chance "The relationship between worship and mission, between the life and practices of the church and its witness to the world, is a matter of continual debate. David Fitch has done us a great service by identifying a holistic pattern of worship and witness rooted in disciplines given by Christ, to be practiced in the different contexts of our lives as disciples. Faithful Presence is both theologically grounded and very practical. The only problem with books like this is that you can't just read them, you have to live them." Graham Cray, former leader, Fresh Expressions, Church of England "Faithfulness is an intimidating idea, so the church can be tempted to find speedy shortcuts to growth, mission, and relevance. David Fitch is helping the church outgrow its obsession with fads to break open space for the reappearance of God's real-time presence in our neighborhoods. There is certainly unflattering press about the church in today's headlines, but Faithful Presence gives me genuine hope about what the body of Christ can be when it gathers around these seven practices. This book is appropriately critical at times, but it is fundamentally grounded in inspiring the shaping of a community for God's witness in the world. David Fitch has laid out a pathway for the church being the church again!" Dan White Jr., cofounder, The Praxis Gathering, author of The Church as Movement "Fitch's Faithful Presence is . . . timely and extraordinarily helpful. As churches shrink, as 'spiritual but not religious' postures become more widespread, as American Christendom wanes and it becomes weirder, more inconvenient, and less comfortable to commit oneself to a local church, the need to recover this 'faithfully present' vitality is more urgent than ever." Brett McCracken, Christianity Today, January/February 2017
Move towards the mess by John Hambrick encourages Christians to live the calling God has for them and to deal with any boredom they face not by looking for better church or more exciting worship but by allowing God to deal with their attitude to life.
The truth is if Jesus had been boring, the disciples wouldn’t have followed him and the Pharisees wouldn’t have killed him. Now it wasnt always spectactular, it was often messy. So in following Jesus we will be led to many messy situations, where God will be making a difference to others through you and to you through others.
In the first 10 chapters you will encounter real life, everyday situations where people who are following God find themselves in messy situations, not because they have done anything wrong, but because that is where God is leading them and using them. The next 7 chapters John is offering some practical advice and guidance to help us move toward the mess.
If you take this book seriously it is highly likely you will from your comfort zone into the God zone...
Disciples and Other Sinners by Ronn Kerr is based on the popular new concept in adult study programs -- powerful stories written in first person from the perspective of real New Testament people.
In Disciples and Other Sinners, each of the thirteen weekly class sessions evolves around a story by a single character in the life of Jesus. Peter. John the Baptist. Mary Magdalene. Mary, Jesus' Mother. Joseph. Pilate. John of Zebedee. Herod Antipas. Caiaphas. Mary of Bethany. Judas. Nicodemus. Levi. In all, thirteen different Gospel characters are described in these Bible-based stories.
Each story is a first-person account by the key character which is Biblically accurate and filled with detail about life in First Century Palestine. Students learn significant details about the individual characters, their motives, and lifestyles, as well as learning how the people lived and worked and worshipped. A primary impact on students is that they come to understand the New Testament figures as real people living in the real world.
Test results on this study proved that older youth and adult students truly enjoyed reading and preparing for classroom sessions. And, they felt the format helped them learn much more about Jesus as well as about the many people around him.
In addition to the stories in the Student Book, the Disciples and Other Sinners course comes with an extensive, loose-leaf, 3-hole punched Leader's Guide with scholarly Biblical background material, leadership suggestions, and creative discussion starters for each story.
Disciples and Other Sinners study is available here
FLOW is an engaging film series that explores the deeper meaning of Salvation.
Have you ever wondered, “What is my Salvation actually FOR?”
Is it only about personal atonement, about getting to heaven, or something that comes later?
Is it just to have a “friend in Jesus?”
Evan Koons and his friends – Stephen Grabill, Amy Sherman, Anthony Bradley, Makoto Fujimura, John M. Perkins, Tim Royer and Dwight Gibson – explore a new perspective,”
the BIGGER picture of what it means to be “in the world, not of it. ”
This seven-part film series and companion Field Guide will help you, your friends, church or organization investigate God’s Economy of All Things – OIKONOMIA (a Greek word that has a lot to say about God’s plan for his creation, the world, and us.)
In FLOW we explore how God’s purposes are woven into every area of our lives: family, work, art, charity,education, government, recreation and all creation!
The Bible calls us Strangers and Pilgrims, living in “the now and not yet” of God’s Kingdom Come on earth.
We are also called to be salt and light, to have a transforming presence among our neighbours.
In seven 20-minute-ish episodes, you’ll learn how our lives lived on earth matter in God’s plan for the world.
Anyone familiar with the Christian faith – whether you’re Baptist or Catholic, Orthodox or Presbyterian, madly in love with your church or just about to walk out its doors – will find wonder and hope along this journey. Rediscover our passionate and imaginative callings as agents of God’s grace in every broken place.
You’ll travel a vast terrain in each episode, so you might want to watch the series more than once. There’s much to discover and ponder anew!
“Discipleship Moment” videos from Bishop John Bradosky and other executive staff of the North American Lutheran Church are published regularly. These short videos can be used before worship on Sunday mornings, as an introduction to Sunday school or Bible study times, or for personal use.
Reflections on what the word “discipleship” really means, and what it means to be “mission-driven” are just a few of the many topics you will hear about. There will be personal stories from local congregations, international missions and personal ministry experiences featured.
Current Australian research is shouting to us that our current ‘GIFT generation’ of young people (Google, iDevice, FaceBook, Twitter), which is more connected and more isolated than generations before them, is walking away from church and/or faith in their early adolescent years. A brief survey of some authors from across the Western world reveals that this concerning trend is not limited to our shores.
The Here2Stay initiative is the result of a collaborative approach by some of the major denominations and organisations serving families and children in Australia. Our journey towards a solution begins with an acknowledgement that a large part of our discipling strategy has revolved around the imparting of INFORMATION. While the content of our curricula and programs is important, this strategy alone is not producing mature disciples. To this equation we need to intentionally add experiences that focus on FORMATION so that faith goes deeper. The result will be TRANSFORMATION. The result will be followers of Jesus who are Here2Stay.
What are the formational ‘experiences’ that, if integrated into a long term journey with our children from their birth, will cause their faith to grow deeper, be more strongly rooted and grounded, and provide a foundation and stability for the turbulent years ahead? The Here2stay website explores further 10 foundational formational experiences that have largely been overlooked in our ministry programs with children, young people and young adults.
The beginning of the solution to see a reversal of this trend is at our fingertips – if we are prepared to take the journey?
Here2stay is a collaboration of Bible Society, Compassion Australia, Focus on the Family, SU Queensland and Willow Creek...
The Animate adult course imaginatively explores central topics of Christianity.
Currently there are 2 Animate courses Animate Faith In each Animate: Faith session, the group:
watches a video featuring a leading voice from the Christian faith,
spends time on personal reflection and journaling,
shares ideas with the group.
Each session delves into a faith topic:
God,
religion,
Jesus,
salvation,
the cross,
the Bible,
the church.
Animate Bible
In each Animate: Bible session, the group will watch a video featuring a leading voice from the Christian faith, spend time on personal reflection and journaling, and share ideas with the group. The order of the session is up to you and what works best for your group. Session resources are available as a complete curriculum or a la carte.
Animate: Bible is a seven-session adult exploration of the Bible.
How do you typically see the church? Are you mostly interested being part of a church that accommodates your needs and gives you a comfortable experience? Or are you looking for a church that equips you to serve and deploys your gifts?
Sanctification is one the teachings that many Lutherans struggle with...following are some resource to help you explore sanctification from a Lutheran perspective
Christian Cyclopedia: Sanctification
Whenever I am in a discussion about Christian mentoring, the name John Mallison always comes up... John Mallison's resources appear to have stood the test of time.
In his book Mentoring to develop disciples and leader, John aims to:
To show that mentoring is not an optional extra, if followers of Christ are to mature and fulfil God's purpose for them.
To encourage every follower of Christ to take an interest in another's personal and spiritual growth (to 'watch over one another in love'). Mentoring others is not reserved for the giants of the faith!
To emphasise that the foundation for effective Christian mentoring is a vital, growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
To give a clear understanding of the various dimensions of mentoring and what is involved.
To explain that mentoring can be done with varying degrees of intensity from a close friendship to a professional relationship, occasional wise words of encouragement and guidance to well-structures, regular meetings.
To lay a sound biblical and theological basis for mentoring.
To provide some practical guidelines for both mentors and mentorees.
To emphasise that mentoring is essentially experience-based learning to which reflection is central.
To help especially leaders see the broad possibilities for mentoring. To provide case studies of some options and enable them to develop mentoring networks in their churches or organisations.
To present Jesus Christ as our prime mentoring model.
