Shepherd Groups Together for Christ

REAL DISCIPLES... Why are we, and will be making such a big deal about shepherd groups, or small-group discipleship meetings for our people at homes? Why not just do Sunday or Saturday night School Bible studies as the traditional end-all?

Frankly, because relational, family-intergrated small-group discipleship was what King Jesus and the apostles did- lived and taught when they launched the first and early church, and we think that principle is right for today - in 2009 as we launch CCC. Why reinvent the wheel? My study of scripture, ministry and experience has led me to conclude that discipleship is about a choice to follow Christ as Lord and Savior, and is a way of life, not a program or institution (i.e. Sunday school- it's good teaching notwithstanding).

Ray Stedman, author and former pastor of Peninsula Bible Church in California, spoke of such discipleship leading to revival and revolutionary church growth in his classic work, Body Life, where he said of relational discipleship and revival, “What is terribly missing in all too many churches is the experience of body life”- that warm fellowship of Christian with Christian which the Bible calls koinoia, and which was an essential part of early Christianity."

Stedman added, "The New Testament lays heavy emphasis upon the need for Christians to know each other, closely and intimately enough to be able to bear one another’s burdens, confess faults one to another, encourage, exhort, and admonish one another…” That brothers and sisters, can only occur completely and comprehensively in family and home-based, small-groups, as we've already begun with men and couples at CCC.

Why then intentional discipleship in small-groups? Author and scholar Leroy Eims wrote, “Disciples cannot be mass produced. We cannot drop people into a program and see disciples emerge at the end of the production line. It takes time to make disciples. It takes individual, personal attention.”Jesus Christ began New Testament discipleship with a small group of 12, who then multiplied to 70, then 120 and so on. Christ’s vision began small, and by the Holy Spirit through His living Word, began to build His church “not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow.”

If you're ready to get serious about biblical discipleship, contact me pesonally, or get on-line at http://www.christcomchurch.org/ and click on 'Shepherd Groups' to learn more and join a group.