Here at Discovery, we believe strongly that God called us to a life of discipleship. Discipleship here at Discovery follows the model that Jesus set out. A person meets with a handful of people, usually 1 to 3, and they do life together with the intent of learning adn growingin their relationship with God together. At the same time, the person discipling others is ideally being discipled by someone themselves, and the people being discipled eventually branch out and find others to disciple as well. This is what God intended the faith journey to be! All of us learning from one another, walking in faith together as we learn and grow, and finding others who can continue to spark faith conversations in our lives. No matter where you are on your faith journey - this is for you. We are better when we’re all doing this. Without your voice, we are missing a key piece of the puzzle.
Discipleship relationships at Discovery are designed to be an open-ended one year commitment. At the end of the year both parties can agree to continue connecting in the same way, or make a change to the relationship. We are often discipled by many people in our lives, at varying levels of connection. If you’re interested in learning more, or committing to looking at discipleship relationship either in the discipler or discipled role, you can click below.
Ordinary Person
Discipleship is a pathway for everyone - regardless of background, education, experience, or even where you are in your faith journey. Part of the discipleship journey is taking ordinary people (you and me), and inviting them into a life of learning with others, growing with others, and exploring the adventure of what God has for us.
Matthew 4:18
Answers the Call
The call of discipleship is a big one. Its a call to do life with other people, to examine your relationship with God - in both the good and the bad - and choose to move into a pathway for life and spiritual change. This call is placed on the lives of all people, yet many choose not to answer the call. Answering the call means stepping into a discipleship relationship and being open to where God is going to lead you.
Matthew 4:19
Teams with Others
Discipleship is more than just studying, learning, and figuring things out on your own. Discipleship is about doing this with others. The discipleship journey here at Discovery normally involves connecting with a mentor to walk this together. In turn, ideally that mentor has their own people they connect with to mentor them, and eventually the disciple has peopel they’re discipling. This journey is at its best when we’re always looking for people at different places on the spiritual journey and finding those that we can learn from, and those we can help mentor.
Matthew 4:21-22
Acts 16:1-4
Learns New Things
The discipleship journey is one of learning and growing. The exciting part is that this is true for both those who are being disciples as well as those who are discipling others. At its best, the discipleship journey is one in which both people are learning and growing in their relationship with God as they continue to encounter things together and separate. In some seasons of life these new learnings can be massive changes to how we view God. In other seasons, these can be minute course corrections, which still serve to have huge implications on our lives. No matter where you are on the faith journey - there is so much to learn.
VERSE
Feels the Struggle
Part of the difficulty and the beauty of the discipleship journey is that change and growth is hard. It often requires sacrifice. It often requires us to reevaluate, make new life decisions, and point in new directions. Some of those changes can be done easier than others. Some are incredibly hard. But the joy of this journey is that in the hard, you’re not going it alone. Struggle is hard, but doing it with others makes the journey so much more rewarding and doable. God never intended us to go this alone.
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Experiences Revelation
Whether you’re brand new to your faith, or you’ve been walking this journey for decades, God always has more to show us. One of the goals of the discipleship journey is to help open our eyes in ways to see what God is doing. Left to our own devices we tend to get stuck in ruts in the ways we think, act, and experience life. Doing it with others, we see new perspectives, we have the ability to bounce things off of others, and we have the opportunity to learn deeper and deeper things about the character and person of God. Sometimes these are huge, sometimes they feel minor, but all of them lead to us continuing to grow deeper and deeper into our relationship with God.
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Lives Changed
The person who starts a discipleship journey, and the one who looks back years later, are rarely the same person. Conversations about faith, experiences with God, struggles, and the ability to walk it all with another person all lead to changed lives. And the hope is that as you continue to pursue God, you are seeing more and more why God chose for us to do this together. We are stronger together. God never intended for us to go this alone.
VERSE