Spiritual Formation for Ministry

Duke Jones

Confession

Reconciliation through forgiveness

Forgiveness

costly, active relational posture, required to sustain relationships to make disciples

Koinonia

fellowship

Discipleship

helping people to follow and trust Jesus

Shekinah

For God’s glory

Worship

Experience the resurrected Christ in a gathered community; being invaded by the Shekinah of God

Lord’s Supper

An example of the importance of the social and personal context

Celebration

Produces joy which produces energy which produces strength

Magnetic Churches

Draw people from a wide area; city-wide leadership and vision, connect with many types of people

Micro-churches

Builds spiritual family by meeting in a home or another intimate setting; provides a spiritual center for neighborhood life

Fringe

Disconnect

Penetration

breaking the gospel into a lost and dark world

Insiders

bounded-set discipleship

Core Formation

Goal: to develop reproducing Christ-followers who will produce reproducing Christ followers

Disciple-Making Families

Designed to share the Gospel; Sunday school classes, mission teams, Bible study groups

Creative Chaos

“Organized chaos is an oxymoron… until it isn’t”

Triads

Group of 3-4 people to develop transparency; D-groups, life-groups, LTGs

Constellations

the different “maturities” in a group needed

Hospitality

a way to penetrate the fringe

Disciple

someone who is following Jesus

Goal is an action, don’t rely on one-size fits all approach, embed disciples where unchurched people gather, imitation over just instruction

Four things we need to remember when planning for disciple-making

We come into God’s presence “divine penetration”; offer sacrifice; God speaks to us; We respond to God; God sends us

Five elements of 5-fold pattern

Different cultures, ethnicities, and social classes, no one church will connect to them

Why we need different types of churches to make disciples

Public, social, personal, transparent, divine

Five contexts of disciple-making process

Closeness, support, challenge

Goals of small groups

privacy, risky, conflict

challenges of small groups

it contains all five contexts

why Christian community (local church) provides the best environment for making disciples