TransformationGroups

By Jonathan | December 8, 2016

There comes a time in every man’s life when he must decide what will be the quintessential paradigm behind his chutzpah. For me, that event happened in September of 2012 in a strategy session at Indian Creek Christian Church.

As stated many times in this blog series on the discipleship programming for New Lisbon Christian Church, we are in the business of making disciples who can make disciples. This involves a number of things, but chief among them is the return to a Rabbinic, New Testament style of guiding others into maturity in Christ through one-on-one, relational coaching.

Thus far, we have looked at NeighborhoodGroups, PointGroups, and StudyGroups. The final “program,” for lack of a better term, is TransformationGroups. You may or may not have heard this term in our church before. We don’t use it very often, we don’t show the logo, we don’t talk about what it means or why we are doing it (with the exception of this blog of course). As the next couple of years roll by, I doubt we increase the frequency with which you hear about it either.

In short, TransformationGroups are one-on-one or one-on-two intimate communities where the leader guides their disciples into a deeper relationship with Christ. The vision of this program is that it infiltrates and enraptures our congregants to the point where they go, make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. The mission is to transform one life at a time through a discipling relationship to save the world. To put it another way, if you make one disciple who can make another disciple you have participated in the saving work of God to redeem his creation through the Kingdom he established through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

TransformationGroups are simply doing what Christ has commanded. Don’t believe me? Read for yourself:

Matthew 4:9, 7:21, 28:18-20; Luke 6:40, 9:23, 14:27; John 13:15, 24-25, 15:1-1, 21:15-19; Acts 2:42; Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 5:20; Ephesians 4:11-17; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Peter 1:3-8; 1 John 2:6; and you get the idea. . .

These groups, much like our other styles of groups, are in their infancy. We started at the top with the elders and staff. They took on disciples and those disciples have taken on disciples. To help leaders initiate these TransformationGroups we are using a series of workbooks to navigate specific issues pertaining to the identity of Jesus, his life on earth, and how he made disciples. This is by no means a curriculum based group like StudyGroups. You don’t graduate, get promoted, or even recognized for your accomplishments beyond the veneration of the leader. The leader’s job is not done until his disciple has made another disciple. Some groups may last a few months, others a few years. God’s spirit is the deciding factor and he brings about growth in believers at his pace.

Neighborhoods, Point, and StudyGroups all point people in one direction, to TransformationGroups. The church is in the business of making disciples. Other than worshiping God, no other task is as important.

When I was interviewed for NLCC, I asked what success in five years looked like for my position and for the church. The elders went around the table sharing their answers but Mark looked at me and said (paraphrasing) “success for us in five years is having discipling relationships in place.” That is the moment when I decided I was going to work for Christ and his kingdom at New Lisbon.

There were many steps which led to that decision. The first, however, was taken in 2012 at Indian Creek when I was working at Castleton Christian Church in Indianapolis. We were at the Creek being led by Gary Johnson in developing a strategic plan to help turn around our small community of believers into an effective part of the Kingdom. Being led by the spirit, we came to the conclusion that as a church we needed to focus and grow in the areas of Community, Outreach, and Discipleship. The time had come for people to test their courage and commitment by volunteering for each team that would lead initiatives in each of the specific target areas. Gary asked, “who feels led to head up the discipleship team?” The seconds that past were filled with silence as we all look around the room at each other. I looked inside and something told me to raise my hand. “I’ll do it.” And it is one of the greatest decisions of my life.

What led to the current state of your paradigm?