Please consider joining us at one (or both) of this week’s Band of Brothers events:

• Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30am.
• Saturday from 7:30 to 9:00am.

Questions?  Check out the Band of Brothers webpage, email me at tom@gracepoint.cc or call the church office at 740.548.7718.  Hope to see you there!

Why come to the Band of Brothers?  Check out these quotes from some of the men that attend:

“I enjoy the meetings and connecting with men who want to become more and more like Christ.”

"I wanted to drop you a note to tell you that the B.o.B. has really made a difference in my life. I look forward to our studies and fellowship ahead. Work has me away from home sometimes, but I always look forward to getting back to it."

"I do feel a lot more connected at the church as a result of BoB. I know so many men now, which has been really nice."

“Just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the pancake edition of Band of Brothers last Saturday. I know that half of the guys at my table had never been able to attend the Thursday group because of work which makes it well worth all the work. When I pulled into the parking lot and saw all the cars, you can just tell there are a lot of thirsty and hungry men in the church (pun intended), and I believe this will help fill that need.”

A wife says, "Thank you for your friendship with my husband. It has been a very long time since he has had a ‘band of brothers’ to bond with. This is an answer to many years of prayer."

D-Groups are a place of true, genuine friendship, where people will ask you things that are difficult to answer and tell you things you don’t want to hear.  They are not easy, but they are invaluable to the Christian that wants to pursue a truly transformed life.  Though they are not easy, they might very well produce your deepest, most intimate friendships.

A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. Proverbs 17:17 (NLT)

Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. Proverbs 27:6 (NLT)

Here are some example questions for you to consider, some of which have been taken from the book “The Man in the Mirror” by Patrick Morley:

Opening question:

• What were your high and low points of the past week?

Questions regarding Spiritual life:

• What have you been reading in the Bible the past week?
• Where have you seen God at work this week?
• Describe your prayers (for yourself, others, praise, confession, thanksgiving)
• How is your relationship with Christ changing?
• Do you feel like you are doing what God wants you to do?
• How have you been tempted this week? How did you respond?
• What are you wrestling with in your thought life? (jealousy, anger, fear, etc.)
• Do you have any unconfessed sin in your life?
• How have you impacted your non-Christian friends this week?

Questions regarding home life:

• How is it going with your spouse (attitudes, time, irritations, disappointments,
  progress, his/her relationship with Christ)?  How have you been praying for him/her?
• How is it going with your kids (quantity and quality of time, values and beliefs,
  education, spiritual welfare)? How have you been praying for them?
• How are your finances doing (debts, saving, stewardship)?

Questions regarding work life:

• How is it going at work (career progress, relationships, temptations, workload,
  stress, problems, working too much)?

Other questions:

• How are you doing in your personal high-risk area? (everyone has something)
• Is the visible you and the real you consistent in this relationship?  In other words, are you lying to me?
• Do you see any blind spots in my life?  Are there any areas of my life that concern you?

Prayer – always, always, always pray!

What are D-Groups?

Discipleship Groups (D-Groups) are part of the overall discipleship strategy of Grace Point Community Church. D-Groups are groups of 2-3 people who commit to helping each other "run the race in such a way as to receive the prize".

• They are relationships that will encourage us, challenge us and equip us.
• They are relationships of mutual accountability where we become regularly answerable for each of the key areas of our lives.
• They are relationships that help us with the three levels of transformation, focusing specifically on a transformed life and heart.

Why are D-Groups important?

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. – Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

There is a level of intimacy with 2-3 people that is simply not possible with a larger group. It is also easier for 2-3 people to agree to seek God in an intentional, deep, consistent way than it is to get a group of 10 to do the same.

How Do I Start a D-Group?

Look for someone God has placed in your life who: 1) loves Christ; 2) wants to see you succeed; 3) also senses a need for the relationship; 4) you respect & trust; and 5) is complementary but compatible with you.

More suggestions on starting a D-Group can be found on the resources page.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to post a reminder of the kind of things D-Groups might do…check back then!

Thought the context was men’s ministry, the concept seems equally applicable in almost every area of life and for everyone in the Kingdom.  So, here is a question for you to think about:

What would happen if just ONE time a week you pursued ONE of these roles with ONE person? How could it affect their lives? How could it affect yours?

• FRIEND (Romans 13:8): One person you don’t know very well…yet.  Someone new from church or your neighborhood or workplace that you know only casually.  Someone that might be waiting for someone to connect with.
• DISCIPLE (Romans 15:14): One person that can disciple you.  Someone that has experienced the successes and failures of life that you are in the middle of or can see coming.  Someone further along in their walk with Christ that could help you with yours.  Someone with a character quality you admire and would like to emulate.
• DISCIPLER (Romans 15:14): One person you can disciple.  Someone with a younger faith, younger kids, a younger career…someone you can help along in some way.
• SHEPHERD (Romans 12:10-13): One person you haven’t seen for a while.  Someone that would feel the power of a shepherd’s concern for his sheep.

I’ve already started calling some of the guys from my list.  Guys who fit in these four circles.  I can’t speak for them, but it has been a rich blessing to me.  What do you think?  Can you think of people?  How could you interact with them?  What are some good ways to initiate the conversation?

Why does it take so long?  Time crawls when we wait for a friend’s salvation or for someone to grow as a disciple. We look for time saving methods and programs to speed up growth. It’s easy to become frustrated if change doesn’t happen according to schedule. Could we have a mistaken view of time?

The New Testament uses two primary words for the Hebrew concept of time, chronos and kairos. Chronos time is chronological time. It refers to quantity of time or the amount of time passed (Matthew 25:19). Kairos time is about the "right" moment (Mark 1:15). In teaching, we talk about the "teachable moment," the time when we’re open to learn. This is kairos time.

Here’s a kairos time example. Dan told me how a friend had moved from an atheist to an agnostic to a genuine seeker. "Do you know what he showed me the other day?" said Dan, "He showed me his ‘proof book.’" Dan’s friend is journaling how God is "proving" Himself in his daily experience.  "This is a divine moment!" I told Dan. Was this time predictable? Was it plotted on a calendar? No, it can only be seized in this moment. This is kairos time, the unpredictable moment when the Holy Spirit intersects with life. God’s timetable may not always be our timetable.

Time for the Hebrews was not only in kairos moments but it was also measured by the rhythms of life. Instead of points on a timeline, the Bible pictures time as a series of constant rhythms:

• seed time and harvest
• cold and heat
• summer and winter (Genesis 8:22)

The New Testament pictures spiritual growth as seasonal rhythms. There’s a time to sow and water, plant and harvest (John 4:35-38; 1 Corinthians 3:6-8). For the Jewish mind, life was wrapped up in these rhythms, rhythms which portray life as a journey rather than a time line.

When we disciple others, we must learn to think in kairos time, spotting the teachable moments, observing the rhythms of the Holy Spirit. We can only do this as we get close enough to people to discern how the Holy Spirit is shaping one’s life story.

When we think in a Hebrew way about time, we learn to:

• Spot the teachable moments in people’s lives. These moments may not be the result of my ministry timetable.
• Pray for wisdom. The time for a penetrating question, an appropriate verse, or a hug are not scheduled like appointments in a Blackberry.
• Hope for a future. If life is like a journey with rhythms of stopping and starting, the final chapter in someone’s life is not written yet.

As you walk alongside people this week, ask God to help you spot a kairos moment in a conversation. Be alert to the rhythms of the Holy Spirit in a friend’s life. This sensitivity to God’s view of time allows us to join in His timetable.

The final level of transformation involves changing who we are.  While the first two transformations include significant interactions with other people to teach and model, this final transformation is one done primarily through the grace of God and the power of His Word.

Let’s look one more time at Psalm 86:11 and Romans 12:2:

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. Psalm 86:11 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

God is not merely after transforming our minds and lifestyles.  He is after something much, much more important.  Those transformed minds and lifestyles allow Him to change the very nature of who we are.  As our worldview is focused on God and our lifestyles reflect that lifestyle, the very nature of who we are gets transformed more and more into the likeness of Him.  We are transformed into a new person!

The ultimate prize in the Christian race not knowing more about Him, though that is important.  It is not living a Godly life, though that is essential.  No, the ultimate prize in the Christian race is the character of Christ and intimacy with Him! 

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. – 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)

We should not rest contented without knowing the transforming power of the gospel, by the working of the Spirit, bringing us to seek to be like the temper and tendency of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and into union with Him. We behold Christ, as in the glass of his word; and as the reflection from a mirror causes the face to shine, the faces of Christians shine also. – from the Matthew Henry Concise Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:18

Praise God!  I mean seriously, this is absolutely amazing, and it is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of Christians.  At Grace Point, we try be used by Him to encourage that transformed person.  We encourage every one to spend as much time in the Bible as possible, as it has the power to transform us from the inside out.  Our Discipleship Groups exist to help two or three people walk side-by-side in a close, accountable relationship that is simply not possible when too many people are involved.

So, what are the markers of a spiritually mature person?  How do we know if we are making progress toward prize?  That will be the subject of the final post in this series.

Why?  Glad you asked.  I can’t speak for them, but here are some of the reasons I want to meet with them.

These are just really good guys who love God, their wives, and their kids, and want to love all three more.  Just like me, they are guys that need help getting to be more like Jesus…and together we will continue to try.

If you don’t have anyone in life that you routinely meet with, I would urge you to find someone.  Not sure where to start?  Check out the D-Groups page for some help on finding someone to walk alongside.

Do it.  Trust me…you REALLY need to!

During these next 40 days, we are continuing to focus on Jesus’ command to us to be on a "Mission to Multiply" by looking at living lives that overflow with God’s love.

Outflow: outward-focused living in a self-focused world. Here is a sneak peek at what Outflow is all about:

There are several ways you can make this Outflow focus a life-changing 40 days:

• Sunday mornings: For the next six Sundays, the morning messages and EPIC gatherings at Grace Point will be centered around a particular theme of Outflow.  If you miss a Sunday, remember that our Sunday messages are always available on iTunes (search for GPCC) or on our web site.

• Life Groups: We are encouraging everyone to try out a Life Group for this 40 day journey.  Our Life Groups will be reading and discussing an Outflow book that follows along the same themes as the Sunday morning messages.  We will have tables set-up this Sunday (3/1) so that our Life Groups can introduce themselves to you.  Take a few minutes and see if there is a Group that fits your family!

• On your own: If you can’t join a Life Group right now and Thursday mornings don’t work for you, you can still follow along in the Outflow book by picking up a copy at the Welcome Table after each service this Sunday (3/1).  The books are $11.

• Band of Brothers: Our regular Thursday morning Band of Brothers gatherings will focus on how men can be on a mission to multiply.  This would be a GREAT time to try us out.  We meet every Thursday morning from 6:30 to 7:30am.  We’ll have Outflow books available for $11.

• Via the web: By subscribing to this blog, you’ll receive regular emails that follow along the Outflow series with thoughts and challenges along the way.  Just fill out the "Subscribe to this Blog" section in the upper right-hand corner of the site.

We will be praying for this series to be a life-changing time for us all as we consider how to multiply our lives into the people around us!

…

The experience that happened to me in the summer of 2008 was one I have longed for and prayed for but I never really knew that it actually could or would happen.

First, let me describe my normal attempts at having daily devotionals with God. I have always fallen short in this area. I have great bursts of time when I am diligent to be in the Word (I read the whole Bible in a year a couple of years ago) and then I have these long periods of time when the only Bible reading I do is for my weekly preparation for my Life Group. My prayer is always that I will be excited to be in the Word and that I will eagerly anticipate that time of day. But, as many of us know, this does not usually happen on its own. Having a quiet time in the Word with God takes great discipline and sacrifice and it is an action not a feeling, just as love is. So, this past summer I was choosing daily to be in the Word and God truly blessed my time.

Let me also interject that the way that I usually feel God’s Holy Spirit is through praise to God through music. I have always been musical and so this has been a natural path for me to connect to God. So, what I will describe below is even more powerful because it is not the “normal” way that I connect with God.

My experience with God during my daily quiet times was going along in my normal fashion. I would read one or two chapters from the Old Testament and then one or two from the New. For the first couple of weeks, nothing out of the ordinary was happening during these times. I was enjoying my time with God and everything was good. Then, a wonderful thing started to happen. As I was reading in Proverbs, a recurrent theme kept jumping out at me and I thought that it was neat but I didn’t think much about it. Then, as I was reading in Matthew 6 (specifically 1-4) I was hit with a very powerful feeling that I can’t describe. For the next couple of weeks, everything I read in the Bible or thought about kept bringing me back to that passage and I was really troubled as to what to do with it. Since Matthew 6 is very specific in it’s command, I won’t go into detail, but some things started to happen that lead me to some actions that I felt were directly led by God through the words written in those scriptures. I don’t know if I will ever experience God talking to me directly through His Word again, but I pray that I will because it is a wonderful and powerful feeling and connection with our Creator.

To close, I wish I had some great words of wisdom as to how to make this happen again, but I don’t and I wish I could say that I was more diligent about being in the Word because of that experience, but I am not. I am a flawed human being, but the beautiful thing about our God is that He loves us more than we will ever be able to comprehend and He is eagerly waiting for each and every one of us to connect with Him.

• It will take a while for the impact to become evident to you.  A close relationship with someone is not automatic, even if that someone is God Himself.
• There will be periods of time when you are greatly impacted by your quiet time, and times when you feel nothing at all.  Again, every relationship goes through highs and lows.  If you feel God is distant from you, remember that He is not the one that has moved…you have.  Ask Him to reveal the issue to you and continue to pursue Him the best way you know how.
• Like anything else, it will take a while before a regular quiet time feels “normal”.  But once it does, it will be something you long for in a way that also doesn’t feel normal!
• After you’ve gotten into a regular routine with God, don’t stick with that routine forever.  Mix things up a bit in order to allow God to give you a fresh perspective on Himself.

Here is the ultimate warning, but the most amazing truth:

• If you are faithful to pursue God in this way, He will almost certainly reveal things to you that are unwanted, unexpected, uncomfortable and unconventional.  Are you really ready to hear from Him?  Are you really ready to have Him challenge you in places that you least expect?

I have one more post in this series.  It is the story of how a regular time with God impacted a dear friend at Grace Point last year.  Look for it in a couple of days…