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discipleship

Discipleship | Part 5

In this post, I’m going to focus on the basic tools I use to teach people.

Tools

Doctrine

Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem has been especially effective for believers who need to grow in the understanding of God and worship of Jesus.  I hope to compile a typical “plan of attack” and the resources I have created to help facilitate the processing and application of truths learned in this kind of study over the course of this summer.

Life/Character

I use the REAP tool along with the ESV Study Bible Reading Plan to encourage daily study and application of the Word.  I also have liked using SHAPE (we use a modified form of the book) to help and individual have an understanding of their story of God’s redemption in their life and the gifts He has given them to use for His glory.  I think the next tool I will use is the Galatians Study by Tim Keller which focuses on the centrality of the gospel in all of life.

Skills

This has been more of the “gut feeling” stuff for me.  From a pastoral/ministerial standpoint, most of my development is in feedback and coaching on how to handle a particular issue.  Probably the one thing I belabor the most is ingraining the idea of “asking the right question”.  Maybe I’ll write a whole post on this idea in the future…

I also like to teach the skills I use to organize life from the Vision level down to the hour by hour practice level.  I teach things like Mindmapping to organize thoughts and projects, developing a productivity system modified from GTD, how to use tools like Mint.com or Quicken for managing and examining finances, and utilizing web tools for information management and research.

I’d really love your feedback/input here…what tools have you found useful in developing people in these three areas?

By Todd Engstrom

Although I was raised in the church and had a knowledge of God, I didn’t embrace Jesus until I heard gospel preached and lived out by some Young Life leaders. God has proven faithful and good to me since that day, even in great suffering and loss. I have learned to treasure Romans 8:28 as a wellspring of hope and truth.

God has blessed me with an amazing wife (Olivia), three sons (Micah, Hudson and Owen) and a daughter (Emmaline). Growing up in the northwest, the thought never crossed my mind that I would have four children who are native Texans. Despite landing in the south, I still watch Notre Dame games with my children every Saturday in hopes they will land at my alma mater.

3 replies on “Discipleship | Part 5”

You asked for feedback on helpful tools… One disciple-maker I know disciples in groups, and it is a requirement in their group that for each meeting, every member of the group come prepared to teach the lesson. INTENSE.

I think one thing I’ve learned is that it is SO hard to watch someone fail when you know you could prevent the failure. BUT failure provides teachable moments. So while we don’t want to sabotage disciples, it helps to give them difficult tasks that will challenge them and freak them out a little bit – that’s when real learning begins. What do you think of that?

That’s a great method for accountability to the material in a group…good stuff!

And failure often cultivates the best learning, as well as separates the humble from the proud…again, good stuff! Thanks Amie 🙂

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