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Our Model for Discipling
As I sit here pondering how to share much in as few words as possible, each of your faces crosses my mind. More than the news of the ministry, I find myself curious about the news in your life. What a privilege it truly is to partner in this kingdom discipleship work with all of you!
Speaking of discipleship – in this communication, we will focus on sharing our proven process for discipling God’s children.
The biblical premise for Promised Land Living’s discipleship coaching process is based on a person’s relationship to Truth. Truth is easily accessible in the Scriptures but holds no power if not applied (2 Timothy 3:5). Truth preached without being lived is nothing more than a pride puffer upper (1 Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge applied, however, transforms into a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). Promised Land Living is about the application of Truth, walking in what we know and thereby growing in wisdom before the Lord (John 8:31-32). In doing so, we experience more and more of the abundant life in Christ (John 10:10), today!
Step 1 (Understanding): We begin with a very specific definition of discipleship coaching that informs all individual conversations, group trainings, curriculum design and community experiences:
Facilitating a conversation between God and a child of God in order to increase his/her ability to hear God, respond to God’s Truth and live into the mysteries of God.
Step 2 (Defining): We use a very simple process to identify the question the disciplee (participant) is asking. The process of defining is explained in this video. In summary, the process/conversation begins with the question (perhaps still emerging) that the disciplee is asking themselves.
Our Coach Presenters (discipler) enter their brave space of helping the disciplee form the question being asked at a very deep level. We invite the disciplee into their brave space as well to then articulate that question.
Examples of questions he/she might be asking:
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Am I cut out for this?
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What if I make the wrong decision?
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Why am I not as passionate as I used to be about my faith?
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Is God punishing me?
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Does God still love me after _________?
Step 3 (Exploring): We leverage the defined question to create a conversation between the disciplee and God using our internal coaching conversation model created over 15 years ago.
Once the question is fully formed, the disciplee typically experiences a wave of relief knowing they are not being judged for asking the question or for the feelings of doubt, lack of confidence, etc. that are reflected behind the question.
Step 4 (Transforming): The safe space created by our trained Coach Presenters is followed by the sacred space where both the disciplee and the discipler enter with Holy Spirit leading to discover through the Word of God (both Logos and Rhema), what the Lord may be saying to His child.
This is what allows the Coach Presenter to be able to engage with sometimes very difficult and seemingly unanswerable questions. Reliance shifts from their knowledge and experience to Holy Spirit eternal wisdom.
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EXAMPLE OF DISCIPLESHIP MODEL AT WORK:
Here’s an example that happened just two weeks ago.
STEP 1 – Understanding:
A sister in Christ was tired. Life had hit her hard for two years with biblical level losses and betrayals like Job. Her faith went from being on fire for the Lord to being depleted and feeling fake and irrelevant.
STEP 2 - Defining:
The question emerging for her was this:
She confessed she didn’t even know who she was right now. "Could God still love this new version of me who has been hit by so much life, I can’t even get my feet under me?"
STEP 3 - Exploring:
While I was following our coaching conversation model, she hit this wall of panic.
We both paused and waited in the silence. I found myself sharing of John the Baptist when he was in jail at the end of the life asking, are you the one or should we wait for another? This man who dedicated his entire life to the preaching of the gospel Himself with unapologetic boldness suddenly lost the bearings in his faith. Did she recall the story?
She did. Her response was tenuous.
STEP 4 – Transforming:
I followed what I hoped were Holy Spirit prompts and asked “How did Jesus respond to John’s urgent, genuine question?”
And that was when the eternal light shown into that dark corner in her soul and she experienced a lightness and a relief she’d been seeking for months. We who were with her were witness to the transformational moment.
In ten minutes, she was transformed. She heard from Holy Spirit. It was more real and more near than her own breath. Holy Spirit met her. Holy Spirit answered her. Holy Spirit ministered to her. Her relationship with her heavenly Father strengthened. She will never forget that moment as long as she lives and neither will we. This is just one example of thousands that are occurring all across the world. Our global Co-Coordinators just came home from Thailand and reported similar transforming moments for believers there as they followed the process.
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The process is not “rocket science.” But it takes patience, humility and a hunger to hear God first before we hear from ourselves if we are to truly disciple someone in this manner.
The course is now accredited through Christian Coaches Network International (visit https://christiancoaches.com).
We are training more and more people on this model! We want these types of conversations to be taking place in every hallway of every church, every coffee shop, everywhere around the world. We are asking for revival of the souls of God’s people, one conversation at a time.
What is that work? |
