STARTING A SPIRITUAL FAMILY

Goal: You will learn to start new groups of followers of Jesus.

With this motivation, I will show you one way in which new groups can be started by followers of Jesus.

1. Vision: Develop a vision for yourself and your disciples from what you have learned so far. This vision.  will help you to keep going even when the going gets tough. It will also help you to communicate with your disciples why you want to start a group.
2. Seek and find disciples: You can't start a spiritual family without other followers. Therefore, first lead some neighbors, friends, acquaintances or relatives to Jesus. This was explained in the section “Making disciples”.
3. Host: As a group, you want to meet in one place. Of course, this can also be in a public place, such as a coffee shop or on a sports field. However, as we have seen, the private home of one person is even more suitable for starting a spiritual family. So find a host where you can feel at home as a group.
4. Leader: Your group will run wild and lack a clear focus if it is not led by a person who empowers others.  As a leader, presumably you, it's your job to nurture, release, strengthen, train and eventually send members out to start their own groups.

Wherever true discipleship is practiced, a spiritual family or, in other words, a church is formed. The form of God's church is the family. “It is a familiar, intimate network of Jesus followers and is saturated with Jesus.” (Frost & Hirsch 2009:226)

Questions:

• What is your vision?
• Who are your disciples or where can you share the gospel with people?
• Who of your disciples could be a good host/hostess?
• How do you want to lead the group?
• When will your first meeting take place?