Cultivating a Life for God
I finally read a book that has been sitting on my shelf for years and it really challenged me. The book is titled Cultivating a Love for God by Neil Cole. This book is a great example of not judging a book by its cover. The cover is a little feminine for my taste but the content is exceptional. The book is an explanation of what Cole refers to as "Life Transformation Groups" or LTG's.
Here's a summary of what an LTG is: a group of 2-3 people meet together weekly and go through several accountability questions, pray for unbelieving friends, and commit to reading 30 chapters of Scripture a week. if one member of the group doesn't complete all 30 chapters of the reading, they all go back and do it again until every member completes the reading. Once a fourth is added to the group they break off and reproduce another group.
It sounds very systematic and methodical but I love the depth of the commitment and the emphasis on multiplication. In fact, Cole has planted churches simply through launching LTG's. A question I had before reading the book was whether or not a new believer was asked to read 30 chapters of the Bible and participate in accountability right away. Cole argues that they absolutely should because by setting the bar high right from the start a hunger for the Bible and evangelism is being developed immediately. This leads to a greater depth in discipleship than what is being experienced in too many of our churches.
Check out this excerpt from Cultivating a Love for God:
"There is not a single command to plant a church or to multiply small groups. There is a lot of church planting and multiplying of groups going on in the New Testament, but not because the church was instructed to do so. The reason that groups and churches multiplied is because the first generation of Christians were obeying a very specific and simply command-to make disciples! When Christians are obedient to this single command, it results in multiplying groups and churches. To attempt to multiply groups and churches without multiplying disciples is not only disobedient, but it is downright impossible." p.93
I'd be interested in hearing from some people about their experience with discipleship methods and strategies. I'm really intrigued by the LTG's and their organic approach. What are your thoughts?
Hey dude,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know that we were praying for you!
Also,... my thoughts about LTG's. I like it! Too often you can't tell Christians and non-Christians apart, this was not so with the early christians. We can look through the NT and see how extreme and radical they were (i.e. - Acts 2:43ff). LTG's sets the bar high (extreme) for new converts, but what i like about it is the simplicity and dedication to the Scriptures and to accountiblity memmbers.
As a youth pastor, can/should we model this in our ministry? should we apply the same standards (i.e. - 30 chapters)? Should this replace small groups in our ministry?
love you!
Pbarc,
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about how this could be applied to youth ministry. On the one hand I think applying the same standards to students might be difficult, on the other hand I think that asking young people to read 30 chapters (roughly 25-30 pages) in one week isn't asking any more than what their teachers are asking. Cole also talks about this practice as creating a hunger for scripture. What if we could create this hunger for people at a younger age? It would be interested to see this implemented in a youth ministry. I say go for it!
How are things in KC?
Love you too bro!