How important is discipleship? What is discipleship anyway? What does it look like for you? More importantly, what does God say about discipleship?
I’ve mentioned before how a group of us attended our first Promise Keepers Event in the late 90’s. Encouraged by the event, we formed our 4x4 men’s group and called ourselves The Parish.
Another group of friends from our church also got together and called themselves The Brotherhood.
I was a very new Christian, but my friends were mature in their faith. They walked with me, nurtured, encouraged, prayed and prophesied over me. They built me up in my faith, and in my confidence in who I was as a son of the Father.
The Parish at one point expanded from four to six guys when we went to purchase the Valiant Man program. The program developed a deeper appreciation and respect for each other in the areas of vulnerability, accountability, our need for each other as friends to meet regularly.
We’d meet every fortnight. Someone would suggest a meeting place. Usually it was either a burger or a pizza joint. Sometimes we’d meet in the middle of Queen Street, and Wendy’s Restaurant had our footprints more often than others.
I didn’t realise at the time that we were all introverted, except for one of the guys. He was the extreme opposite, and his laugh was so loud he could be heard from the other side of the city.
With our bellies full, sometimes we’d walk into a computer arcade on Queen Street to play a video game. We needed to burn off our fast-food dinner, so we’d get into two teams and play against each other. Sometimes we’d join a bunch of other strangers who were already playing the game.
We’d have a few rounds, then we’d leave. Sometimes, we’d get up and leave earlier because someone unknown to us, decided to access a porn site, and everyone could see his screen. I remember one of those times I was so angry with this person I was close to making a scene, but my ‘mature Christian’ brothers pulled me to the side and said, “Frank, we can just leave, don’t worry about it.”
I’d take heed of their advice, and we’d exit very quickly. It was their hearts, their maturity in their faith, their love for me, and the gentle love of Jesus I witnessed in them that I learned. If I didn’t have the respect and love for them in that computer arcade, we would have had some real counter-strike action.
The night would usually end with a prayer session either in the car, or back at Blade’s house. It was then we reached into the Heavens, we’d approach the Throne of Grace, seeking God’s face for wisdom. We’d take turns in the middle, laying our hands on each other, blessing and prophesying over each other.
Often the prayer sessions would happen when it was already late. But as always, when we got into it, the presence of God was so amazing it was always hard to stop. When we did stop, we’d look at each other and go, “wow, God’s presence is so amazing…”, or we’d thank each other for the words of prophesy we just received, and how encouraging that word or prayer was.
Of the four, The Peps, and Blade remained faithful in our group, with whom I had very little in common other than being introverts, and our love for Jesus.
What does your men’s 4x4 group look like? Consider this, “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” (Proverbs 27:17). Or this truth; “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” (Proverbs 13:20).
He equips us so we can help, “…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…” (Ephesians 4:12).
I’ll be sharing part two with you next week.
In His richest blessings
Frank Po Ching
Group Discussion Questions:
In what ways have you experienced discipleship?
If you aren’t already in a men’s group, what steps will you take to start one?
Join us for a great online men’s group this Friday morning where we will be discussing this topic. See Zoom details [here]. You can also use today’s topic as a discussion starter in your own men’s group.