Discipleship Material

Discussion Topics/Modules:

• Glory of God, Grace, Servant Leadership, God’s Sovereignty in Suffering.

Outlines:

• Glory of God
  Before we can understand anything of the “good news”
  - We need to understand who God is
  - We need to understand how he sees the world
  - We need to understand what he is doing

Examples of how different world views / perceptions /standpoints lead to misunderstanding and often conflict

• Giver and receiver, donors, democracy, aid
  - Who is benefiting?

If we are to hear God’s message clearly we must understand who he is, where he is coming from, what he is doing.

Rom 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

God has shown us what we need to know of him

• Through creation, what he has made
• Through revelation in his word, what he says about himself
• Through his actions in relating to people, through Jesus becoming a man and “living” God with us. How he acts, behaves, what he does.

This module explores the following characteristics of God,

1. God is great
2. God is timeless
3. God is everywhere
4. God is powerful
5. God is happy
6. God is sovereign
7. God is all knowing
8. God is holy
9. God is loving

This is what it means to talk about the glory of God!!

• Servant Leadership

The Leadership Tree – Danny Tanser:

The trunk:
Vision – inseparable from leadership. Leaders work backwards.
Values – personal set of rules by which we make decisions.
Integrity – wholeness, the link between internal and external.

Roots and Fruits:
Self image – how we see ourselves affects how we treat others.
The fruit of positive self-image is humility.
Passion – we need to be inspired before we can inspire.
The fruit of living with passion is the ability to inspire others
The Past – it can explain us but never excuse us.
The fruit of not dealing with the past is bitterness.

Branches:
Character type – our comfortable role in the team.
Leadership style – lead by inspiration or intimidation.
Servant attitude – what is best for those I am leading?

Leaves:
Teamwork – we are all members of a team, we are either positive or negative members.
Communication – keys to effective communication.
Conflict resolution – fight, flight or flow.

Challenge: True leadership requires us to get out of our comfort zone.

• Grace
  Discussions through books by David Jeremiah (Captured by Grace), and Philip Yancey (What’s so amazing about grace?).
• God’s Sovereignty in Suffering