Discipleship

The Stroll Around Seminary That Changed Everything

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In the summer of 2018, I got the privilege to preach for Fuge Camps at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.  It was a part my alumni summer as I spent a week there and a week at North Greenville University in Tigerville, SC.  I received my undergraduate from NGU and my masters and doctorate from Southern.  It …

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Collegiates Casually Committed to Christ

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Many college students treat their spiritual life like a compartmentalized doggie box. You know those types of boxes that have different compartments for the different types of food?  Due to a fear of the food touching, it keeps these different items separate from one another.  Many students I know do that with the different sections of their lives. You have …

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Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go

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Jesus taught His disciples regarding the incompatible nature of following Him halfway. As He still calls us today, He is expecting us to abandon all this world has to offer for the greater treasure of knowing Him. Mark 8:34-9:1 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him …

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Spiritual Amnesia

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For a second time, Jesus leads a faithless group of disciples to help feed a great crowd of hungry people. Failing to remember Jesus’ power in the past can cause us to question His ability in the present for our physical and spiritual needs. Mark 8:1-26 8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing …

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How to Have An Effective Group

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Groups are important.  Whether you call them Gospel Groups, small groups, community groups, discipleship groups, Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, etc., the committed gathering of a smaller group of believers is essential to discipleship.

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Willing Hearts

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Whether you are a member or a guest of Rocky Creek, we want to keep you informed during this time of transition in the Fall of 2018. Rocky Creek continues to celebrate spiritual and numerical growth, and the church must provide space for current growth and plan now for continued growth in the future. As we look forward to our future, here are some helpful pieces of information to keep you informed and equipped.

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Empty Chairs

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Whether you are a member or a guest of Rocky Creek, we want to keep you informed during this time of transition in the Fall of 2018. Rocky Creek continues to celebrate spiritual and numerical growth, and the church must provide space for current growth and plan now for continued growth in the future.

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Three Reminders for the Next Generation

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Parents want the best for their children.  Would you be willing to give the best to your children even if it included getting intentional and personal? Psalm 78:1-8 teaches that each generation needs to be reminded of 3 things: The Faithfulness of God The Frailties of the Past The Focus of the Future The Faithfulness of God The next generation …

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When Your Family Hinders Your Discipleship

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As Jesus’ influence increased, His family attempted to hinder His ministry.  Jesus taught that sometimes doing the will of God will incur the opposition of your physical family and secure the support of your spiritual family.

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Discipleship Strategy for Your Family

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Within the family contains one of the greatest opportunities for discipleship and one of the greatest challenges for consistency. Your family members provide you the greatest opportunity to encourage and to discourage spiritual growth.

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The Disciple’s Job Description

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As the crowds increased around Jesus, He intentionally drew closer to fewer people as He appointed twelve disciples to be His apostles. As Jesus called the original Twelve to specific tasks, He calls us to follow Him in the same way today.

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God’s Plan for Your Family

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God’s plan for your family is not complex.  We make it that way, but it is truly simple.  This is the plan:

God wants to reconcile the world to Himself through Christ-following parents who disciple their own children to multiply gospel transformation to all people.     

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Jesus Uses Ordinary People

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Jesus called ordinary men to follow Him into an extraordinary work. As disciples of Jesus, we must also redefine our purpose to become fishers of men and join Him in His work to reach others.

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Multiply Churches

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The Multiply Initiative is our simple yet aggressive plan to multiply disciples.  As we make disciples within our own church, our prayer is that we will see growth in our church and in the churches we plant or replant.

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Your Mission Is Too Small

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God blessed the nation of Israel in order to be a blessing to all other nations, but eventually, they refrained from sharing that salvation with others. After the work of Jesus in our lives, we are called to go outside the walls of the church to multiply as we make disciples and plant churches.

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Multiply Yourself

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The Multiply Initiative is our simple yet aggressive plan to multiply disciples.  While we can multiply programs, events, services, and churches, the heart of strategy plan is when disciples begin to multiply themselves. If a new Christian simply replicated your life, would you be pleased with his or her maturity? PD 14 – Multiply Yourself Gathering Disciples Jesus first called …

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Entrust Everything You’ve Got Into Another

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Entrust Everything You’ve Got Into Another

2 Tim. 2:1-7

Paul instructed his disciple, Timothy, to take everything he had learned and entrust it with others who would turn and do the same thing. To multiply disciples, we must be intentional with our relationships for Kingdom purposes.

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Be a Disciple – Not a Consumer

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Church isn’t about you. Christianity began with a sinless Savior sacrificing himself on a rebel’s cross, and yet we are still trying to divide his garments among us. It’s all about what we can get rather than what we can give. We treat Jesus like a lottery ticket expecting to cash in big on worldly treasures. We treat Jesus  like …

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Multiply Disciples

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The Multiply Initiative is our simple yet aggressive plan to multiply disciples.  Our church is an established church with almost two centuries of discipleship work.  As we go forward during this time, we wanted to simplify our strategy as a church and clarify our expectations for our covenant members. The Great Commission Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, …

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The Great Omission

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The Great Omission Matt. 28:16-20 After Jesus’ resurrection, he commanded his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. Instead of committed disciples obeying the Great Commission, we can revert to becoming consumers who succumb to the great omission. The Kingdom is composed of disciples who have a commission to the world, a commitment to the church, a commandment …

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You Can’t Make It On Your Own

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Colossians 4:7-18 You Can’t Make It On Your Own In Paul’s concluding remarks to the Colossians, he provides personal comments regarding specific ministry partners.  Within these comments, Paul models the type of friends that a disciple will need to continue towards maturity. Why Mention These People? A commitment to Jesus is a commitment to His people. Our beliefs and our …

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Overcoming Temptation

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A critical element in discipleship is training someone how to overcome temptation.  While everyone is tempted, particular people are more prone to certain temptations than others.

In order to overcome temptation, let’s identify Satan’s strategy, Jesus’ success, and our steps needed to succeed.

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Silence, Solitude, and Sabbath

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In our fast-paced society and our continuously-loud distractions, our eyes, ears, bodies, minds, hearts, and souls need margin.

The disciplines of silence, solitude, and Sabbath are meant to provide renewal for the disciple.

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Disciples in the Workplace

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Colossians 3:22-4:1 Disciples in the Workplace A disciple can never clock out of Kingdom work.  Even in the workplace, Christian bosses and workers must display a different level of intentionality and productivity for the sake of discipleship. Instructions for Employees (Col. 3:22) Since you claim to follow a faithful Savior, be a faithful worker. Four Types of Employees: Justified Rebel …

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Disciples in the Home

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Colossians 3:18-21 Disciples in the Home Authentic discipleship moves from the church and should eventually change the home.  Disciples obey God’s commands for how families are to treat one another particularly in the relationship between husband and wife and between parent and child. Submissive Wives (Col. 3:18) Since men need significance, God calls wives to submit to their husbands. If …

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6 Common Components in a Growing Disciple

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I love hearing people’s testimonies.  Celebrating the uniqueness of each powerful story encourages my faith in who God is and what he can do. One thing I have noticed about those who grow in Christ is that even though their stories are different, common components emerge in almost every story.  In fact, the more stories I hear, the more often …

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Fasting and Discipleship

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Fasting is an important and yet overlooked spiritual discipline.  While most disciplines encourage people to do something, fasting encourages people to do without something.

Fasting is the voluntary denial of physical food for spiritual purposes. 

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Prayer and Discipleship

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A personal prayer habit is vitally important in the life of a disciple maker.  Not only does it remind us of our dependence upon God for sanctification, but we must also model healthy prayer disciplines in our discipleship of others.

We learn how to pray by praying.

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Seeking Heaven While Still on Earth

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Colossians 3:1-11 Seeking Heaven While Still on Earth While the place of heaven is our destination, the way of heaven should be our pursuit.  As disciples, we are to put to death the deeds of this world and to put on the new self as we seek the things above. After Paul addresses the Colossians’ doctrinal integrity (1-2), he instructs their …

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Scripture Memory and Discipleship

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While reading Scripture is vitally important, oftentimes, we forget what we have read as soon as we have closed our Bibles.  The lost of art of meditating and memorizing Scripture is a key discipline in the life of the disciple.

We must discipline our minds to have the words of the Bible accessible even when a copy of the Bible is not available.

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Bible Study and Discipleship

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A key component in personal discipleship is the practice of spiritual disciplines.  Spiritual disciplines are not meant to make you more liked by Jesus but more like Jesus.  We discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness (1 Tim. 4:7).

No discipline is more important than regular Bible study because it encourages every other spiritual discipline.

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Disciples Have Deep Roots

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Colossians 2:6-2:15 Disciples Have Deep Roots Satan will use deceitful doctrine to distract disciples from being established in the faith.  Disciples must be rooted in Christ and established in biblical doctrine to persevere. Mature Growth (Col. 2:6-7) A disciple must have deep roots to experience mature growth. Walking with Christ is characterized by steady progress in discipleship. Biblical Doctrine (Col. 2:8-10) …

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What Billy Graham Would Have Done if He Served as a Local Pastor

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Billy Graham has preached to over 215 million people in more than 185 countries in his lifetime.  His impact for Kingdom work is significant.  Have you ever wondered what he would have done if he served as a local pastor instead of an evangelist?  He was asked that question years ago and his response was recorded in Robert Coleman’s masterpiece, The …

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Discipleship in the New Testament

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[Guest Post by Bryce Staggs – Rocky Creek Pastoral Resident]

The writers of the New Testament show an importance in discipleship using the word “disciple” over 260 times and the word “Christian” only 3 times. We echo that discipleship is important, but do we know why it’s important, what we should teach, or how to do it?

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Disciples Don’t Quit Until They Reach Maturity

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Colossians 1:24-2:5 Disciples Don’t Quit Until They Reach Maturity The goal of the Church is to present every disciple as complete in Christ.  Working with the power God provides, we are to disciple one another with the goal of spiritual maturity. Christian suffering means that you are receiving the attacks that the world would give Jesus if He was still …

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Discipleship in the Old Testament

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While the word, “discipleship,” is not found in the Old Testament, the concept is embedded from the very beginning.  God’s people were to pass on a legacy of faith to the following generations.

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Fully Pleasing to God

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Colossians 1:9-14 Fully Pleasing to God As the gospel transforms us from the domain of darkness into saints standing in the light, our lives are meant to be fully pleasing to God.  Disciples strive to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Pray for Spiritual Wisdom (Col. 1:9) Knowledge is the content of truth, wisdom is the comprehension of …

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