Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt

While we can never fully understand the infinite God, he has revealed important points about his character. Understanding the character of God is important. These features of God, or attributes of God, are all eternal and coequal. We should never stress one attribute of God at the expense of another. Anything we say about God should not contradict any of these attributes. You can study each attribute and read the verses, considering how theologians get these attributes from the passages listed. Then ask how each particular attribute might apply to daily Christian living. Think how an attribute of God might affect your prayer life, your ministry, your attitudes toward him, etc.

You can review your group by looking at: outreach, follow up, leadership development, body life, prayer and group meetings. Some questions are provided for each category.

We have to work with married disciples on the biggest area of their lives: their family. Again, marriage and family counseling are such vast areas of need that we can only mention some of the most common areas and refer the reader to further reading.

In our opinion, materialistic greed is the greatest enemy of spirituality in the American church. The Bible teaches strongly against greed. Paul says, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.” (Ephesians 5:3) The word for greed is pleonexia, which means a continual thirst for more. Here we see greed in the same list with sexual immorality, which should give us an idea of the seriousness God attaches to this danger. Jesus warned against greed as well when he said, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15) He also taught that “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mat. 6:24) Paul goes so far as to say, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5) Greed is really idolatry, according to Paul because money becomes the thing around which our lives revolve. People caught up in materialistic avarice never seem to have time for the things of God. They are so preoccupied by their careers and enjoying their money and possessions they never can develop quality ministries. With their frequent absenteeism and divided loyalties, they are unable to build quality relationships or engender true love of God in others. One of the saddest side-effects of greed is the way it chills our love for God and for others. Just as Jesus warned, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21).

Personal relationships are at the heart of Christian living and ministry. When we are discipling in community, we should be in a position to watch our disciples relating to their friends. We can also gain insight into their relational tendencies from our own relationship with them. As we gain information over a period of months, we may begin to notice patterns of strength or deficiency that point to opportunities for encouragement or for needed change. For instance, we may find that our disciple exhibits a pattern of high expectations on others. These become apparent when our person is continually offended by others' actions or omissions. Such people are “hard to please” or “high maintenance” in their relationships. They seem to feel like they deserve a certain standard of treatment from others. Properly understood, these expectations are really love demands that make a person a love-taker rather than a love-giver.

How couples handle their children is an important question, but even in the church, this area is often considered private and personal. Couples are often relatively closed to input in this area. Parents tend to feel they know what they are doing with their kids, even though the evidence often suggests otherwise. Our first suggestion in this area is: proceed with caution. Parents don't want to be told that they are doing things wrong. We have found that parents will accept input if we stay positive and make our suggestions as ways to further enhance parenting, rather than as criticisms.

We may have disciples who virtually never stop thinking about themselves. When alone, their thought life centers endlessly around self. Depression and defeat usually result. Even when with other people, someone who is self-absorbed either cannot stop talking about themselves, or sits withdrawn, wondering what others think of them.

Resources for readers of Organic Discipleship

Gary DeLashmutt

The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of the phrase ta stoicheia tou kosmou ("the elementary principles of the world") as it is used by Paul in Galatians 4:3,9 and Colossions 2:8,20. First, I will conduct a brief examination of the non-biblical and biblical usage of stoicheion ("elementary principles"). Next, I will analyze the three traditional interpretations of the phrase. Finally, I will adopt and apply one of those interpretations.