Brandon Boyd

Posts

How to Lead a Great Video-Based Bible Study

Leading a Bible study for a small group is an achievable task for most leaders. With the right preparation and curriculum, a group leader’s main goal is simply facilitating a conversation aimed at creating a discipleship experience.On the other hand, teaching an effective Bible study is not easy, and only a few people are gifted enough teachers to exegete scripture in an applicable, easy to understand way. That is why I love having video-enhanced studies as a curriculum tool for small group leaders. They free the leader up to focus on the discipleship conversations, while making sure the group is getting doctrinal sound teaching from teachers you can trust. Widespread use of broadband internet has made the video delivery easier as well. Instead of each group having to purchase a DVD, they can stream it straight from a site like smallgroup.com to their tv or computer. But like any tool, there are a few things a leader should still do to make it a good experience for th...

Key Discipleship Tool: The Phrase from the Stage

One of the key ways that we can help people grow in their faith is by understanding where they are on the discipleship process. By really listening to people, we can learn what is important to them, what their beliefs are, and what their goals are. Then, you can help determine next steps. Listen to how the book Discipleshift by Putmam and Harrington describe it. Again, we teach our people to recognize these phrases so that they can know where a person is — not to judge them or condemn them but to help our people better know how to pray and respond, to understand what part Jesus wants to play in their lives right now. Just as a teacher will assess a student to better grasp where he or she needs help, a discipler can use these identifying phrases to assess a disciple (or potential disciple) to better understand where he or she needs help in their journey toward spiritual maturity in Christ (p. 62) For a review of “Phrase from the Stage,” re-read pages 211-215 in t...

A Leader's Responsibility in a Discipleship Environment

In my last update, I mentioned that discipleship leaders (in any discipleship environment) have two main responsibilities. Two responsibilities of a discipleship leader are to: 1. Understand people’s spiritual maturity 2. Understand people’s next step to greater spiritual maturity. Once we identify where people are spiritually, our task is to help them take the next step of spiritual maturity. Lincoln Christian Church has adapted a discipleship process from Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. This illustration identifies what steps are needed to help people take their next steps. For example, to help a person in through the Discover phase, we need to: Share our lives with them, Share new basic truths with them, and Share new habits of a Growing Christian (prayer, Bible reading, giving, serving, sharing their personal testimony). The second page of this tool gives some more specific “Growth Goals” for each phase of spiritual maturity. This is a powerful to...

Four Habits of a Disciplemaker

Here is an article from “The Vision Room” a blog that I read regularly. Here are some thoughts on how what it means to be a discipleship leader. Over the years, I have worked in a variety of fields, gaining exposure to many different industries. Each industry has unique jargon. Have you ever worked on a cat cracker or executed a turnaround? If so, you probably worked in a refinery. In church, we throw the word ‘discipleship’ around like everybody knows what it means. We talk about needing more of it and how we are really going to focus on it next semester. I was not well versed in church terminology, so I did a bit of research on the word. In addition to discovering this funny video from Tripp and Tyler, I found the major theme of discipleship was ‘following in the ways of someone else’. I love the practical nature of this approach. It is not about reading more books and listening to more sermons or getting another degree. In fairness, I love knowledge and I loved school wh...

How Does a Disciple Mature?

Here is a blog post by Dr. Virgil Grant about how disciples grow. I found it a good summary of how we want people to grow in their Christian walk. ——————————————————— http://relationaldiscipleshipnetwork.com/how-does-a-disciple-mature/ God’s goal for a disciple is to reach full maturity and to be like Christ (Ephesians 4:14). How does a disciple get to this point? What is the process? What are the habits needed? Spiritual maturity is the result of one’s commitments. At Eastside, our vision is to make disciples who can make disciples who can make disciples. If a disciple is going to become a disciple-maker than there are several commitments for the disciple to commit to. They are: 1. Accept Christ as his or her personal Savior. The pathway to being a disciple of Christ starts with salvation. Inviting Christ in your heart; asking Him to forgive you of your sins; and to be your Lord and Savior [Brandon’s note: and in baptism]. This commitment is often assumed or just taken for...

Jim Putman on What a Winning Church Looks Like

More than twenty years ago , a small group of Christians came together in their homes with one lofty goal in mind. They wanted to bring a disciple-making church to a little slice of northern Idaho. At the time, they could never have imagined how the Lord would work through them to grow Real Life Ministries to a congregation of 8,500 plus. Through the Word of God, the church founders understood that leadership and discipleship are developed from within the church body itself. They recognized that God has placed potential leaders in every church just waiting to grow into messengers that can accurately spread God’s message. Jesus came not only to die for our sin, but to train His disciples to train others to deliver the gospel message. In the same way, we as Christians have a sacred mission to go and make disciples. Sharing the news about Jesus is not all there is to discipleship. Teaching people to obey the commands He gave us is equally important. This is a simple problem to...