Discipleship coaching

I finished my discipleship coaching class last week (through homegrownmission.com). I was sort of a last-minute add to the class because my pastor is the instructor, and since I'm part of the church and he had some open spots, he let me take it for free. I'm glad I did!

I had actually started something very similar to this course before through 3dm. Home Grown actually grew out of that - the leader was a former 3dm coach - so some of the teaching was the same and some was not.

To kind of put it in a nutshell:

• This is 6-month, 24-week course that meets for roughly an hour a week (online) and requires 80% attendance to complete (although we only ended up meeting 21 times, I think). We met on Thursdays at 2:30 pm.
• The main communication tool is "Slack.com" - an audio/video online format (which I liked much better than the old days of just audio).
• The main sources of information were the books "Building A Discipling Culture" from Mike Breen, and "The Discipleship Difference" by Robert Logan.
• The course centered around the ideas of what it means to be a "disciple," and how to do "discipleship." So we worked at developing the right MINDSET, SKILLSET, and TOOLSET. 

What I want to leave here today is a basic run-down of what we covered each week, and some of the specific resources used during the course. This is more for my own recollection as anything, but it is some good and worthwhile stuff. I was honestly not expecting to get much out of this group, but it turned out to be way more helpful than I expected.

So, as best as I can recall (and had recorded in my notes) these are the bones of what it looked like week to week:

1. Get acquainted, basics of the group, introduction.
2. The idea of simple, reproducible practices; Journaling based on the Moravian daily texts.
3. "What Is God Saying To You?" and "What Will You Actually Do About It?" from Ben Sternke, and an introduction to 'The Learning Circle.'
4. Practicing 'The Learning Circle.'
5. Definitions of disciple and discipleship.
6. Introduction to "Dimensions of Discipleship" handout (taken from 'The Discipleship Difference').
7. continued...
8. "Engaging in Spiritual Conversations with Those Who Are Not Yet Followers of Jesus" handout, and practice.
9. "What IS Discipleship, Really?" handout from Ben Hardman
10. The 7 Basic Learning Styles discussion
11. continued...
12. (I was absent, but it covered the "rest & work" semicircle from 3dm).
13. Accountability questions/huddle skills & character guides
14. continued...
15. The 'Leadership Square' from 3dm
16. 'Persons of Peace' handout from Ben Sternke
17. continued...
18. Five-Fold ministry survey and handout, plus "The Five Equippers of Churches" videos from JR Woodward (missioalliance.org).
19. 'Pathway to Mission' handout
20. Last class (I think) - Q & A
21. Individual meetings with the leader...

I suppose it's worth noting - in the event someone may happen along here unintentionally - if this is something you're interested in, I would check out homegrownmission.com for coaching. Brian is a great teacher and it's not only packed full of great resources, but practical teaching and useful skill development. Good stuff!