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Permissions and CopyrightBy David Mathis. Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org. Used bypermission.By David Platt. 2015 Verge Network. http://www.vergenetwork.org. Used bypermission.By Donald Whitney. Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.By Floyd Schneider. Copyright 2016 Crosswalk.com. Used by permission.By Francis Chan. 2015 Verge Network. http://www.vergenetwork.org. Used bypermission.By Jeff Vanderstelt. Verge Network. http://www.vergenetwork.org. Used bypermission.By Jo Saxton. 2015 Verge Network. http://www.vergenetwork.org. Used bypermission.By John Piper. Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org. Used bypermission.By Joseph Scheumann. Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org. Usedby permission.By Josh Reeves. 2015 Verge Network. http://www.vergenetwork.org. Used bypermission.By Leo Schuster. Copyright 2016 The Gospel Coalition, Inc. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org. Used by permission.By Leonce Crump. Copyright 2016 The Gospel Coalition, Inc. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org. Used by permission.By Mark Dever. Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.By Mark Dever. Copyright 2016 GodTube.com. Used by permission.By Mark Dever. Copyright 2016 The Gospel Coalition, Inc. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org. Used by permission.By Matt Chandler. Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org. Used bypermission.By Richard J. Krejcir. Into Thy Word. http://www.discipleshiptools.org. Used byPermission.By Scotty Smith. Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.IMB.org14Deepen Discipleship

Permissions and CopyrightBy Thabiti Anyabwile. Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.By Thabiti Anyabwile. Copyright 2016 The Gospel Coalition, Inc. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org. Used by permission.By Tim Keller. Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.By Trip Lee. Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org. Used bypermission.Copyright 1995-2016. Jesus Film Project. All Rights Reserved.Copyright 1996 – 2016 Heartlight, Inc. http://www.heartlight.org. Used bypermission.Copyright 2012 Relational Wisdom 360. http://rw360.org. Used by permission.Copyright 2015 Christianity Today International. Used by permission.Copyright 2015 Chuck Lawless. Used by permission.Copyright 2016 Christianity.com. Used by permission.Copyright 2016 davemiers.com. Used by permission.Copyright 2016 Joshua Project. A ministry of Frontier Ventures. Used bypermissions.Copyright 2016 The Gospel Coalition, Inc. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org.Used by permissionCopyright Crossway. Used by permission. https://www.crossway.org. Used bypermission.Copyright Living Out. http://www.livingout.org. Used by permission.Copyright 2014 Humble Beast Records. http://www.humblebeast.com. Used bypermission.Copyright 2016 Made to Flourish. https://www.madetoflourish.org. Used bypermission.Copyright Harvest Bible Chapel North Raleigh. http://www.harvestnorthraleigh.org.Posted to Vimeo by HonorShame.Posted to Vimeo by Power to Change – Students.Proclaiming the Exclusivity of Jesus Will Result in Persecution by Alistair Begg.Copyright Ligonier Ministries. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.ligonier.org.IMB.org15Deepen Discipleship

Permissions and CopyrightProduced by the Bible Project. The Bible Project content is available for free at www.thebibleproject.com.Shared on Vimeo by HonorShame.Sin As Contempt for God by Thabiti Anyabwile. Copyright Ligonier Ministries. Usedby permission. All rights reserved. www.ligonier.orgwww.redeemer.com. Used by Permission.All other videos posted under Standard YouTube License.IMB.org16Deepen Discipleship

Before You BeginSectionBefore You BeginThe Deepen Discipleship ProcessReading Deepen Discipleship will be challenging—and to do it well,we’ll need a community of believers and a lot of time. But this shouldn’tsurprise us: following Jesus faithfully also takes people and time.Slow Down. Take time to read slowly, pray, and reflect on the Word. Taketime to be with others, bless your church, and reach out.Deepen Discipleship is a simple process, but it’s not easy.Deepen Discipleship is an interactive discipleship process that will prepareChristians for both local and global disciple-making in the context of localchurch community. Of course, it’s also about deepening your relationshipwith God and others.Deepen Discipleship will help you develop and deepen discipleshiproutines in community. In other words, it’s not designed as a Biblereading plan to be done alone. You should find at least one other DeepenDiscipleship partner so that you can learn and obey together.Three Great ResourcesIMB.org17Deepen Discipleship

Before You Begin1. The Word of God2. The Spirit of God3. The People of GodEven the name Deepen Discipleship is intended to suggest the process bywhich the Holy Spirit takes the clear message of God’s Word and writes iton our lives as we live out the gospel among the people of God in the localchurch. Primarily, we do this by making and multiplying disciples. This is arelational process of going deeper with Christ and with one another!Participants will read quickly through the entire New Testament withguided reflections and activities that are designed to deepen habits ofobedience in eight main discipleship categories.OrganizationThe process is organized around four modules, each of them six weekslong. In them, you will Read and Learn, Reflect and Change, and Go andDo. All of this is meant to be done in community, preferably some fellowchurch members. This aspect is important because it’s the committedcommunity of a local church that best enables connections for both lovingGod and loving others well.IMB.org18Deepen Discipleship

Before You BeginProcess in CommunityChristian community invites the Word of God to dwell in us richly as weteach each other, love each other, pray together, and obey Jesus together.The pinnacle of this kind of community is found in the local church,especially in its weekly gathering. But it also happens any time followersof Jesus intentionally meet with one another for the purpose of doingspiritual good to one another. It happens whenever and wherever theWord of God works lasting change in the people of God by the Spirit ofGod, all for the glory of God. In sum, the local church gathering jump-startsthe Christian life for a week of disciple-making in all sorts of contexts.Christian community should work like an advertisement to the watchingworld that says, “Following Jesus Christ is the good life!” As followers ofJesus live to show and tell the gospel to fellow followers, as they seek tolove both God and neighbor, they’re ministering out of the overflow oftheir abiding in Christ.A simple Facilitator’s Guide will help the group leader to encourageand advise participants. (For those preparing for cross-cultural disciplemaking, Deepen Discipleship will provide equipping consistent with andIMB.org19Deepen Discipleship

Before You Beginappropriate for IMB service.) This guide is designed to both plan for andexecute the weekly gatherings in a way that is meaningful and efficient.There is also a checklist in the Facilitator’s Guide that will assist facilitatorsin both preparing for weekly community times and encouraging theparticipants to be doers of the Word.Faster Reading Through the New TestamentParticipants must learn to read quickly but carefully through the NewTestament. In doing so, they’ll discover the overarching themes of theGospels, Acts, letters, and Revelation. The goal in this study is to focuson what’s clear and plain in the Word and to put these instructions intopractice, often in groups of two or more.Ultimately, Deepen Discipleship is an attempt to provide a pattern thatpromotes two things: being a faithful follower of Jesus and second, helpingothers be a faithful follower of Jesus—whether in the United States oracross the globe. It’s really that simple.If the Bible is a forest, then its books are trees, itschapters are branches, and its verses are leaves.Working backward, these leaves are connected tobranches which are parts ovf trees that belong in acertain forest.So, as we look at the New Testament, we’ll primarily be looking at branchesand their connections to certain trees. Yes, we’ll inspect the occasional leafup close, but we will spend most of our energy looking for main ideas thatIMB.org20Deepen Discipleship

Before You Beginwill be found in larger sections of the New Testament. We will then seekto understand how these larger sections fit into their respective books aswell as the larger Bible forest.Practically, this means we will be reading quickly so that we can learnthe New Testament’s forest, trees, and branches, not so much itsleaves.The first module begins with you reading three chapters per day in Lukeand Acts. When we get to Philippians, it slows down to just a chapter ortwo per day. When we slow down, we’ll be doing so to reflect on what’sclear and plain in Scripture; that is to say, we won’t skip over the clear andplain so that we can slow down for a chapter’s difficult or strange phrasesor sentences. As we slow down, we want to ask one main question: Howshould I respond to this clear teaching of God’s Word?Sometimes, God’s Word will compel us to START doingsomething we haven’t previously been doing—maybe weneed to take the opportunities to share the gospel withour neighbors, or show more patience in our work andhome. Other times, it’s likely that God’s Word tells us toSTOP doing something we have been doing; perhaps thetext will encourage a change in our thinking, or we’ll becompelled to confess a sin and turn from it. Hopefully,there will also be occasions when we just need toCONTINUE, with God’s help, a good routine or attitude.At any rate, we want the clear teaching of the NewTestament to guide our responses.We hope this kind of approach to Bible reading will develop yourunderstanding of Scripture’s big ideas and major themes. We also hopeIMB.org21Deepen Discipleship

Before You Beginthat once these ideas are grasped, you’ll be encouraged to then reflect onScripture, making plans to put into practice what you’ve learned to be clearand central. In this way, we might avoid our common tendency to givemost of our attention to the relatively rare portions of the New Testamentthat at first glance are confusing. Scripture’s main message is clear, and weinvite you to read more about of the clarity of Scripture here.What We Believe about the BibleWe believe the Bible was inspired by God in such a way that every wordwas exactly what He wanted it to be. Whatever the Bible says, God says. Asa result of this, we affirm four other convictions about the Bible.First, the Bible is completely true. It has no error in it. Whatever the Bibleaffirms to be true is true, and we can trust it completely.Second, the Bible is absolutely authoritative. Since it is the Word of God, itcarries the authority of God, and God is the King of kings and Lord of lordswho rules over the entire universe. We cannot pick and choose whichparts we like and which parts we don’t. We owe confidence, acceptance,and obedience to everything the Bible tells us.Third, the Bible is sufficient. We don’t need any other authority to interpretthe Bible for us, and we don’t need any other source of information toteach us who God is, how we are to be saved, or how we are to live as Hisdisciples.Fourth, the Bible is clear in everything we need to know. God does notfail in communication. It’s true that equally committed believers disagreeIMB.org22Deepen Discipleship

Before You Beginon parts of the Bible, and there are other parts that everyone strugglesto understand. Given how much bigger God’s mind is than ours, this isno surprise. However, God knows what we need to know about Him,ourselves, the world, salvation, and the Christian life. He has made thosethings clear in His Word.Understanding the Bible1. Read Prayerfully. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the Bible,and that same Holy Spirit lives in everyone who believes in Jesus.Because we are small, finite, sinful people, we cannot handle Scripturecorrectly on our own. However, it is specifically the job of the Holy Spiritto lead us into truth (John 16:13, 1 Cor. 2:12–16). Pray for Him to openyour mind and shine His light so that you can understand.2. Hero Worship. Recognize that God is the only Hero of the Bible. Thehuman characters are shown honestly, with their flaws as well as theirstrengths. Only God is always good, and this is ultimately a book aboutHim.3. Find Jesus. Read the Bible as a book that points to Jesus. It really is allabout Him. Some of it shows us why we need Him, and much of the OldTestament lays the groundwork for His coming, but always draw thebiblical line to Jesus.4. The Big Story. Read every passage in light of its place in the GrandNarrative of Scripture. These are not disconnected stories, and itmatters where each individual passage lies in the Big Story of the Bible.For example, if you read the dietary laws in Deuteronomy 14 withoutknowing Jesus’ comments on them in Mark 7, you will probably reach avery inappropriate conclusion!5. In context. Always read everything in context. Word studies—think ofIMB.org23Deepen Discipleship

Before You Beginthem as “leaves” on a tree—can be useful, but ultimately, a given wordhas meaning only in the context of the actual sentence in which it isused. Sentences—thinner branches on the tree—only have meaning inthe context of their paragraphs. Paragraphs—thicker branches— onlyhave meaning in the context of their chapters, and so on. Never takeanything out of context. Never interpret a verse to mean somethingthat doesn’t fit into the flow of its paragraph, chapter, and book—trees—of the Bible—or forest. Always ask, “What is the point of thisword/phrase/sentence/verse in the flow of the larger passage in whichit is written?” Never read anything into a text of Scripture that doesnot flow naturally from the text in its context. Make sure you read thelarge context around each verse or passage before you interpret it.Remember: Forest, Trees, Branches, Leaves! This may be the mostimportant rule for interpreting the Bible.6. Scripture interprets Scripture. God does not contradict Himself.Never interpret one part of the Bible in a way that contradicts anotherpart. If one passage is unclear to you, find other places in the Bible thatspeak to the same issue more clearly, and let the clear parts interpretthe less clear parts. Never build a basic doctrine on that which is notclear in the Word.7. Interpret the Bible in the community of the Church. We all haveblind spots. We need the community of fellow Christ-followers tointerpret the Bible safely and well. (That seems to be what the Bereansdid in Acts 17:11.) That community includes your own church fellowshipand also the fellowship of all believers across time and geography. Ifyou come up with an interpretation that no one else has ever thoughtof, it is almost certainly wrong!IMB.org24Deepen Discipleship

Deepen Discipleship: Facilitator’s GuideSectionDeepen Discipleship: Facilitator’s GuideThis guide is to help you plan your weekly Deepen Discipleship meetings.These meetings should be a time to:8. Review what was learned;9. Encourage one another toward obedience to the Word;10. Pray for each other and those to whom you are reaching out;11. Plan for the upcoming week.Aim for a combination of healthy challenge and sincere encouragement. Jesusseemed to model both invitation and challenge. The Word also invites us to intimacywith God even as it challenges us to continual repentance and faith.The Weekly Deepen Discipleship RoutineRead and Learn: Five days of reading the Word with a reading guide.NOTE: Module One starts with three chapters per day in Luke and Actsbut in Philippians it’s one chapter a day. The length of daily reading is notconsistent, but varies with the genre and book of the New Testament.Reflect and Change: Daily reflection on your reading and how itchallenges you to change. Sometimes this is a question; sometimes it’s atruth or application from Scripture.Go and Do: Daily activities to obey the Word and reach out to thoseIMB.org25Deepen Discipleship

Deepen Discipleship: Facilitator’s Guidearound you.Weekly Discipleship Activities: These aim at developing or deepeningroutines in the eight categories of discipleship which are the specific focusof Deepen Discipleship. Encourage both husbands and wives to worktogether on these as appropriate.Review, Encourage, and Pray: Weekly time with accountability partnersand the weekly small group meeting to encourage and challenge eachother in the activities, to celebrate progress, and to plan together forgrowth.Lead Well, Be a Model: Participants should be able to use your model topractice leading group meetings.Weekly Group MeetingsReview (15-20 min)1. Pray, asking God to guide the time; to encourage and teach each ofyou; and to give everyone the humility and grace to bless one another.Pray for any urgent prayer needs. (Ask for other prayer requests later.)2. Ask for reports on last week’s activities. Celebrate what’s working!3. Practice telling each other the gospel. Model these parts: God, Man,Christ, Response, and a Changed Life. Try to avoid language nonChristians would not understand, especially phrases like “inviting Christinto your heart” or “being washed by the blood.” Help each other keepit simple and clear. Show people how to use a passage/theme from theweekly reading to share the gospel.IMB.org26Deepen Discipleship

Deepen Discipleship: Facilitator’s GuideEncourage and Celebrate (30 minutes)Start with a short and simple summary of the week’s readings (or part ofthem), and ask your group to narrate a brief retelling or talk about thehighlights. Ask participants to share what they learned through the “Reflectand Change” questions.Help your group learn to teach and explain the Bible by:1. Reviewing the week’s reading and weekly activity;2. Asking questions about how the readings should change our lives,using the Reflect and Change questions

complete the weekly discipleship activity portion. These weekly activities seek to develop routines in the eight categories of discipleship that are the specific focus of Deepen Discipleship. Throughout the duration of Deepen Discipleship, every participant should be planning ways to