What a joy it was to be with each of you last Saturday night! I am affected every time I stand in front of your youth and behold, to a large degree, the future of this church! A highlight for me was certainly being in a discussion group with middle school youth and parents, seeing the way in which your youth had interacted with God’s word and were seeking to apply the message they had heard. What a joy and delight!
After our parent-youth corporate meetings, I will seek to put up on this blog a summary of what we discussed, as well as the suggested “fellowship points” for you as parents and the discussion questions we used in the meeting. I think that is the advantage of this online format; you don’t have to keep track of lots of paper to follow up on a meeting, but you can have access to points and questions from the meeting at any time.
Please do “continue the conversation” on this topic of gospel-centered discipleship. Our corporate meetings can’t facilitate real transformation through application; that’s going to happen by God’s grace through your efforts on an ongoing basis. I would strongly encourage you to set aside a fixed time and place to draw out your youth and cultivate fellowship with them. These “fellowship points” are only mean to guide your thinking for how you and your youth can pursue fellowship in response to what we discussed on Saturday. Thank you for discipling your youth in this way!
So, here are the main points and take-aways from our last meeting.
Suggested fellowship points to “continue the conversation”…
- The Encouragement Point (for parents): As your parent, the areas where I’m most encouraged about your gospel-centered discipleship are… (be as specific as you can)
- The Input Point (for parents): As your parent, how can I better provide gospel-centered discipleship for you on a regular basis? For your answer to question #3 (below), how can I help?
- The Evaluation Point (for youth): As my parent, what is the main way you’d like to see me grow in my gospel-centered discipleship? What observations or help would you have for me in that area?
Questions we used in discussion groups…
- What was most encouraging or helpful to you from this message?
- In your own words, what is gospel-centered discipleship and why is it so important?
- Of the three elements Mr. Trainor mentioned, which one would you most like to grow in? Why that particular element? (please be as specific as possible…)
- How can you pursue your parent’s help for that particular element? (i.e. – what do you need to share with them, ask of them, etc. to gain more of their help?)
Main points from the message…
- What is gospel-centered discipleship? centering our lives on Jesus (in ongoing and increasing ways)
- What does it involve?
- believing this gospel
- cherishing this gospel
- applying this gospel to all of life
- Why is it so important? It’s clearly important to God; he counts this message and its application to our lives to be of ‘first importance.’ And we see its importance in this description of the gospel (adapted from John Piper): “The love of God sent the Son of God to rescue us from the wrath of God that we might enjoy the glory of God.”
