Banded Discipleship

Instead of only fasting from something this Lent, we are encouraging our church family to take on a new spiritual practice that will grow your faith. We are challenging everyone at Killearn to consider a discipleship band as a new spiritual practice. Being in a discipleship band does not require any musically ability - that is a good thing, but I have zero music skills.

A discipleship band is a group of three to five people who commit to pray together, read together, and meet together. The band meeting was part of John Wesley’s discipleship system that included the Methodist Societies and the class meeting. Wesley’s system mirrors how Jesus did ministry with the crowds, the 12 disciples, and the three: Peter, James, and John. A discipleship band is not intended to replace your small group. It’s additional way to engage your faith and really work out your salvation together with a few people that you can share absolutely everything that happening in your life.

In these band meetings, we talk about our souls, our struggles, our successes, and how the Scripture and Spirit are speaking in our lives. We build up trust with a few people to confess our sins and share any secret or hidden things in our lives. Confession - that is one of those very Lent spiritual things!

Sheri Dodge has stocked our church with a field guide book to learn everything that you need to know about discipleship bands. Pick up a free copy of the field guide in the sanctuary, in the Asbury building lobby, in the Discipleship Resource Center, in the Epworth building hallway, and the church office. You can also visit the website for discipleship bands or call, text, or email me and we can chat some more about bands.

Banded discipleship has the power to bring deep transformation in your life and help you develop a deeper fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It sounds like something that we should all seriously consider this Lent.

In His Grip,
Mike Toluba