It Started

My discipleship group started tonight. What joy! We sat around the table and had dinner in a home while we talked about life, times, ideas, dreams and food. It was delicious. These guys are great and hungry. (Not just for food) Five "old timers" and two "new men." All of them were a joy to be with tonite. I find it hard to see why someone would not want to be in a group like this. Laugh, learn, listen and love. It does not get much better, except in heaven, which is one of my points below; read on:

We dipped in to the stewardship study tonight; Rick Warren. A couple of things struck me. One that Rick said, and one a thought that came to me. His reminder of rewards in heaven and that we should be looking forward much more was a good one and worth thinking about. It is easy for a stewardship study to devolve into "I need to give more, save more and buy less ice cream" unless there is a gospel centered view of it. Jesus gave that we might live abundantly, not with a scarcity mentality.

The thought that I had was understanding that stewardship is a means of grace. As we steward, grace is received. To unpack those two thoughts a bit:

1. If we really believed that there were rewards in heaven, instead of a "We will all be glorified and satisfied in Christ" then we might be more diligent to pursuing Him. I can say I do not think about it enough, because I am focused on the here and now.

2. If we can see stewardship as a way God dispenses grace to us, then we might pursue it more.

We agreed to have a homework assignment of thinking and reading to process more.

If you are not in a stewardship group, I encourage you to at least think about it a bit. I think theology precedes action here more than we might guess. And I encourage you to be in a discipleship group. Let me know if you are in Atlanta and need help finding one. For those of you who are citizens elsewhere, I encourage you to check out church that has it; or start one on your own. Again, let me know if you need help. There is nothing like men learning together, a band of brothers!

Blessings