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Late last week, I completed the second chapter of my discipleship curriculum draft and passed it on to the curious onlookers.  Chapters 1 and 2 are intended to be preparation for baptism in our congregation - an outline of the basics of Christian faith and the lifestyle of a disciple.  Today, I began re-formatting an existing part of the curriculum dealing with evangelism and outreach based on finding points of connection with God’s “Great Story” - creation, fall, incarnation, participation.  That re-formatting should be finished soon.

Chapter 4 will be on learning how to pray via the Lord’s Prayer

Chapter 5 will be on discerning and practicing Spiritual Gifts

Chapter 6 will be on discovering and practicing Spiritual Disciplines. 

All told, there will be ten chapters in this first edition.  Please pray as I continue in its development.

Today I spent some time developing my Vital Faith Discipleship Curriculum.  It’s a huge project, really.  I’ve split it into smaller parts so I can work on it bit by bit.

The two parts I’m trying to focus on right now are the “Basic Belief” and “Basic Lifestyle” sections.  I see these two sections as interlocking for giving people a basic understanding of the faith as we express it. 

In the discipleship process, I emphasize that we learn basic Christian theology to get to know this God we are coming to love, serve and live with.  In the Vital Faith Discipleship setup, we use the Nicene Creed as an outline of the Faith for basic Christian Theology.  As we work through the issues of Christian Lifestyle, I emphasize that we are learning both God’s “likes and dislikes” and “commandments to live according to how God has created us.” 

I’ve started trying this on with a few people, and I think it still has more work needed before I really spread it around much.  But it’s getting there.  Stay tuned.