Sunday night I gave some remarks about discipling at Third Avenue.  I’ve summarized a portion of the talk for Common Grounds here.  In the summary I focus on one-on-one discipling.  However, at church I mentioned that I view discipling as a series of concentric circles.

• The largest, outer circle is corporate discipling.  We are discipled through the teaching ministry of the church as well as through the encouraging presence of Christians gathering together on the Lord’s Day.
• The next circle is the family.  The family is not less important than the congregation, but it is smaller–thus a smaller concentric circle!  We should not overlook the fact that discipling ought to be taking place in the context of Christian familes.  This means Christian husbands should take responsiblity for the spiritual growth of their wives and children.
• The next circle is one-on-one relationships.
• The center of the circle, which I did not talk about on Sunday evening, would be every individual believer’s relationship with God. This is not to be ignored.

After I spoke, a couple guys asked for some more information on what discipling one’s wife practically looks like.  Does it mean we throw away the tv and read Pilgrim’s Progress to our wives for three hours every night?  So many men–including myself–want to faithfully lead their wives.  Some direction is in order.  Truth be told, I think this will look differently in different families.  What does it look like in your family?  Greg, Keith, Bruce–any wisdom here?

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