Our Four Discipleship Roles
[The following was delivered at a CGL Summit on January 5, 2025.]
Community Groups are teams of disciples banding together to live like Jesus in the Twin Cities. Made up of families, couples, and/or singles, these groups are intentional about remembering Jesus and encouraging one another to live faithfully in the home, the church, and the world.
When Community Groups function at their best, every member of Cities Church is known and regularly encouraged to remember Jesus in all of life. These groups serve as the primary context within our church where needs are shared and met, while also equipping members to make a gospel impact in their local neighborhoods and relational networks. A healthy Christian is a growing Christian, and as all members actively participate in mutual care and accountability, the body builds itself up in love. This strengthens our church and expands our witness in the Twin Cities and beyond (see Ephesians 4:12–16).
Are these groups inward focused or outward focused? I don’t think we need to choose. They are both. The goal is to follow Jesus and live like him, and he met the needs of his followers and also was seeking to save the lost.
It is likely that a majority of your time will go towards serving, helping, and encouraging one another; but if we want to be a disciple of Jesus, and we are disciples of Jesus, then we want to learn to follow him and live like him in all areas of life, not just the areas we choose.
That is where the 4 roles are helpful for us. These 4 roles were built by our pastoral team during a careful study of the Scriptures and lots of discussion. They are not exhaustive and the end all be all, but we think they do a great job of capturing the key components of what it means to follow Jesus, and live like him.
We are Jesus worshipers
We are Joyful servants
We are Generous Disciplers
We are Welcoming Witnesses
1. Jesus Worshiper
1 Corinthians 10:31,
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Everything we do in life is for the glory of God, and in worship of God.
Romans 12:1–2,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Community Groups are the place where, as a church, we seek to press down the truth and reality of Jesus into all of our life.
It is the ground war where we’re shoulder to shoulder: we sharpen one another, encourage one another, challenge one another to live differently. To live for the glory of God and to honor him in everything we do.
Our whole life is lived by faith in God, as spiritual worship to God.
When we come together we are reminded that Jesus is the treasure in the field, the pearl of great value. We are reminded when we gather that this is a group of redeemed people, citizens of heaven, who are now strangers and exiles to the world around us. That is true on a Sunday morning and that is true when we gather in one another’s homes throughout the week.
God’s people are gathered together as a small taste of heaven and taste of true family regardless of how imperfect and ordinary it may feel at times.
By showing up you are confessing that you still need Jesus, and that you need others to help you in your walk with Christ.
To say this is a role probably doesn’t do it justice, it is our identity, and it is the banner over the 3 to come. So Community Groups help us to grow as Jesus worshipers in all aspects of our life.
2. Joyful Servant
Joy is one of the main marks of a Christian, or ought to be. And Jesus, as you all know, taught us how to serve one another. I’m not going to elaborate on this role, but the goal here is to show how it naturally manifests itself in our Community Groups.
1 Peter 4:10–11,
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Stated above: “Community Groups serve as the primary context within our church where needs are shared and met…”
When all of our members are connected to a group, and those within the group look first to meet the needs of their group, then all members are seeking to meet needs, and also having their needs met.
Every member has a place to share their burdens and needs, and if they do, they have a community to meet them in it. We certainly want service and care to overflow beyond our community groups, but we don’t want to accidentally look past them either. CGs are ground zero for help.
3. Generous Discipler
1 Thessalonians 5:14,
“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”
If everyone uses their gifts to invest in and feel a little bit of ownership over the members in their group, our church will be significantly strengthened as God has intended it.
And I mean this for everyone, not if the leaders feel ownership, I know you do, but if the whole group felt a healthy ownership over others in the group, that would be amazing.
“Generosity is the way of blessing, and within Community Groups we gladly give of ourselves — our time, energy, and gifts — to help one another follow Jesus.”
Discipleship can be broader than you getting invested in by a spiritual mother or father 25 years older than you. That isn’t possible for every group we have, and I wouldn’t even say that is necessarily ideal. God has orchestrated who our church is, and what it looks like as a 10-year-old.
He has chosen this community for us more than we have chosen it for ourselves. As a covenant community we want to be thankful for whatever form discipleship can take, whether mutual discipleship of peers, or a season of investment from a Christian who has experienced much more life than we have.
Let us steward the people God has brought to us, with generous hearts to serve.
4. Welcoming Witness
“Community Groups gladly open wide their arms to welcome others, striving to make Jesus known through both word and action, while seeking the greatest good for our neighbors, coworkers, and friends.”
This means, the default posture of our groups are open, and the door remains open unless held closed for a specific reason for a short season. Or if there is no more room in a living room. In which case, we want to be looking to equip and send out more leaders.
Leaders that by faith chose to change and in some ways lose current relationship depths for the sake of new ones forming.
It is by faith because you can’t guarantee anything, but at one point in your life a group welcomed you in as a stranger to that community. And in faith, because your future best friends might not be at our church yet, they might not be Christians yet. And by welcoming others, you gain another vantage point at what God is doing through the life of another person
Our groups welcome others into them, with the default posture being an open group. And our groups equip and strengthen us to live individually as welcoming witnesses. We want to grow through evangelism and our Community Groups are a support and instrument for that to happen.
A prayerful goal from our last CG Summit was: “That every CG would see one person come to faith through their relational networks.”
Romans 15:7,
“Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
Basics for the Start of the Year
1. You don’t have to lead a group forever
If your life stage, etc… or are struggling, let’s figure that out.
2. Now is a great time to reset the vision and expectations for your group, or for yourself.
Our pastors have created a one-page document that helps to explain what Community Groups are, and how our 4 roles play into them. It is a summary of what I just shared. It’s also available on our CG Leaders webpage and you can print that out for your whole group. You can use it to refresh the vision in your group of what Community Groups are for, then there is room to have a discussion of how your group might embody those things.
3. Now can be a natural time to “re-align” if members are spread out, travel a long way and aren’t consistent.
You can always ask for help on that, but now might be a time for a larger shift to get caught up and reset some of the locals of our groups.
If a member moves, I am happy to introduce them to a closer group, and if they want to stay in your group that is fine as well (provided they are able to be consistent). But if the distance is clearly a factor, it is worth an encouragement for them to reconnect to a group in their new community.
Proximity in groups is a value and is helpful, we learn to love and welcome those of our church that are around us, especially if someone moves to a place planning to be there for a while, establishing new community in that area may be what is best.
What could this look like?
Talk to individuals who may fit this.
If it is a large portion of your group, you could recast the vision for these groups, and explain how proximity is important to accomplish the consistency in relationship and attendance that is needed.
If you would like to talk more about what this could look like, please reach out to your CG huddle leader or Pastor Mike Polley (mike@citieschurch.com).
