2. Life transforming walk with Jesus
“Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above…He must increase, but I must decrease. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”
We teach our people how to be attentive to Christ in all circumstances. Our people understand the radical nature of the message and mission of Jesus that continually deconstructs and reconstructs a person’s life. Our people are equipped and growing in their ability to use a variety of spiritual growth resources, experiences, and settings.
RCA Resources
RCA Transformed and Transforming Initiatives
- Transformational Experiences: Congregations will form learning communities that will work together to design unique pathways that will enable all people to be transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit into passionate, outwardly-focused disciples. transformation@rca.org
- Transformational Starting Point: As we enter a new season of life and ministry together, we can determine how far we have come only by knowing where we started. This initiative will develop assessment tools to help the RCA determine our current reality as well as to enable individuals and congregations to define where they are beginning their own journey of transformation. startingpoint@rca.org
Evangelical Covenant Resources
- Life transforming walk with Jesus, Doreen Olson
- Northwest Conference CV Cohort- Life Transforming Walk – Younger Generations
- Northwest Conference CV Cohort – Life Transforming Walk
- Life Transforming Walk with Jesus, Peter Sjoblom
Sermons
- Vital Signs Part One by Steve Norman
- Sermon Series of the 10 Healthy Missional Markers by Tim Schaaf
Ministries
Books
- The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard Harper (March 24, 1998)The Divine Conspiracy has revolutionized how we think about the true meaning of discipleship. In this classic, one of the most brilliant Christian thinkers of our times and author of the acclaimed The Spirit of Disciplines, Dallas Willard, skillfully weaves together biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice, revealing what it means to "apprentice" ourselves to Jesus. Using Jesus’s Sermon of the Mount as his foundation, Willard masterfully explores life-changing ways to experience and be guided by God on a daily basis, resulting in a more authentic and dynamic faith.
- Multiply by Francis Chan David C. Cook (November 1, 2012) Jesus gave his followers a command: “Follow me.” And a promise: “And I will equip you to find others to follow me.” We were made to make disciples. Designed for use in discipleship relationships and other focused settings, Multiply will equip you to carry out Jesus’s ministry. Each of the twenty-four sessions in the book corresponds with an online video at www.multiplymovement.com, where New York Times bestselling author David Platt joins Francis in guiding you through each part of Multiply.
- Discipleship Essentials, Greg Ogden IVP Connect (November 29, 2007) Discover the fullness of life in Christ. We grow in Christ as we seek him together. Jesus' own pattern of disciple making was to be intimately involved with others and allow life to rub against life. By gathering in twos or threes to study the Bible and encourage one another, we most closely follow Jesus' example with the twelve disciples. This workbook by Greg Ogden is a tool designed to help you follow this pattern Jesus drew for us. Working through it will deepen your knowledge of essential Christian teaching and strengthen your faith.
- Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster Harper San Francisco (December 24, 2002) Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth is hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality with millions of copies sold since its original publication in 1978. In Celebration of Discipline, Foster explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith to show how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life.
- Soul Keeping by John Ortberg Zondervan (April 22, 2014) Another classic that will help you discover your soul—the most important connection to God there is—and find your way out of the spiritual shallow-lands to true divine depth. With characteristic insight and an accessible story-filled approach, Ortberg brings practicality and relevance to one of Christianity’s most mysterious and neglected topics.
- Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples, by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger (Broadman and Holman, 2006) Based on case studies of four hundred American churches, authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove that the process for making disciples has quite often become too complex. Simple churches are thriving, and they are doing so by taking these four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus.
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