Nothing New Under The Sun

At the beginning of my sabbatical I had two things in mind. Firstly, how were we going to develop a process that allowed people to grow in their faith in a practical and intentional way. The second thing was really just a hunch that real discipleship happened best within a framework of small group and one to one relationships.

I really liked that word 'intentional', it kind of caught my imagination, perhaps because it was what I saw of Jesus discipling of the twelve. It was by accident, it had purpose and direction. So I started to use the phrase 'intentional discipleship' in my thinking and when I talked to other church leaders on my travels. This was a phrase I was quite 'proud' of really, I'd never heard it used before - that was until I got to page 73 of the book I'm currently reading (Transforming Discipleship) and there in bold lettering is the phrase 'Intentional Discipleship'. I was gutted!! This was my phrase - I'd thought of it all on my own. In fact I'm writing down the things I believe we need to work on out my sabbatical in a document I'm calling 'Intentional Discipleship'. But there really is nothing new under the sun is there?.

However, despite being gutted, I'm also really encouraged by this as I feel it is confirmation from God that all that I've been thinking of over the last four months is really from him. Interestingly, the book (which I bought in America) is all about using relationships as the main focus for discipleship and even goes on to say some the very same things I'd been inspired by at last weeks conference (There really is nothing new!). I didn't know the book was going to say these things and I hadn't been inspired to read until this week. So I really feel God is confirming things to me.