This is the very specific vision and covenant for discipleship updated in May 2023.
This covenant is very specific and walks through the FAITH outline. It was updated in May of 2023.
Just in case you’d like a blob person to describe how you’re doing, here’s the feeling tree! Again, it’s good to name where we are and it helps when we walk into a room with others to know how they are coming into the group.
Naming where you are can give you clarity and invites us to let Jesus and others meet us where we really are – in the struggle, sin, joy, and beyond. Practice naming your emotions! This is a great ice breaker to see where everyone is at as they walk into the room together.
This is a resource you can use if your group wants some very specific questions to work through to help them write out their story. This is a more traditional testimony guide but includes some helpful questions to dig deeper!
Want to get to the heart faster? Be more curious than certain – ask good (and sometimes hard) questions! This resource will walk you through 10 or more weeks of questions to use with your group. Use one question a week or let everyone draw a different question out of a hat each week to get you started.
This document lays out the foundation and structure for Discipleship Groups and Missional Communities and how they multiply.
This is an Evangelism course that Ryan created. It is a 6-week study that’s in a small group format, including short teaching videos, discussion questions, and practical steps to take.
This is an assessment tool to be used personally or with a group to help you see habits of grace Jesus is inviting you to grow more into. You could use this with your group to help determine holes and what type of study would be best for the semester or year.
This tool helps us walk practically through our stories and how they relate to money. This could be a great DG retreat tool. “Knowing your money story will help you understand the way you think about money, talk about money, react to money, and value money. It impacts what you do with your money, often more than any of us realize.”
Need a new way to tell your story – even to really help your men and women SEE their story? This is a fantastic guide for diving deep into our hearts and stories!
This document walks through the vision of discipleship including goals, ideas, and the covenant.
This book explores what it’s like to be needy and needed. We walk alongside others best when we know we are dependent on God for growth and change in both ourselves, and in others. This would be great for anyone to read, but especially as a church or group leader! It is based in scripture and is practical!
This book walks through grace, identity and confronts our striving and working to be loved by God. It explores how receiving grace changes everything. This is highly recommended!
This book by Dane Ortland explores the only words Jesus used to describe himself: gentle and lowly. It is rich and hearty and will change your view on coming to God. Ortland uses scripture and writings from the Puritans to further explore God’s overwhelming mercy towards sinners and our response to that. This is my highest recommendation! This would be great to read alongside a book of the Bible, particularly a gospel.
As we fight for the light together, often we need a place to start – a question to ask to get beyond the surface and go deeper. This resource will give you starter questions, deeper heart questions, accountability questions, and ways to use them. Let’s get in the light!
This is a two book series with the third coming soon, that is formatted specifically for a discipleship group! It is put out by Mission to The World and highly recommended by one of our elders. This will help your group to grow in the gospel and live with a kingdom mindset living on mission. It is practical and applicable, yet theologically rich.
This is a great story-telling tool. Families come with a lot of joy, but also brokenness. This could be their current family table, or a childhood table or something else. This could be done during group time (you’d need to prepare), brought to group completed to talk about, or on a retreat. Prepare for potential discomfort and let it lead you to Jesus.
A 3 week primer to help your MC learn together what it could look like to be a community of people devoted to Jesus, one another, and to your neighbors and city.
This is a series of expositional bible studies, perfect for groups. These dive deep into scripture and are highly recommended. Studies include, but are not limited to: Ruth, Psalms, Proverbs, James, Galatians, 1&2 Samuel, Exodus and more and by authors such as Timothy Keller, Stephen Um, Kathleen Neilson and others! Check out all the options!
John Piper guides us in “seeing and savoring the glory of God in Scripture” in this book. It’s not specifically a small group study, but can be adapted by the leader as the group reads through it!
Elyse Fitzpatrick is a bold and honest author, who lovingly leads women to identify and replace idols of the heart.
I’m including my version of our discipleship vision. I send this to potential group members that I’m praying about bringing in so that they can know what they are walking into and pray through it. Feel free to use any part of this and make it your own!
This resource will give you encouragement and guidance in questions you can ask to get to the heart of someone’s story, pursing those you disciple well. We know we can’t “fix it”, but hopefully this resource will give you help and reminders in pointing to Jesus and loving those we lead well!
This book may forever change your life of prayer and how you think about prayer. Highly Recommended!
A short book that digs into Ephesians and the believer’s association with Christ, the world, and Satan. This would be great to do alongside reading the book of Ephesians.
A gospel-centered study on living in freedom in Christ in relationships with others.
This is a powerful resource for all believers, but especially those new in the faith, or who struggle to know how to live out of their new gospel empowered identity.
This is a great study if your group has all parents in it!
This is a highly recommended resource for both Missional Communities and Discipleship Groups. It goes deep quickly and leads to great conversation and growth.
This is a highly recommended study of 9 sessions (could be shortened) on living out the gospel and has a complete leaders guide!
Gospel Fluency: Speaking the Truths of Jesus into the Everyday Stuff of Life
Author: Jeff Vanderstelt
This book is all about immersing ourselves in the truths of the Gospel and speaking those truths to our everyday lives, and becoming more equipped to speak those truths to others as well. This is also laid out as a small group study in The Gospel Fluency Handbook. Check it out also!
This is an excellent in-depth look at the idols of the heart and what to do with them.
This is an excellent small group study about the gospel in all of life. You’ll need the DVD that goes with it to use during group time (video lessons are Tim Keller teaching and are short).
This is an in-depth study looking how we fight to live as sons and daughters of God, rooting out idols of unbelief, and believing deep in our hearts the theological truths of being sons and daughters of God. It is very highly recommended and perfect to go through as a group.
There is also a small group study guide for this book.
A Putitain exhortation for men about trials, temptations, and pitfalls. It is short, but jam-packed with truth. There is also an updated version that includes a study guide here.
A note on this curriculum from a men’s Discipleship group leader: “It is a video/workbook related to Pornography and other addictive behaviors. It cannot be used wisely though without careful attention to the often poor theological ideas related to sanctification. My guys found it helpful and it generated a lot of good discussion but I would not suggest it to a leader without careful prep.” Also – check with us about the videos before purchasing so we can loan them to you.
This is a 6-week comprehensive study through Romans 8. On her website, Trillia has a plan if you want to extend it out to 8-10 weeks as well!
This is a 7 session study but has audio and video teaching options to add on as well.
This is an introduction of reformed theology, geared towards women. It is a great introduction and not quite as heavy as R.C. Sproul!
These are shorter but robust, bible studies meant to be used with a small group of women. The homework time is about 30 minutes. These studies include Romans, Luke, Philippians, 1 Samuel, and Psalms.
This is a great follow up to None Like Him. Wilken shows us how we reflect God’s image through His communicable attributes to the world. There’s study questions at the end of each chapter and could be done over 10 weeks or less!
This is a great book on the incommunicable attributes of God and why is a good thing He is not like us. This includes study questions at the end of each chapter and could be done over 5 or 10 weeks, depending on if you combine the chapters.
This is a great guide from Jen Wilken and can be used alongside reading through a book of the Bible.
These are all great, in-depth, and usually come with either a podcast to listen to or video. They will require about 2 hours outside of the group. These studies are deep, rich, and solid. Some are free to download and some you’ll have to purchase. Search around on the website. Check with Megan with questions about these. She’s done several of them with her groups!
A great read about God’s purposes in work and how to connect Sunday to Monday.
Keller does a fantastic job of connecting our worship to our work – and God’s purposes in our work.
We highly recommend this resource, or any of the Gospel-Centered line from Serge for both discipleship groups and missional communities. This guide has leaders notes with additional scripture to read and questions to ask the group.
This is a 40 day devotion that can be done alone or alongside the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Book or course. This could be done alongside another bible study or book as well. There are short twice a day scripture readings, a short thought, a question and a prayer.
This assessment tool can be used alongside the book OR can be used as a stand-alone tool on a retreat or doing a group meeting. As group members process through this, you could ask them questions about where they want to grow in each category and where God has grown them. This would be a great starting point for deep conversation around these statements.
This is the official book. There’s also a course workbook that can be used alongside this book for more pointed study and digging in. The workbook has 8 sessions that correspond with the book (the workbook is not necessary to use with the book, but allows for more guided conversation). New City has the DVD teaching for the course, so if you’d like to borrow it, check in with Megan.
This is the course workbook that serves as a guide for going through the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality book. We have one DVD for the teaching part of this course. Check with Megan if you’d like to use it. Here’s the link to the book that goes with this workbook. (You need the book at minimum for this.)
What does it look like to live in community as believers? This is a practical and powerful book answering that question. There are several study guides online for this book, so search around if you’d like one.
Radically ordinary hospitality leads to gospel transformation in and around us. A challenging call to engage our neighbors.
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (Bonhoeffer) This is deep and rich, a call to live in costly grace and in daily discipleship.
Do we have a plan for making and multiplying disciples? That’s the question this book walks through. This would be great for a group of mostly apprentice leaders getting ready to launch their own groups or looking for ways to disciple those around them.
This is a great resource for guidance in knowing how to practically make disciples. There are reflection questions at the end of each chapter for discussion. This could be good for a group of apprentice leaders and those really wanting to know how to give their life away more strategically!
We Would See Jesus: Discovering God’s Provision for You in Christ
Author: Roy and Revel Hession
Grace and revival – this is a companion book to The Calvary Road. There is also a study guide available.
This book is all about revival in the church through brokenness, confession, and repentance. It is small but powerful.
A deep and weighty book about the grace that leads to holiness.
Growing in Christ Together: A 16 Week Discipleship Journey
Author: Jeff Vanderstelt, Abe Meysenburg, Justin Kuravackel, Brad Watson
This is a great guide to discipleship and could be done over the whole year or or doubled up to be done in a semester. There is a leader’s guide also.
This is an incredible book that will be transformative – it also has discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help lead your group.
Study questions are included at the end of each chapter for group study.
There is also a study guide to go along with the book that is perfect for a group.
This is a book study with a video series of Tim Keller in discussion with a group of folks with hard questions who Keller walks alongside in conversation. The book, video, and study guide are all available.
Part apologetics, part evangelism, and part theology, this is a great guide to evangelism in our culture.
You know this is a New City Church favorite. Megan and Ryan come back to this ALL the time. It’s always teaching us how to give our lives away based on the model of Jesus.
This book is not formatted as a group study, but it is an excellent book to walk through together.
This is formatted as a group study with plenty of application questions and a leaders guide.
The New City Catechism Devotional: God’s Truth For Our Hearts and Minds
Author: The Gospel Coalition, Ed by Collin Hansen
This would be great for newer and older Christians alike. It breaks down 52 catechism questions and is a gospel-centered devotional style guide to Christian life and doctrine. I recommend the devotional version of this book!
This book dives into the basics of reformed theology. This would be a great and robust theological study. There’s also a study guide for this book if you’d like a guide!
Want to dive more into the Westminster Confession of Faith with your group? This is the resource for you!
This is a book, not exactly bible study, but it is more like commentary on the book of Ruth, with lots of application for relationships. This would be great to read alongside studying the book of Ruth!