Word-Centered Discipleship with Elizabeth Woodson
In this episode, Hunter chats with Elizabeth Woodson about centering our discipleship relationships around the Word of God. What does it look like to be committed to Word-centered discipleship? This conversation is full of encouragement, inspiration, and practical ideas to ensure the Word is the focal point of your discipleship relationships.
We love hearing discipleship stories, and we’d love to hear more!
If you have a good discipleship story to share, please record a 30-60 second voice memo and send it our way at info@journeywomen.org.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How is Christian discipleship different from secular mentoring?
Why should we center our discipleship around the Word?
What has this looked like for you on a practical level?
How have you experienced this from women who are in busy seasons?
What are some ways we can be Word-centered in our discipleship, even when we don’t have our Bibles open/handy?
What are common obstacles to Word-centered discipleship? What might we gravitate towards instead?
What if we *don’t* have anyone modeling this for us?
If Jesus Christ is the living Word or the Word made flesh, how does a Word-centered approach to discipling help us know and love him more?
If women who want to begin centering their discipleship around the Word–perhaps for the very first time–where should they start?
Who has had the greatest impact on the way you disciple women in the Word?
NOTES & QUOTES
In secular mentoring, you're trying to be better in a specific career, you're trying to be better in a stage of life, and you need a life coach or a mentor to help you get there. [In secular mentoring], the goal is to become better in a specific area, really for yourself.
Christian discipleship is helping you to holistically, hopefully holistically, become a better person, and that better is measured by looking more like Christ. So the goal isn't just to become a better mom or just to become a better corporate executive or entrepreneur or whatever. The goal is that you will look more like the Lord. It is distinctive in the goal and the resource, which is the Word.
Why is it so important for us to remember and practice this knowledge and this example of discipleship being centered around the Word and not centered around ourselves or our good advice?
A lot of times, the wisdom we have to give is through our knowledge of the Word and our experience of living as God's people. But we can fall into habits as disciple makers that are about me, and they're picking my brain versus pointing them to the Lord.
Perfection is an illusion. I think it's one way the enemy tries to stop us from making disciples. I'm not enough for this person. Instead of seeing it as a charge against what I don't have, I like to see the gap as an invitation to grow into greater knowledge and experience of God.
You see the overflow of someone's life, so you can't put on when your kids are around because your kids make you honest.
It's part of the task as a disciple maker to try to hide the Word in our hearts so that we have it to give to people when we can't physically open the book.
Maybe I just need to show up and trust the Lord and the Holy Spirit to do something.
There is a part of our discipling that you cannot fully understand, and it's in a person: the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship is not advice-giving.
This conversation needs to reach the cross somehow… For instance, how do you feel like the Lord is shaping you as you lean into the difficult situation?
How can we bring people to the deeper places, to press them a little more? In the preparation time we have before we meet with people, we can ask God to give us one or two really good questions to ask somebody that aren't accusatory, that aren't shaming, but that are invitations to the deeper place.
You come to know and love Jesus more just by spending time thinking about who he is. As you sit there and meditate on God, you will not be the same.
The Holy Spirit just does something when we focus our eyes on Jesus.
An easy place to start is carving out a time in your conversation with someone to ask them, “What are you reading in Scripture?” Share what you're reading. Share maybe a verse that you're thinking about that day, and spend time in that aspect of the conversation. And then let that grow.
So, even if it doesn't go as successfully as you would think it would, it's still a success if you're planting seeds. Sometimes, we are seed planters; sometimes we water the seeds, and sometimes we harvest them. Sometimes, we get to do all three, and the Lord will do something with it.
RESOURCES
Live Free by Elizabeth Woodson (her study on Galatians)
Titus: Displaying the Gospel of Grace by Hunter Beless and Courtney Doctor
Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus by Mark Dever
Growing Together: Taking Mentorship Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests by Melissa Kruger
The Starting Place podcast with Elizabeth Woodson - series on The Life of a Disciple
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Have you experienced firsthand the difference between secular mentorship and Christian discipleship? How are these distinct?
How might you disciple differently when you’re reminded you have the help of the Holy Spirit?
What is one way to fill up your cup behind the scenes in discipleship?
Is there someone who has modeled Word-centered discipleship well for you?
How can you take your current relationships to deeper places and bring conversations to the Lord?
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
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IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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