This information is not original with me, but from a fascinating book I found entitled, “The Passionate Church: The Art of Life-Changing Discipleship.” Since I am a visual learner, I have included my personally designed diagrams along with my own notes to help in my disciple-making and teaching efforts.
LifeShapes Discipleship Strategy:
- The Circle
- The Semi-Circle
- The Triangle
- The Square
- The Pentagon
- The Hexagon
- The Heptagon
- The Octagon
LifeShapes is a discipline—a way to understand ourselves, one another, and our relationships to Christ.
It is a way to focus on multiplication through the process of disciple-making. This was the way Jesus said to win the lost, by calling people to follow Him and become His disciples. These disciples were given the Great Commission, and this strategy helps disciples to become disciple-makers.
LifeShapes equips the believer for Kingdom life by connecting the discipleship principles of Jesus to memorable images—eight shapes. It involves a new vocabulary that expresses the theology and daily life of a disciple of Jesus, painting a clear picture through which individuals can gain a greater understanding of what God intends to do in their personal lives, in the church, and in the world.
In Jesus’ day, teaching was based on the oral tradition. People learned through storytelling and verbal teaching rather than reading texts. Today’s generation is visually oriented. Trying to convey aspects of discipleship through lists, principles and phrases does not work in our time. But LifeShapes provides a simple but powerful way to help people learn and to remember the principles of the Jesus-driven life.
Eight key concepts will make each disciple a life-long learner of the faith. Disciples get a strong framework for truth, enabling them to build biblical principles into every aspect of their lives and to grow together in authentic community.