INTEGRATION OF 5 PURPOSES AND DGROUPS

What are the 5 purposes and where did they come from?

The five purposes as described in Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose Driven Life” are: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism.

They are defined in the following verses.

Matthew 22: 37-39 ³⁷Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and the great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

And in the Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20   ¹⁸And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, “ All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Amen.

It works out like this.

• We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. This is vertical relationship between us and God. It is based on His grace and His desire to have a love relationship with us and our response to it. It is having a right relationship with God. It is WORSHIP.
• Jesus then tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is horizontal relationship between us and those in our community; our friends, neighbors, family, those who love God and those who haven’t yet realized their need for Him and everybody in between. This is MINISTRY.
• Then in Matthew 28, Jesus directs us to go and make disciples. That is EVANGELISM.
• Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, bringing them into the fellowship of His family is FELLOWSHIP.
• Teaching them to do what Jesus has commanded, that is helping people to mature/grow in Jesus and live as He modeled, demonstrated, and told us, is DISCIPLESHIP.

INTEGRATING THE 5 PURPOSES INTO DGROUPS: The dynamic of the 5 Purposes being fulfilled through DGroups (MSBC's small groups)

• Jesus modeled a DGroup for us. He called the 12 disciples to live, grow, and walk together with Him and each other. As we answer that call to live, grow and walk together as a DGroup, we are fulfilling His purposes.
• Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.“ By obeying all that Jesus commanded through not only His spoken word but also His modeled or lived out word, we love God. Being part of a DGroup or small group of disciples is obeying Jesus call and WORSHIPING Him. (there are many ways to worship the Lord, obedience is one of them)
• As we become more comfortable with each other in this DGroup setting, we develop relationships and trust. We show Christ’s love toward each other. We love our “neighbors” and that is MINISTRY.
• As our “neighbors” we share the Truth of Christ either personally or through a DGroup outreach/service project. We also share His Truth by consistently modeling the truths we have learned or that have been reinforced in our DGroups.  We are sharing this Truth so that we might make disciples for Christ. This is EVANGELISM.
• Hopefully, we are inviting others to join our DGroup or encouraging anyone to join any DGroup. We invite folks to church. If we have led a person to the Lord, we obviously encourage him/her to become part of our chuch body. We are helping people to become part of God’s family. This is FELLOWSHIP.
• Just by sharing life experiences and how God is with us everyday, all day, we are helping others to know more of and about Jesus. In our DGroup studies we are learning and helping our DGroup family continue to learn, grow, and mature in the commands of Christ. This is DISCIPLESHIP.

So, this is why our small groups are called DGroups. The D is for Discipleship. All the Purposes are alive and well in a healthy DGroup and in a healthy Disciple.