Christ in the Workplace

Today’s Session

DISCLAIMER: This may look like a lot to go through, but if this is your first time engaging in a D-Group here at Fielder, it is highly encouraged that you take the time to process all of this before starting!

In this first session, you’ll spend time getting to know each other. Here’s an outline of what to expect:

1. Review the Discipleship Group purpose and guidelines below.
2. Read, discuss, and agree to the Discipleship Group Commitment Form.
3. Share your faith story.
4. Pray for one another.
5. Plan your next meeting.

Purpose

The purpose of the Discipleship Group is simple: to learn what it means to grow in deeper obedience to Jesus so that we can more effectively inhale the Gospel, exhale the Gospel, and make disciples who do the same.

With that being said, let me tell you what it isn’t. This is not simply another Bible study or prayer group. In this group, you will study the Bible, you will pray, and you will have accountability, but God’s vision for this experience is much greater than any individual component. His goal is nothing other than the production of missionary leaders who have a radical love of God and an incomprehensible love for those He has placed around them. But how do Discipleship Groups accomplish this? Discipleship Groups do two things that help produce missionary leaders:

1. Train you to be a disciple

If you are in a New Disciple curriculum, the goal is for you to be established in your understanding of who Jesus is, what it means to follow Him, and how to walk in obedience to His commands. This establishing is crucial to the rest of your life as a disciple of Jesus. Everything that God wants to do in you and through you will be based on this foundation that He is establishing in you through Bible reading, prayer, accountability, serving, and learning to share your faith.

If you are in a Growing Disciple curriculum, the goal is for you to be equipped to do the work of the ministry that God has called you to do. Our faith was never meant to be kept to ourselves, but to be used to be a blessing in the world around us. God has called you out of darkness into light so that you might be sent back into a dark world with the power of the Holy Spirit to redeem and save. This curriculum will give you the tools that you need to live your faith out loud, to find freedom from sin, and to make an impact in the world around you with the gifts that God has given you. This is an ongoing process that lasts for the rest of your life!

2. Train you to make disciples

Jesus’ final command to His disciples was not simply to be disciples but “to make disciples of all nations…” That means our journey does not end once we become growing disciples who are equipped to do the work of the ministry, we are commanded by our Savior King to be disciple-makers! Multiplying Disciple curriculum will help export you; to take what you know about what it means to follow Jesus and pour into the next generation of disciple-makers, whether that’s here at Fielder, across the globe, or somewhere in between! If you want to be obedient to Jesus then that means you need to step into the journey of making disciples who make disciples.

Now that you know why we’re here (to either establish, equip, or export you), let’s dive into what this group is practically going to look like!

General Guidelines

The four major values in the DGs are authenticity, teachability, confidentiality, and dedication. Each person is asked to commit to live by these values during the DG experience.

1. Every person must choose authenticity over comfort. The more real you are, the more you give God space to deal with areas of growth in your life.
2. Every person must choose teachability above self-confidence. The more you approach this thinking, the more you have the answers, and the less you will see your need to change (and consequently, the less you will!). Our goal is to be teachable during this process, giving God space to let us shape each other.
3. Confidentiality – what is said during the meeting stays in the meeting. If you are married, this includes speaking with your spouse about things that are discussed by other members. If this guideline is breached, authenticity suffers.
4. Dedication – due to the intensity of the experience, each person must dedicate themselves to do 4 things: pray for each other, do all the assigned curriculum, prepare for each meeting by answering all questions in advance, and make attendance at the meetings a priority.

D-Group Extras

This curriculum is not meant to be all-encompassing for everything that you need to be a healthy Christian but a tool that you can use in tandem with other tools so that you can grow as a disciple who makes disciples. On top of this curriculum, you should also be using the below resources to make sure that you are as healthy as possible:

• Bible Memorization tools
  • Writing scripture on our hearts helps us combat temptation, minister to people better, and grow more in love with Jesus. Find a scripture memorization tool that your group likes and commit to memorizing scripture throughout your time together. You can use the apps/books listed below to start!
    • The Bible Memory App
    • Topical Memory System by The Navigators
    • Versify App
• Join a Community Group and start serving!
  • Community Groups give you an opportunity to form a family of believers that you can serve with, pray with, pursue non-believers with, and connect with in a different way than Discipleship Groups. Discipleship is done best in the context of community! Sign up for a Community Group here!
  • As you grow in being a disciple, finding opportunities to live out what you are learning is extremely beneficial to your growth. There are plenty of areas to serve within Fielder and countless ways to serve in our local community that will help you walk in obedience to Christ. You can click this link to learn about the serve opportunities available to you in Fielder Church and our Community.
• Bible Reading Plan
  • Since the purpose of being in a D-Group is to grow in more obedience and likeness to Christ, then spending time with Him through the Word is essential to your growth. We encourage you to start a Bible reading plan with your group to hold each other accountable to spending time with Jesus through scripture and help one another understand the commands and promises that God is speaking over you. You can find Bible reading plans on the Fielder Website by clicking here!

Discipleship Group Meeting Flow

Almost every discipleship group curriculum that Fielder offers follows the same formula and contains the same components. This ensures that no matter what you are learning, it is being taught in a familiar and uniform way. The time spent on each section is dependent on the shepherd’s leadership and the needs of the group, but the average D-Group meeting should generally follow the flow below. The components of a Discipleship Group will often include:

Prayer(10 minutes) – A time to spend time with the Father together, offer up prayer requests, and pray for the non-believers in your lives.

Accountability(25 minutes) – Hold each other accountable to your Bible reading goals, regular prayer times, confession and repentance of sin, and action steps based on the last D-Group session.

Intentional Learning (55 minutes) – This will include:

• Overview (5 minutes) – Recap of the curriculum that was assigned to the group
• Discussion (20 minutes) – Questions that are geared towards diving deeper into what God is revealing to you through the curriculum. Use this time to answer how you understand what God is trying to say to you through the curriculum. Don’t try to give the “right” answer, give your answer to the questions.
• Model/Practice (15 minutes) – An opportunity to put what you have learned into action in a safe environment. Whether it’s role-playing a scenario that you might encounter in the world around you, participating in an activity together, or praying that God would move, this is vitally important for getting what you learned from your head down to your heart.
• Action Steps (15 minutes) – Every D-Group member will share what they will do before the next D-Group meeting to build on what they learned in the curriculum and what they confessed and repented of during accountability.

Prayer and Accountability

Prayer and accountability are essential components of Discipleship groups. The prayer and accountability time allotted in your meeting is not just there so you can share. It’s not just there as a checklist to make sure you are doing the right things. It’s there to help you sharpen each other and grow in every area of life as you Inhale and Exhale the gospel!

 For each session, you will select two questions within the D-Group Accountability Questions document that reflect areas of victory in your life and two questions that reflect areas of struggle and discuss them with the group. Please spend time before the meeting determining these areas so that you will be prepared to share.

Shepherds have the option to help push the rest of the group deeper in accountability. If more areas need to be discussed, feel free to move beyond the questions selected by the group member.

Intentional Learning Guidelines

Intentional learning is an essential part of D-Groups at Fielder. Much of this learning takes the form of reading the Bible, helpful books, articles, and blogs, and watching helpful videos, sermons, and podcasts. Here are a few tips that we have found to be helpful: 

1. Take notes while you read/watch. Underline important thoughts, put a star or some indication next to new, important ideas, and write frequently in the margins as your thoughts come.
2. Pick out the 5 most influential thoughts or concepts (Top 5) from your assigned curriculum and record them in your journal.
3. Carve out 10 minutes every day in your schedule that will allow you to spend time reading/listening and journaling your takeaways.
4. To assist you in reading the assigned scripture passages, we provide a guide called The Gospel Method to help you grow in your love and understanding of God through reading and studying the Bible. Take time during your first session to go over the method as a group and pray that it gives you guidance on how to hear God’s voice more clearly as you read scripture.

Facilitate Leadership

After the first few sessions, you should begin to rotate the facilitator of each session to give each person in the group a chance to lead. Each of you will be asked to eventually lead a Discipleship Group once you have gone through the Discipleship Cycle.

Once you go through the Discipleship Cycle, or when the shepherd of the group recommends, you should begin to lead 3 new people through a D-Group of your own. 

Commitment Form

Click here to download and print the Discipleship Group Commitment Form. By signing this, you are ensuring that everybody in the group is bought into the vision and purpose of this Discipleship Group. This helps you trust one another as you confess and repent of sin, share prayer requests, and challenge each other to walk in Christlikeness.

Faith Stories

Share Your Faith Story

Take turns sharing your faith story using the outline below. 

1. Tell about what life was like before Jesus was Lord of your life. (even if you grew up in a Christian home, there should be a moment where Jesus became the one sitting on the throne of your life instead of you. Describe what that “before time” was like!)
2. Tell how you were introduced to Jesus Christ and the events surrounding your acceptance of Him as your personal Savior and Lord.
3. Tell how you have grown spiritually since your conversion and what God is doing in you at the moment.

Prayer

Everyone shares one area that you are asking for God to move in your life. 

After each person shares, the group should pray for them.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you.

Opening Questions 

• What do you do for a living? What do you do at work each day?
• What do you like best about that job? What do you like the least?
• How did you get into that line of work?
• What special skills does it require? What unique challenges exist?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples, instruct them to take notes, and go over your thoughts and takeaways together: 

• Your Work Matters Video 
• Genesis 1:28
• Genesis 2:15,20
• Exodus 31:3-6

Model and Practice 

Model:  

• Share with your disciples how you have experienced the fullness of the Spirit by participating in the work that you do for your job. Walk them through the kinds of attitudes and actions that needed to take place in order for that to happen.
• Give your disciples a picture of what it has looked like for you to serve instead of being served in your workplace. Model for them how you plan your meetings, interact with your co-workers, finish projects, etc., in order to serve others at your work place.

Practice: 

• Have your disciples journal about the ways that their view on their work has differed from the biblical view of work.
• List ways that you “felt God’s pleasure” when you were working at something that God created you to do.
• Go to the Lord together in prayer and ask God to give you all a fresh perspective on work based on your conversation today.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Before you leave, come up with an action plan of how each of you will seek to serve others instead of being served this next week at work.
• Ask God in prayer this week that He would give all of you a moment where you are able to do something that allows you to feel God’s pleasure in the way that you work. Update each other throughout the week when that moment comes.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is God asking you to confess and repent of? How can the others in the group hold you accountable to this?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples: 

• Jeremiah 22:13,17
• James 5:1-8
• Proverbs 22:16
• 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
• Proverbs 11:1-4
• Matthew 7:12
• Deuteronomy 24:14-15
• Proverbs 6:6-11
• 1 Timothy 6:6-10,17-19
• Performance and Attitude Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Share with your disciples a time when personal gain or praise of others at work became an idol in your life. Walk them through how you found freedom from that idol and sought God’s glory instead of personal gain or praise.
• Show them how you prepare for a day of work in the morning. Walk them through how you center your heart and mind on Jesus so that He would be the thing you value most.

Practice:

• Ask your disciples to make a list of ethical values that a Christian might bring into the workplace.
• Ask your disciples to confess a time that their idolatry of praise or profit kept them from living into the ethics that Christ calls us to in the workplace.
• Discuss as a group ways that all of you might be idolizing different aspects of your job and valuing them over God’s glory.
• Have everybody come up with a game plan of how they are going

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Have each person in the D-Group write out 2-3 tangible ways that they are going to improve their attitude in the workplace this week.
• Pair up people as accountability partners in order for them to check in with each other throughout the week. Ask each other questions about how their reliance on God has shaped their attitude and how that has shaped their performance.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is God asking you to confess and repent of? How can the others in the group hold you accountable to this?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Philippians 2:3-16
• Colossians 3:1-3
• Jeremiah 29:5-7
• Christian Employees Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Give an example of how you have used your workplace as a mission field. Talk about the challenges that came and the fruit that God eventually brought about.
• Highlight times in your professional career when you used actions and words to be able to minister to those in your workplace.
• Explain to your disciples how you respond to those who you report to in a way that honors the Lord, even if it’s difficult.

Practice: 

• Ask your disciples to write out 3-5 names of people that they feel the Lord calling them to minister to in their places of work. Come together to explain who they are and why the feel called to minister to them.
• Have each disciple come up with 1-2 ways that they will minister to each of these people in the future. Challenge them to have a mix of ways that they will use their actions to show God’s love and words to tell of God’s love. (avoid invitations to things like church or community group. this should be something that they are doing to minister, not ways that they can invite them to places for others to minister to their co-workers.)
• Pray for each other during this time. Pray that the Holy Spirit moves in power in their lives so that it is not by their strength that they will be ministering to their co-workers.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Pair up into accountability partners and remind each other of how the both of you want to look like Jesus to those around you at work.
• Commit to contacting each other two or three times before the next D-Group meeting to get updates on how ministering to co-workers has been going.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is God asking you to confess and repent of? How can the others in the group hold you accountable to this?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Romans 13:1-10
• Romans 12:2-3
• Romans 16:3-5
• Acts 18:1-3
• Psalm 90:12,17
• Christian Owners and Managers Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Share with your disciples who you have authority over at your work, whether you are responsible for a whole company, a few employees, or volunteers. Then, share who has authority over you.
• Paint a picture for you disciples of how you honor God’s authority in your life by honoring the authority of the people that you work for.
• Share with your disciples the kind of characteristics of God’s authority in your life that you have emulated in your authority over those at your work place (grace, humility, peace, forgiveness, etc.)
• Give your disciples a couple of examples of how you have challenged, celebrated, and treated you employees in a way that reflects God’s character.

Practice: 

• Have your disciples write out a list of people that they would have authority over. This doesn’t have to be employees that report to them, but it could also be people who are in their down-chain at work. After that, make a list of people that they report to.
• Lead you disciples in a time of confession of how they have looked like the world instead of Jesus with the authority they have over people at work. Now do the same about how they have not looked like Jesus to the people who have authority over them.
• Have your disciples write down one thing that they need to stop doing and one thing that they need to start doing with the people who work under them and who have authority over them.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Ask these questions
  • What is one thing this week that you want to do in order to honor the people who have authority over you?
  • What is one thing that you want to do this week to reflect the authority of Jesus to those you lead at work?
• Write down responses and hold each of them accountable throughout the week.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is God asking you to confess and repent of? How can the others in the group hold you accountable to this?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• John 4:28-42
• Matthew 5:13-16
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-17
• Colossians 4:5-6
• 1 Peter 3:13-16
• Your Faith at Work Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Take some time to share the different ways you have interacted with your co-workers to earn the right to share your life with them. Explain how long it took and the effort it took to get there
• Role-play how you would share your story with someone at work. Have one of your disciples pretend top be your co-worker and attempt to have a conversation with them about your story
• Now, show your disciples how you would have a gospel-conversation with somebody at work. Go through how you would get into the conversation and how you would then put the ball in their court

Practice: 

• Give your disciples the opportunity to role-play how they would share the Gospel with their co-workers. Pretend to be the co-worker while your disciple attempts to share the Gospel with you.
• Have your disciples list out topics of conversations that they normal engage their co-workers with. After this, ask them to brainstorm how these topics of conversations can lead to conversations about their faith.
• Ask your disciples to confess if they feel like they have or haven’t earned the right to share their faith with their co-workers through the way that they treat them.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Encourage your disciples to put into practice what the skills they learned during this session by talking about their faith to somebody new at work. It doesn’t have to be a Gospel-conversation, but their faith should be brought up in the conversation.
• If your disciples have already had spiritual conversations with their co-workers, challenge them to share the Gospel with one of them this week.
• Have your disciples come up with a game-plan to earn the right to have a faith-based conversation with their co-workers. What are they going to do to treat their co-workers with love and respect that will help them gain their trust?

Shepherding 

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is God asking you to confess and repent of? How can the others in the group hold you accountable to this?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Psalm 127:1-2
• 1 Timothy 6:9-10,17-19
• Matthew 6:19,24-33
• Don’t Worship Work Video

Model and Practice 

Model

• Share with your disciples your personal calendar. If you don’t currently have one, create one on Outlook, iCalendar, or Google Calendar. Show them the times in your week that you have scheduled to do things that honor God and bless other people.
• Show your disciples your generosity budget. This isn’t about showing off about how much money you give away. If your disciples are looking to you as their shepherd to see how a mature Christian uses their money as a tool to bless others instead of seeing it as an idol, then seeing how you practically do that is helpful for their growth.
• Make sure to confess ways that you have made work an idol in the past or present and share the different guardrails you have to prevent that from happening in the future.

Practice

• Instruct your disciples to draw a 3×7 grid in their notebooks. Label the 7 columns as the days of the week and the 3 rows as morning, afternoon and evening. Now have them label in each grid with what they are doing during that time.
• After filling out the grid, have them share how much time is used for different activities. Have them evaluate the time they spend and share whether they think they spend enough time in activities that honors God, honors their family, and blesses others.
• Ask them to make a mock-budget that prioritizes generosity. Challenge them to think about how much money they spend on themselves with the money that God has given them in order to be a blessing. Help them see how they can use their finances to trust God instead of seeking out their own security and comfort.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Have each disciple make their own personal, weekly schedule. Using the 3×7 grids, make sure there is plenty of time to prioritize their relationship with the Lord and their relationship with those they care about.
• If they don’t currently use personal budgets, have them create budgets so that they can know where their money is going and what they truly value. If they do have a personal budget, have them review it and decide if their generosity reflects a heart that is rendered towards God.

NOTE: If you are the leader of this group and this is the last session that your D-Group will be meeting for, please fill out the Close Out your D-Group form! Thank you for your help in shepherding the flock at Fielder Church!