Sacred Roads Exploring the Historic Paths of Discipleship

Overview

Throughout history, people have gravitated toward different methods of discipleship. For a while, discipleship was entirely relational—early church small groups. When Christianity became the legal religion of the Roman Empire, discipleship became experiential—cathedrals, Stations of the Cross, iconography, and taking mass. With the Reformation came intellectualism—people started studying the bible for themselves and emphasized the conversion of the mind. Later it became personal—the onset of the personal quiet time. Finally, discipleship became incarnational—occurring while serving or through missions.

Sacred Roads takes a look at a few faces of discipleship including: relational discipleship, experiential discipleship, intellectual discipleship, personal discipleship, and incarnational discipleship, finding the worthwhile attributes of each and providing practical ways to implement each expression into our modern pursuit of Christ.

Chapters:

• Introduction: Dare to Explore
• Session 1: Relational Discipleship
• Session 2: Experiential Discipleship
• Session 3: Intellectual Discipleship
• Session 4: Personal Discipleship
• Session 5: Incarnational Discipleship
• Conclusion: Discipleship Next

Topics:

• Relational: the early church, value of small groups, accountability, missional friendships People grow in their relationship with Christ as they grow in relationship with others and are influenced by those relationships.
• Experiential: the Catholic Church through Reformation, pilgrimage, stations of the cross, experiential worship People grow in their relationship with Christ when they are immersed in an experience with Him that propels them in some area of their faith formation.
• Intellectual: Reformation era, inductive Bible study, academic and educational approaches to discipleship People grow in their relationship with Christ as they develop the mind of Christ through the reading, study, meditation, and memorization of Scripture.
• Personal: 19th and 20th centuries, rise of personal devotional/quiet time, practice of spiritual disciplines People grow in their relationship with Christ as they incorporate and practice spiritual disciplines into the context of their everyday lives.
• Incarnational: 19th and 20th centuries, missions, service, social justice, compassion ministries People grow in their relationship with Christ as they seek to follow His model of servant leadership and become His hands and feet in sacrificial service to those around them.

Benefits:

Helps young adults know where they came from and have a plan for moving forward in their personal faith formation

Study Length: 5 Sessions

Samples

• Sacred Roads Sample

Leader Tips

Get the inside scoop for each study session as well as valuable tips for leading a Bible study group.

Playlist

Check out these recommended tracks to accompany your study of Sacred Roads. Each of the songs below relate to one of the conversations discussed within Sacred Roads. Make these your “soundtrack” for this study.

* = Tracks provided on the Leader Kit for this study

Playlist

Name	Time	Artist	Album	Purchase
Give Me Jesus	3:12	Sara Watkins	Sara Watkins
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing*	4:43	Sufjan Stevens	Songs for Christmas
Be Thou My Vision	1:33	Ginny Owens	Without Condition
Rock of Ages*	3:14	Chris Rice	Peace Life a River
The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power	1:58	Cece Winans	Gaither Homecoming Classics, Vol. 1
How Deep the Father’s Love For Us*	3:48	Kendall Payne	That’s Why There’s Grace
Jesus I My Cross Have Taken	7:26	Andrew Osenga	Pilgrim Days: Indelible Grace II
Let Us Love & Sing & Wonder*	5:04	Laura Taylor	For All the Saints: Indelible Grace III
Just As I Am	2:38	Johnny Cash	My Mother’ Hymn Book
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go*	3:01	Sandra McCracken	Indelible Grace Side B
There Will Be a Light	3:22	Ben Harper & The Blind Boys of Alabama	There Will Be a Light
Just a Closer Walk	3:06	Loretta Lynn	The Gospel Spirit: Loretta Lynn
Jesus, I Come*	4:27	Aaron Shust & Symphony in Red	Worship Hymn, Vol. 1

Need an easy way to find all of the songs for this study’s playlist?

Visit the iTunes Store and view the Sacred Roads iMix—a one-stop place to find all of the recommended music for Sacred Roads! Find more information on the artists/albums/songs, listen to samples, pick & choose which of the songs (or all of them) that you’d like to purchase, & then click to buy!

Heather Zempel

Heather Zempel leads the discipleship efforts at National Community Church in Washington, D.C., where she provides leadership and vision for the small group ministry. Dedicated to helping others create communities that foster spiritual growth, she frequently writes and speaks on the topics of creative discipleship and spiritual formation. She lives on Capitol Hill with her husband Ryan and blogs at heatherzempel.com.