It’s called FAT Group. Don’t worry, this group chose the name
themselves. And none of them are overweight. But they are FAT. I’ll try to
explain.
We have many unique opportunities in our area of the
Philippines because there really are a lot of believers. And they really need
discipleship. Side note: thousands of Filipinos move abroad every year to find
work. How incredible willl it be to see trained, Christ-following Filipinos
move abroad to ‘work’ and proclaim Jesus?! It’s almost like undercover missions.
And because they have a very versatile face, they could fit in almost anywhere. So back to the story- in early February we invited our church members to come to
an interest meeting for a group we wanted to start. We announced that we wanted
to train this group in disciple-making. We opened the invitation to anyone who
was remotely interested in making disciples. Of course it’s inevitable that we
had names in mind of who would come (and who would not) and of course our Lord
already knew that we had no idea what we were really in for! At our first
meeting we laid out what the expectations were for anyone who wanted to
continue meeting. We asked that they be Faithful to attend the weekly meeting,
Available to really invest their time in making disciples, and Teachable to
learn the counter-intuitive ways of God’s Kingdom. Faithful, Available, and
Teachable (Hence the name FAT Group).
Since February we’ve met almost every Sunday afternoon to
offer encouragement, cast vision, train, practice, set goals, and pray for
reaching Maria Aurora and the nations with the Good News. We could not be more
proud of the 15 people in our group as we see God developing in them a real
desire to spread His Gospel. Explaining all that FAT Group entails could get
really complex, but I want to fill you in on the main points. With 2 Timothy
2:2 as motivation, we first taught the group some concepts such as multiplying
the church vs. adding to it, circles (or small groups) vs. rows (or pews), go
vs. come, disciples vs. converts, group settings vs. individual, etc. We
trained them in the method we use when starting Bible studies called Discovery
Bible Study or DBS. We practiced this for a few weeks, paired everyone up, and
then sent them out to start DBS groups (us included) with people far from God.
It took a while, but each group except one has now started their own consistent Bible
study! One group has even started another FAT Group with youth Christians in another
community. We’ve also covered unreached people groups, persecution, forming
your testimony, and how to share the Gospel in pretty much any setting.
We are humbly learning as we go and we certainly need your
prayers for this group. We know the enemy will raise his ugly head at this.
Pray for faithfulness, availability, and teachable spirits among the group.
Pray for boldness in sharing. Pray for the ability to think
counter-intuitively. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s anointing of the new Bible
studies. Pray for anything the Lord lays on your heart.
Last, but not least, I want to give a shout out to my
husband for what an incredible job he has done at leading FAT Group. When I say
‘we’ started and ‘we’ teach, I really mean that Monica and I give
encouragement, advice, and prayers :) The Lord gave Josh this vision to start this
group and his obedience has been a blessing to us all. Now, pray for my husband’s
humility :)
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| Cooking dinner after our meeting one week |
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| During one of our training times |
“And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." -2 Timothy 2:2
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