Queen's Road Cell

  11. a) Where are you in the process Paul describes in 2:2?  This cell is one where all who participate are engaged in this great process of passing on a certain culture of discipleship :). Each one of us needs to strive to grow in the skills and knowledge needed to be effective in passing on the gospel, as well as other lessons of Christian life and ministry that we have learned. I would ask what it means to be a 'faithful' man or woman. Are these individuals born or made? Winnie says they receive  faith as a gift - a work of the Spirit, but that they are also 'nurtured' - we must help create what we are trying to find.  'Faith' is 'trust' or 'trusting dependence'. (we remember our brief excursus last week on the Protestant ideas of notitia , assentia and fiducia ). The faithful one is a man or woman whose life is centered around complete trust in the Lord for salvation and all other matters. This is a wholly committed life that trusts in God...

We noted that discipling (mentoring one-on-one) is not necessarily something all of us feel comfortable doing. Some feel that we need mentors, although we know that needing a mentor does not mean that we are not able to mentor someone else. We can mentor as long as there is a "spiritual gradient" between mentor and mentoree. There are prerequisites (e.g. spiritual hunger, calling, commitment) that need to be present to make a mentoring relationship secure. We should be praying for someone to mentor. I would add that if you need a mentor, you should be praying for a mentor as well! We had a side discussion on whether Jesus failed to take Ian Malin's advice when He chose Judas. John 6:64 assures us that Jesus used foresight to choose someone 'right' for the role of betraying him after 3 years. But in general, we should choose mentorees who are i) faithful (loyal, trusting, dependent) to God and ii) able to teach others what they have learned. We side-tracked into ...