Icon Church Leadership Podcast: Recent Episodes

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Ideas we highlight:

• Justin’s experience of isolation while having COVID-19.
• Why we may isolate ourselves on purpose.
• How isolation cripples our leadership because it kills collaboration.
• The nearness that God provides that resources necessary to refuse a chosen isolation.

Reflection:

Invite Collaboration:

• This week, take some time to review different goals or projects that are on your plate. Then ask yourself how that project or goal could be made better with collaboration, and think of who specifically in your group, organization, or church could be brought on to help you.

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Ideas we highlight:

• A definition of what shame is.
• A look at how shame kills creativity in leadership.
• How God’s grace interrupts the narrative of shame and allows us to embrace confident creativity in the realm of leadership.

Reflection:

Journal out Your Shame:

• Take time this week to privately journal some of the most painful moments of shame in your life and leadership. After writing out the experience of shame, take time to pray over what you’ve written and reflect on how the grace of God can interrupt where you’re feeling shame. How does God’s grace cover and undo your shame? Maybe take time afterward to share what you’ve written with a trusted friend or ally.

Embrace Creativity:

• Even if you feel afraid, take on the task of creativity. Where in your leadership can you apply creativity? What would keep you from embracing that creativity? Even if shame is still a part of the narrative you’re buying into, be stubborn and embrace creativity anyways. This will also slowly undo shame as you see creativity begin to result in growth as a leader.

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Ideas we highlight:

• A definition of what anxiety is.
• The ways in which anxiety kills our vision in leadership.
• How God’s faithfulness can undo our anxiety and move us toward healing and trust.

Reference:

• Confronted by Grace, chapter entitled Do Not Be Anxious by John Webster

Reflection:

Examine Your Vision:

• Has your vision been plagued by anxiety. The markers of a vision plagued by anxiety are a low sense of creativity and having small goals that won’t move our people forward. Admit where anxiety has shaped your vision.

Reflect on God’s Faithfulness:

• How has God’s faithfulness been displayed in your life? What about in your leadership? Take time to write down those moments, and allow the past faithfulness of God to solidify in your heart the truth that God will be faithful in the future, despite anxiety.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Justin brings on our Spiritual Formation Director, Josh Sercey, to discuss mental and emotional health. Specifically, this season we want to discuss the ways in which our mental and emotional unhealth affects our leadership, and how God’s character matters for such struggles. For this episode, Justin and Josh discuss the false ideas we have about leadership that would keep us from being honest in this conversation.

Ideas we highlight:

• Mental and emotional health is a part of who we are, so we cannot compartmentalize our life and prevent our unhealth from coming into leadership.
• God’s character is consequential and effective in bringing us closer toward healing, and so we don’t have to be afraid to admit where we are weak.

Reflection:

Assess Your Mental Health:

• The first step to wholeness in our lives is to take an honest look at our mental health. We need to ask ourselves the tough questions, and look at our leadership to see where our mental unhealth is coming out.

Admit Your Weakness:

• After you’ve assessed yourself, take the time to admit to yourself, to God, and to others the ways in which you are weak. Take the observations you’ve done through assessing yourself and actually admit where you are weak. Write it down in a journal. Share it with a close friend. Confess it and own your weaknesses before God in prayer.

Enter With Expectancy:

• We can enter this conversation with expectancy and hope because we have a God who is able to touch where we are broken. His character is consequential for our healing, and so we should embrace the conversation of vulnerability with hope and expectancy for the good God to help us be whole.

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Ideas we highlight:

• Why both the product AND the process must be high quality and effective
• How church leaders can identify the ways their “product” must change
• How showing initiative to consider process and product can pay dividends for your own leadership, for your team, and for your organization

Reference:

• Barna Research: One in Three Practicing Christians Has Stopped Attending Church During COVID-19

Reflection: Assess your organization’s readiness

• Set aside time to reflect on your organization. With your mission and context in mind, consider the “product” your organization distributes. How does the product need to adapt to this new COVID-19 context? How will that necessitate that your process changes as well?

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Ideas we highlight:

• The importance of evaluating everything in light of the organizational mission
• How a missed opportunity can turn into a weakness or, worse, an organizational threat
• The value of honesty: don’t hide from problems, they’ll only kill your organization

Reference:

• Barna Research: One in Three Practicing Christians Has Stopped Attending Church During COVID-19

SWOT Framework

• Strengths: What are we doing well? What can we celebrate?
• Weaknesses: Where are we falling behind? What facts do we not want to face?
• Opportunities: What opportunities are we taking advantage of? Which are we not?
• Threats: Are their threats to your organization?

Reflection: Assess your organization’s health

• Set aside time to reflect on your organization. With your mission and context in mind, use the assessment questions to evaluate your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

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Ideas we highlight:

• What do we do when we recognize there’s a gap between where our team is and where we need our team to be?
• The difference between vision, strategy, and tactics
• Another application of the Peter Principle: what to do with folks who have been promoted to their level of incompetence
• How to manage realistic expectations about what our team members can accomplish

Reference: Six Team Assessment Questions

1. Are expectations clear and measurable?
2. Do the tactics need to be changed to better match the team (member)?
3. Does the individual/team need resources they don’t currently have?
4. Does the individual/team need to be invested in or trained?
5. Is this the right role for the team member?
6. Does the individual need to be replaced? With whom?

Reflection: Assess your team’s readiness

• As a team leader, set aside time to reflect on your team and direct reports, using the assessment questions to evaluate their fit for your organization’s goals and their individual roles. Consider having your team members complete a self-assessment.
• Schedule a follow up with your team/direct reports to discuss, address, and brainstorm solutions to any red flags that arose during this assessment.

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Ideas we highlight:

• Why trust is the root issue in relational dysfunctions
• The importance of healthy conflict and how it helps clarify your team’s mission
• How ambiguity and avoidance leads to unachieved goals

Reference:

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Diagram and quick overview of the 5 dysfunctions

Reflection: Assess your team’s health and respond to unhealth

• Pick up a copy of Lencioni’s book and complete the dysfunction assessment in the back of the book to get a baseline understanding of your team’s health.
• Take some time to reflect on how your individual actions lead to an increase or decrease in health on your team. Write down your specific answers: How are you building trust with others? How are you modeling healthy conflict? How are you promoting clarity so people can commit to the team? How are you holding people accountable to the agreed upon expectations, and how do you measure the results of the team?
• If you notice dysfunctions, schedule time with your team to discuss what you have observed, and apply some of Lencioni’s practices that seem most applicable to your team’s needs.

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Ideas we highlight:

• How to connect what we’re doing individually to what our organizations need
• The importance of exposing and dealing with our idolatry of success
• Why humility is the key leadership trait we need to cultivate moving forward

Reflection: What, So What, Now What

Set aside time to reflect on what’s in front of you as a leader and how you can ready yourself. Block out time on the schedule, and write down your specific responses.

1. What: what do I need to focus on in this next season?
2. So what: how are my current rhythms/habits keeping me from my goals?

Now what: what did I start/stop doing in the past couple months that I need to reinforce/change moving forward?

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Ideas we highlight:

• Diagnostic questions to assess your physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual health
• Strategies for responding to unhealth in different areas of your life

Reference:

• Creating an Ideal Week with Michael Hyatt
• Using a feelings wheel
• Season 2 on Relational Practices and building a rule of life
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Reflection: Assess your health and respond to unhealth

Set aside time to reflect on the diagnostic questions for each category. Block out thirty minutes on the schedule, or take 10 minutes and review one area at a time over the course of a day or a few days. Actually write down your responses and be specific!

Assess Physical Health:

• How’s your energy level? Do you have energy to do the things you love?
• How are you sleeping? Enough? Regularly?
• How’s your physical health? Exercise, eating, significant weight gain or loss?

Assess Mental/Emotional Health:

• Are you experiencing fear or anxiety? How would you rate your level of stress?
• Do your emotional responses match the stimulus? (i.e. outsized emotional reactions)
• Who are you spending time with? Are your relationships healthy and are they people who are fueling you?

Assess Spiritual Health:

• What spiritual disciplines are you regularly practicing?
• How is not gathering with your church community affecting you?
• What’s your level of spiritual vibrancy? Where are you sensing the work of the Spirit (or the absence of the Spirit) in your life?
• Are you sensing any spiritual warfare? How much of what you’re feeling is physical/mental/emotional unhealth, and how much might be something else?

Plan out your response to any unhealth you’ve noticed.

• Are you unhealthy physically? Consider implementing an Ideal Week schedule that blocks out time for important habits like sleep, meal prep, and exercise.
• Emotionally/mentally unhealthy? Carve out a day for solitude or an evening with someone you trust to process through what’s weighing on you.

Spiritually unhealthy? Build or refine your rule of life. If you missed Season 2 on Relational Practices, go listen and download the Rule for Life template to implement some of the spiritual practices in your life

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Ideas we highlight:

• What Marie Kondo got wrong about simplicity
• The uncomfortable yet necessary exposure of our own “greed”
• The danger of being ‘master rationalizers’ of how we spend our time, talents, and treasures
• The difference between legalism and creating a Rule for Life that shapes how we allocate our resources

Reference:

• Practices of Love: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life of the World by Kyle David Bennett. Find it on Amazon.
• Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step!

1. Remember: it’s not just about money. Think about your schedule, simplify your commitments, and consider doing at least one thing per week that you don’t like but someone else needs.
2. But this IS also about money! So consider prayerfully asking the Spirit how to allocate your dollars the next time you sit down to budget, perhaps adding a “Generosity” category or increasing the amount or percent of money you give away weekly or monthly. Consider partnering with an organization like One Day’s Wages.

If you haven’t yet, download the Rule for Life template to reflect on and implement some of the practices from this series.

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Ideas we highlight:

• The biblical precedent (and biblical assumption) of rhythms of fasting
• Why “all serious believers must engage in periods of asceticism” and what that can look like for the modern-day Christian
• How we can leverage fasting for the good of and love of our neighbor
• Difference between rhythms of absolute, normal, and partial fasts

Reference:

• The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher. Find it on Amazon.
• The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Whitmel Earley. Find it on Amazon.
• Practices of Love: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life of the World by Kyle David Bennett. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step!

1. Consider incorporating a regular practice of fasting into your life – for instance, 1, 3, or 7 days, done at regular intervals (one day a week, three days each quarter, a full week twice a year, etc.). If you’ve never fasted, start with a shorter amount of time, and perhaps a partial fast, but as you are able, consider building towards longer periods of full fasting.
2. During your fast, spend time reflecting on what you reach for and why. Identify the heart motives that are exposed during the process and use those as opportunities to pray, inviting the Spirit to shape that part of you.
3. If you haven’t yet, download the Rule for Life template to reflect on and implement some of the practices from this series.

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Ideas we highlight:

• How FOMO culture masks a fear of being known by others
• Why discomfort in relationships isn’t an excuse to quit on them
• The interplay between how God designed us, as relational beings, and the institution God gave us through the church

Reference:

• The Four Loves by CS Lewis. Find it on Amazon.
• The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher. Find it on Amazon.
• Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step!

1. If you don’t have a church community currently, what step can you take to find and commit to a group of people? If you call Icon your home church, we’d love to introduce you to a Community Group near you. Just email us!
2. How can you take a step of relational intimacy within your community? Think of a couple individuals with whom you could share more about your life story and hear more about theirs.
3. If you lead a Community Group, consider that as strange as this cultural moment is during quarantine, there’s also never been an easier to ask someone to show up for group. Consider how you might call the people you lead into more consistent connection.
4. If you haven’t yet, download the Rule for Life template to reflect on and implement some of the practices from this series.

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Ideas we highlight:
What sabbath isn’t (clue: not just a day off or a day to not do anything) 
How sabbath is a reminder that we are not in control and how it challenges us to be counter-cultural in our production-addicted society   
Setting healthy and helpful expectations for sabbath
Ways to think about sabbath depending on your current life stage 

Reference: 
Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human by John Mark Comer. Find it on Amazon. 
Every Good Endeavor by Tim Killer. Find it on Amazon. 
The Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Heschel. Find it on Amazon. 
“4 Steps to a Meaningful Sabbath” by Pete Scazzero at Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. 
For more teaching and resources on sabbath, check out practicingtheway.org.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step! 
Make a plan to sabbath this week: pick a day (or if you’ve never taken a sabbath, perhaps start with a half day), and organize your week in such a way that you can enter that day ready to rest. 
Consider what activities feel appropriate for your sabbath. Ask yourself these two questions as you filter various tasks, hobbies, and interests: Is this restful? Is it worshipful? 
If you haven’t yet, download the Rule for Life template to reflect on and implement some of the practices from this series.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin talk about silence and solitude, breaking down how it shapes our relationship with God, our formation into Christlikeness, and our missional posture towards others in our lives. Ronald Rolheiser once quipped that “we’re distracting ourselves into spiritual oblivion,” so this discussion explores how silence and solitude provide an antidote to that distraction, and offers ways to start practicing silence today.

Ideas we highlight:

• The battle for silence in a digital age and why we must proactively seek quiet spaces
• “Carving out time” for solitude is difficult, but if Jesus needed silence, then we do, too
• Silence and solitude isn’t just “me” time – it’s finding space to be with Jesus

Reference:

• Opening quote from “I Used to be a Human Being” by Andrew Sullivan.
• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Find it on Amazon.
• Celebration of Discipline by Richaed Foster. Find it on Amazon.
• An Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence by Ruth Haley Barton. Find it on Amazon.
• For more teaching and resources on silence and solitude, check out practicingtheway.org.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step!

1. Take five minutes right now to practice silence. Set a timer, sit down or take a walk, and take some deep breaths. Close with a prayer of gratitude.
2. As you start to build a more regular practice of silence/solitude, here are some suggestions. For more robust steps, read this resource.
   1. Pick a time and place that works for you, experimenting with what works. When it comes to time, for many, that’ll likely be the morning, but it might also be a lunch break or evening walk. For place, find somewhere as quiet and distraction free as possible.
   2. Set a goal. If you’ve never practiced silence/solitude, start with 5 minutes, a few days a week, and work your way up. Seek to increase the days per week and/or time per day you are able to spend in silence.
   3. During your time, take deep breaths, letting thoughts go as they come to mind. Consider using a breath prayer, like “Father, You are all I need,” to recenter. Notice God’s presence around you and in you. Close in a prayer of gratitude.
   4. If you’re new to this, resist the urge to judge the “success” or “failure” of your solitude. The “win” is showing up, so focus instead on being content to spend time in the presence of God.
3. If you haven’t yet, download the Rule for Life template to reflect on and implement some of the practices from this series.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin talk about the relational practice of prayer and how it reminds us that there’s more to our lives than the physical things we see around us. Whether you’ve never prayed or are looking to grow, Justin and Ilona offer ideas for different approaches to and methods for prayer. They also wrestle with what to do when we don’t feel like God hears our prayers, and how that possibly reflects more on us than anything else.

Ideas we highlight:

• Formal prayers and using words from scripture or church history
• Breath prayers and the significance of repetition
• Prayer journaling and how using acronyms like ACTS and PRAY discipline us to not just pray for ourselves
• What do we do when we don’t hear God’s response to our prayers?

Reference:

• A Praying Life by Paul Miller. Find it on Amazon.
• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions by Arthur G. Bennett. Find it on Amazon.
• The Hour that Changes the World: A Practical Plan for Personal Prayer by Dick Eastman. Find it on Amazon.
• For a brief introduction to breath prayer and some examples, read “Breath Prayers for Anxious Times” by Sarah Bessey.
• A printable guide to the ACTS prayer acronym.
• For resources on more types of prayer (contemplative, imaginary, intercessory, listening, etc.), check out practicingtheway.org.

Reflection: Begin where you are and take your next step!

1. If you’ve never prayed, start by adding a daily practice of praying The Lord's Prayer (found in Matthew 6 or Luke 11) or the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Consider using this helpful resource on learning to pray from the Church of England.
2. Use a prayer acronym like ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) or PRAY (Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield) to focus your prayer (or prayer journaling) time.
3. Feeling particularly anxious? Use prayer as a way to talk through those feelings with God. From above, reference “Breath Prayers for Anxious Times,” or check out “20 Prayers to Pray During This Pandemic” from Jen Pollock Michel at Christianity Today.
4. Community application: Pick up a book on prayer for your community group to read together - we recommend A Praying Life from the list above, and you can find a discussion guide for it here. Work through it, talk about it, and commit to praying together regularly as you do so.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin dive into the first practice of bible reading. The scriptures are meant to be a guide to help us navigate our lives, but we can often get discouraged by failed reading plans and books that we just don’t understand. This episode offers practical ways to think about and engage in reading scripture, whether you’d call yourself a “bible novice” or “enthusiastic scholar.” Check out the references and pick a method to practice!

Ideas we highlight:

• Where to start (and where NOT to start) if you’ve never read the Bible
• A couple approaches to structuring your Bible study
• A short debate on using Bible apps and technology when reading the Bible

Reference:

How to Read the Bible for All its Worth by Gordon Fee. Find it on Amazon.

An Introduction to Inductive Bible Study Method from Moody Church – click here.

The Bible Project: watch their animated videos (used in the Read Scripture app), read their blog, listen to their podcast -- on YouTube

Bible Study Tools: find and print Bible reading plans that are different lengths, books, and themes

Recommended apps for Bible reading:

• YouVersion Bible app (multiple translations and a plethora of bible reading plans),
• Read Scripture App (includes a reading plan and tons of video content that offers you context as you read)
• Dwell app (a tool for memorizing scripture)

Reflection:

Pick a method to practice!

• If you’ve never read the Bible, start in the Gospel of John and study it with someone who knows more than you.
• Find a Bible reading plan. You can use the plans on the YouVersion or Read Scripture apps, or print one out from Bible Study Tools or do a simple Google search depending on the themes, lengths, or approach you want to use.
• Want the next level? Pick a book of the Bible and challenge yourself to do an in-depth study by picking up a commentary (again, study with someone who knows more than you!), reading about the historical context, and watching some Bible Project videos on the topic.
• Bonus: practice bible reading as a community! Study the same book or use the same plan with other folks so you can hold one another accountable and learn together.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin remind us that the path to peace isn’t focused on the self. Rather, they discuss how our lives, and in particular the way we practice spiritual disciplines, need to be focused outwardly. They wrestle with the reality that this “others-orientation” sits starkly opposed to our “live your dream” culture, and yet it’s what reminds us of our truer purpose. Why does this matter so much right now, especially in light of COVID-19 and social distancing?

Ideas we highlight:

• Why “self-help” will never be enough because the point shouldn’t be the “self”
• Misguided evaluations of the “effectiveness” of spiritual disciplines
• How we close the gap between who we are and who we want to be
• Why a culture of “live your dream, speak your truth” is opposed to the Gospel
• Practical ways to love God and others when we’re working from home, parenting without an escape, and trying to check in on people in our community
• Co-opting mantras for the sake of spiritual formation

Reference:

Practices of Love: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life of the World by Kyle David Bennett. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection:

Find a short meditation or “breath prayer” to practice this week that will remind you of the truth that it’s not all about you, and reorient you to your gospel purpose. Here are some of the ideas from the episode:

• “I’m made for God and neighbor, not myself”
• "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
• “Christ is all and we are his”
• “It’s not about me”

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin kick off Season 2 by discussing why now, perhaps more than ever in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should commit ourselves to a Rule of Life. Unpacking this ancient practice and countering our cultural reactions, they explore why a life structured in disciplines is so necessary in our current social moment. How can thinking about these practices in a relational, formational, and missional way help us become the types of people who can be at peace even in anxious times?

Ideas we highlight:

• Where the expression “Rule of Life” comes from and why this tradition is helpful in a moment of global crisis
• The necessity of structure, as much as Millennials and Enneagram type 7s might hate being “boxed in”
• The crucial and often missed nuance between knowing God and actually having a relationship with him
• Exploring the misapplication of the idea of “head, heart, and hands”
• Why Michael Jordan’s famous play in the 1991 NBA finals is STILL an important analogy for spiritual formation

Reference:

The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection:

Head to iconchurch.org/ruleforlife & download the Rule for Life worksheet. Pick 3 practices you’ve tried before that you want to level up, and 1 new practice to try. Spend time prayerfully considering and articulating how each of those practices shapes you relationally, formationally, and missionally.

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Ilona and Justin apply Dallas Willard’s VIM framework (Vision, Intention, Means) to Icon’s philosophy of discipleship, moving from personal applications to leadership applications. What does it look like to encourage, support, and at times properly challenge the people we are leading to reorient around their vision, intention, and means?

Ideas we highlight:

• A vision of following Jesus: use an “action-reflection” model to guide your teams/groups and identify a “crew” to invest in
• An intention of proactivity: as leader, your head should always be in the future, specifically the future of the people you are leading
• A means of spiritual disciplines: commit to the preparation so that you become the kind of person who leads well and models the vision

Reference:

Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard. Find it on Amazon.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection:

1. If you’re part of Icon, think about your next meeting (formal or informal) and what are you going to do in preparation for that. Put 5 minutes on your schedule to pray and plan for the people you will be interacting with.
2. If you’re not part of Icon, consider what you’re doing to make your leaders good leaders. How are you forming them as people and giving them tools to implement the life of Jesus in all the environments in which they lead (not just in ministry, but in life).

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Show Summary:

In this episode, Justin and Ilona discuss the third characteristic of discipleship, spiritual practices. The conversation explores how spiritual disciplines are relational practices, and highlights five key practices: bible reading, prayer, solitude, community, and sabbath. How do we practice these in our own relationships with God and communally?

Ideas we highlight:

• Spiritual disciplines are relational practices and our relationship with God is not fundamentally different from any other relationship in our lives
• Bible reading as the relational practice of getting to know who God is
• Prayer as the relational practice of both speaking and listening
• Solitude as the relational practice of distraction-less quality time
• Community as the relational practice of consistently showing up
• Sabbath as the relational practice to rest and celebrate
• We practice these disciplines together on Sundays (through interviews that highlight spiritual practices and intentional moments of silent reflection), in Community Groups (normalizing disciplines by doing them together), and in Icon Groups (through learning about specific practices)

Reflection:

1. If you’re part of Icon, we’d encourage you to pick a practice to grow in during this next year. Share it with others and practice it together.
2. If you’re not part of Icon, consider whether you’re giving people the tools they need to grow in their discipleship? Where and how are you teaching spiritual disciplines?

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In this episode, Justin and Ilona continue the conversation about Icon’s philosophy of discipleship, digging into what it means for discipleship to be about following Jesus’ life. Why is it important to us to imitate Jesus’ example? And how do we practice that as a community?

Some of the ideas we’ll highlight:

• We need to commit to Jesus’ lifestyle if we want his life, which requires both theology and practice (know it, but also do it)
• Recognize the value of Jesus’ offer of a gospel-centered life
• We practice this together as we learn about Jesus’ lifestyle through the teaching of scripture on Sundays, relational “mirrors” in Community Groups, and pragmatic discussions of ethics in Icon Groups

Reference:

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer. Find it on Amazon.

Matthew 11:28-30, ESV

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Reflection:

1. If you’re a leader at Icon, take a look at the outcomes in your life. The results you are getting reveal how you are defining “the good life.” How are you living and defining that on a day-to-day basis? Are the outcomes you’re seeing in line with the way of Jesus?
2. If you’re not part of Icon, where do people in your church learn to follow Jesus? Is there a place where and/or a process by which people learn and practice together?

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In this episode, Justin and Ilona start a dialogue about Icon’s philosophy of discipleship, breaking down what it means for it to be proactive. Why is proactivity in our discipleship important? And what does it actually look like for us to practice proactive discipleship as a community of believers?

Some of the ideas we’ll highlight:

• Proactive versus responsive/reactive discipleship
• Proactivity is the pattern of scripture, church history, and all of life
• We practice proactive discipleship through Sunday liturgies, relational Community Groups, and Icon Group catechism

Reference:

The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship by Dallas Willard. Find it on Amazon.

Reflection:

1. If you’re a leader at Icon, how are you proactively pursuing the life of Christ? How are you seeking him as you would any other relationship?
2. If you’re not part of Icon, ask yourself how your church is proactively discipling people. Can you point to a place or process that does that work? If not, what would it look like to begin to emphasize that value?