When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, He was calling them to a life of surrender and followship. He planned to lead them into genuine intimacy with the Father through His life and atoning sacrifice, then to release them into His Great Commission to transform the nations.
To accomplish this mission, Jesus took a group of untrained men, and over 3½ years, accomplished two necessary feats. First, He confronted all the religious pomp and circumstance they had accumulated throughout their lives to detox them of any error and misunderstanding that might prevent them from seeing and experiencing intimacy with God; and second, He began to upload truth and invest in them a passion for knowing God and growing in their relationship with Him. He offered them a plan to GROW.
The GROW Plan is an organic pathway to simplify the pursuit of God and confront the religious pretense we oftentimes accumulate along life’s journey. As such, this is not a curriculum! It is not another Bible study! It is not even a Bible reading plan! It is a pursuit of intimacy and clarity. It is a seeking of God’s heart for His will to be accomplished in and through our lives. Thus, it is not intended to be cumbersome, but intentional, getting to the heart of the matter – which is always a matter of the heart.
With this in mind, what has been created is a simple pathway and process for discovery. While this pathway can be experienced alone, it is intended to be shared with others. It is best experienced with a few other people in a life2life shared journey – which we call a GROW Group.
A GROW Group is a gathering of up to 6 men or women (gender-specific) who meet together on a weekly to bi-weekly basis to discuss what God has been showing and teaching them through the daily reading of the Scriptures. It is a time to encourage one another and provide accountability, but most importantly, it is a time to share what God has been speaking into each other’s lives.
The power of this life2life community begins with the centrality of Scripture. It is a small gathering around the Word. The Bible is the centerpiece. As such, the group agrees to GROW together around the same passages by following the same devotional reading plan – and then getting together to invest in one another what God has invested into them. Each week, the group members spend time alone each day in God’s Word GROW-ing in their faith. From there, the group meets to share their insights and to encourage each other to begin living the Truth God has to them.
This is what the Lord says: “
Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16
The GROW Reading Strategy is intended to guide each person through a simple, inductive process and progression of the Scriptures so that they might understand and glean truth from the passages they are reading. In following this plan for Bible reading, a person can anticipate learning how to:
- Rightly identify the context and content of a particular passage
- Gain understanding and clarity of God’s intent within the context
- Experience God speaking directly into their life through the Bible as He brings revelation into the details of their life personally by the power of the Holy Spirit
GRASP it
As a person reads the text, they are seeking to gain a basic understanding of the context and highlight any important verses, phrases, ideas, or words. In this step, each person is applying the basic skills of observation by asking who, what, where, why, when, and how questions, to allow the text to speak for itself – and then summarizing it in their own words.
REFLECT on it
In reflecting on a passage, each person is beginning to meditate and process the teaching of Scripture to understand the intent and content as originally intended. In applying basic skills of interpretation, a participant will begin to discover the meaning of a text and God’s guiding principles for living.
OWN it
To own a passage is to allow the Holy Spirit to personalize the teaching by revealing the truth He wants the reader to see and then infusing it into their life so that it becomes a part of their life. This is the stage of incarnation where God speaks truth (rhema) directly into the details and decisions of one's life – truth for living.
WALK it
God does not speak into our lives for us to just stand by and watch – He speaks to us through His Word so that our faith might be activated into genuine followship to be lived out and experienced each day. This is the heart of the Christian life – knowing God, hearing his voice, and obeying his leading. Yet it is in our obedience to this revelation of truth that we begin to experience the will of God. Thus, the walking phase is the activation phase where we determine the practical step-by-step ways we can apply God’s revelation of truth into our lives – and then we DO it!
