Month: February 2009

Fight Club: Peer Discipleship Groups

Less than a year ago I preached a sermon on Gospel-centered Fight Clubs vs. Eckhart Tolle’s higher consciousness. As I closed the sermon I dreamed out loud that one day our city would be filled with lots of little fight clubs, gendered groups meeting to help one another beat up the flesh and believe the promises of God. The response was remarkable. People started asking for tools and methods right away. I wrote up a “how to” piece and then published an article on Fight Clubs. They became viral in our community. As a result, people are fighting sin and treasuring Christ more than before.

We vowed that Fight Clubs would remain an organic, viral thing that is relationship based and would not compete with our primary community structure—City Groups. No sign-ups. Now that our church has grown considerably, I preached another message on Gospel-centered Mortification this Sunday from Colossians 3:5-11. Again, the response was remarkable. Even unbelievers are interested.

Our minister of Missional Community will be leading a three week discussion group on Porn Again Christian at a local bar for the next three weeks to help guys fight sexual sin in particular. Our hope is that this will serve as a stepping stone into Fight Clubs. We’ve seen a lot of fruit from this peer-based discipleship. Not only does it fit our generation, it promotes Christ-adorning discipleship, and it can be missional.