This curriculum for small group study is a plan for Transformational Discipleship. One of the most significant and enduring contributions made to the church by the Moravians and early Methodist movement was the successful implementation of small groups for true discipleship. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Moravian banden (small groups) and John Wesley’s band meetings (a more intense version of his class meetings) for accountability where believers “watched over one another in love.” It is the most effective discipleship model ever implemented.
George Whitefield, the great evangelist of the First Great Awakening, lamented, “My Brother [John] Wesley acted wisely, the souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in [small accountability groups], and thus preserved the fruits of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.”
This new model blends together:
Small accountability groups according to the Moravian and Wesleyan pattern
Keys for continuous revival that kept revival fires burning in the center of Africa during the 1950s
Practical tools of Full Stature principles for quick and complete forgiveness, dealing effectively with bitter roots, and receiving inner transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Clarks have merged these field-tested models into a new pattern for making radical disciples of Jesus Christ in "Small Groups that Go Deep: A New Approach".
"Therefore every teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings who has been instructed about and trained for the kingdom of heaven and has become a disciple is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and [treasure that is] old [the fresh as well as the familiar]. – Matthew 13:52 AMPC
