IV. God's Family: His Children & His Church
Becoming more like Jesus
The DTS strengthens one's knowledge of and trust in God as "father," "savior," and "friend."
- nurtures the awareness of personal value and significance to God.
- gives opportunity for one's past, present and future to be surrendered at the cross.
- emphasizes the primary role of the Bible and the Holy Spirit in the process of becoming more like Jesus.
- makes room for the Holy Spirit to work in and through people.
- believes personal holiness is necessary and only possible through appropriating God's grace.
- recognizes and affirms God' s love for and commitment to his Church.
- promotes participation in and partnership with the local church.
- cultivates an atmosphere where unity and diversity are equally valued.
- furthers the practice of healthy relationships, and the need to build one another up.
- gives opportunity to discover and demonstrate one's spiritual gifts to serve others.
- advocates learning from one another.
Concepts to Understand and Apply
- Each believer has been given God's Spirit, who gives eternal life and who adopts us into God's family.
- The Holy Spirit reveals God's Word to the believer and continually assures the believer of God's love and that "Christ is within."
- The Holy Spirit works to comfort, heal (physical and emotional), convict, teach and restore the believer.
- God desires for the believer to live a holy life, that is to relate to God and others as Jesus did.
- A key to living a Christ-like life (bearing the fruit of the Spirit) is to consistently draw upon the indwelling Holy Spirit.
- Satan, though defeated through the cross, continues to deceive people and draw them into sin.
- The Holy Spirit and the grace of God are always available within believers empowering them to recognize, resist and overcome Satan's temptations/lies and to free them from bondage. (In some cases deliverance from spiritual bondage may be necessary.)
- Forgiveness and relinquishing rights are keys to living a Christ-like life.
- Each believer is responsible to cooperate with the Spirit within to believe and obey the truth. In addition, he is to repent of false beliefs, sinful attitudes (e.g. pride, unbelief), destructive habits (e.g. gossip, coveting), other areas of disobedience and to make restitution when appropriate.
- Every believer is part of "The Body of Christ." Each person is significant and yet needs other members of the body.
- There are two basic classifications of church: the local body of believers (modality) and mission agency (sodality).
- Believers are expected to commit themselves to a church body to gather together regularly to worship, hear the Word, and fellowship.
- God gives the Body of Christ a variety of spiritual gifts (e.g. prophecy, teaching, encouragement). Believers are to use their spiritual gifts to build others up "in Christ."
- Believers are to reflect Christ in all their relationships. Godly, healthy relationships are mutually submissive, pure, honoring , loving, respectful, humble, interdependent, etc.
Attitudes To Nurture
In relationship to strengthening personal faith, character development, and right relationships:
- Faith
- dependency on the Spirit
- assurance of God's love and commitment to me
- confidence
- belonging
- maturity
- responsibility
- patience
- perseverance with self and others
- contentment
- teachable
- humility
- hope
- trust towards God and others
- willingness to change
- desire for integrity
- gratefulness
- quickness to acknowledge and turn from sin
- forgiving
- repentance
- transparency
- graciousness towards others
- willingness to give up rights
- others aware
- celebrate people
- giving and receiving
- seeking to understand
- honoring
- accepting
- self respect and respect of others
- appreciate differences
- purity
- preferring one another
- commitment
- loyalty
- serving
- gentleness
- sharing
- lighthearted
- caring
- compassion
- mutually submissive
- team player
- self restraint
- faithfu
- peaceable, loyalty to God's character
- vulnerability to God's love, respect for God's opinion.
Activities To Do
(These should be happening throughout the DTS. Some are structured into the schedule, some are simply expressed in informal interactions. The goal is for every person to take responsibility for engaging in these ways.)
- Actively take responsibility for one's own growth.
- Appropriately respond to God and others, in dealing with the past, giving up rights, sin, forgiving others, etc.
- Cooperate with the deepening work of the Spirt within through times of worship and ministry.
- Demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).
- Personally recognize and choose to resist temptation.
- Develop mutually accountable relationships to spiritually strengthen one another.
- Work effectively as a team where every member makes a unique contribution and takes appropriate responsibility.
- When appropriate, take leadership initiative according to your gift and personality.
- Discover, understand and use one's spiritual gifts in serving one another including in a small group context.
- Appropriately participate with local churches.
- Actively build one another up through caring, blessing, encouraging, sharing, affirming, serving, praying, giving. . .etc. including in a small group context.
- Actively cultivate relationships with a variety of people, including those different from yourself.
- Practice making someone else successful.
- Enjoy recreation; have fun together.
- Learn from one another through listening, talking, asking questions, debating, discussing, including in a small group context.
- Study/ reflect on Scripture relevant to the concepts in this category.
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