<![CDATA[THE CULWELL MINISTRY

Dear Faithful Friend,
As we began our 5th month of our 9 month curriculum with our weekly DIG group (Discipleship Intensive Group) I asked why they thought we went through preparing a ‘killer’ dinner every week and leading studies on deep topics about God, Marriage, Money, Idols, Strengths, Mission, Calling, etc We were pleased with some of their answers: Our purpose is to help them become the best disciples of Jesus they can become. We love being with them each week hearing how they are taking steps in their lifelong pursuit of following Jesus.

“Learning how to disciple others for a lifetime.”
“Pushing against a stagnate marriage”
“Being brave… inspired by each other”
“Figuring out how to continue to step out of our comfort zone”

Our purpose is to help them become the best disciples of Jesus they can become. We love being with them each week hearing how they are taking steps in their lifelong pursuit of following Jesus.

This month we are reading The Good and Beautiful God -- falling in love with the God Jesus knows by James Bryan Smith and having discussion about where each of them are personally in their pursuit of loving God.
“What is your “curriculum” for becoming like Christ in all aspects of your life?” Is one question we asked them the first week.... Here are some of their answers:

“I like to have a bible reading plan (for structure) but lately I have been struggling with accountability in that. It helps me to be around more mature Christians •
“I pray with a friend every day but realize that I need to have more regular times in God’s word. Being a mom and working full time keep my days very full.”
• “I need to flesh out more specific goals that are easier for follow through.” • “I don’t have a curriculum.”
• “Scripture memory” •

“Have you ever been through a situation that made you doubt God’s goodness?” --Some of their answers included....rejection from family...losing a baby... chronic health issues. It was a very honest discussion about things we wrestle with God about. We look forward to continuing these discussions.

We both continue to meet one on one and in small groups to stimulate others to pursue ‘loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength—and their neighbor as themselves. We feel the need to do a better job of helping them to share their faith with those they know or with whom they have contact . For both of us, this made (and makes) a huge impact on us when we first started trying to follow Jesus. The other couple that lead with us (Woody and Tracie) both said learning to share their faith and then beginning to share their faith had a huge impact on them when they started to pursue Christ. In a few weeks we will dive into that more.