Over the past year, I’ve had the gift of participating in two Discipleship Cohorts (DCs) through Mission Alive. The first, as a participant and the second as part of the training experience focused on learning to facilitate future cohorts. Both experiences shaped me profoundly, not simply by acquiring new information but by creating space and rhythms for transformation.
At the heart of every DC is a simple practice: learning to listen to God. Each week, we engage Scripture, attending not only to what the text says but also to how the Spirit is still speaking through it. We also listen through prayer, listening for God’s voice through a variety of prayer practices. Finally, we learn to listen through mission as we move intentionally through the spaces where we live and work. DCs invite participants to notice where God is already moving around them and to explore how they might join in.
I discovered that what makes these DCs especially valuable is the rhythm they cultivate between individual and communal listening. They provide space to wrestle honestly with what we are hearing, questioning, or resisting. But there is also the gift of bringing those experiences back to the group, where others help test, clarify, and develop what God may be saying.
The presence of a trained Mission Alive facilitator is essential. Rather than dominating the process or leading as some kind of teacher, facilitators hold an environment where questions, attentiveness, and mutual accountability are all cultivated. Over time, trust develops within the group, and people speak more honestly, listen more carefully, and follow Jesus more courageously.
In our culture that prizes speed, certainty, and performance, these cohorts offer a different way: an intentionally communal means of discerning the voice and movement of God. And I love that this simple-yet-profound process is not something held tightly by Mission Alive’s leadership but rather was designed to be easily replicated as a part of disciples making disciples as we all follow Jesus.
