I can still remember my 11th grade Sunday School teacher, Paul Kokulis. It was 45 years ago and I was an awkward, shy teenager. But, Paul (we called him “the golden Greek”) treated me as though I was important. I don’t remember any of our Sunday School lessons but I sure remember the godly, caring life that he modeled.

This is one of the most powerful ways that God shapes us as disciples – through those godly men and women that he puts in our lives to show us what it looks like to walk with God. Those examples. Those models.

A “church of two” creates an ideal environment where this kind of modeling can naturally take place.

• When I share my SASHET with my partner, he gets to see me when I am happy-excited- tender but also when I am sad-angry-scared. He gets to see a Christian who doesn’t have it all together and who is on the journey.
• When my partner shares his SASHET with me, I get to rejoice with him when he is rejoicing and weep with him when he is weeping. We learn to be honest and transparent together before the Lord.
• When I share what I’ve heard from the Lord (VIRKLER) and what I’m writing in my journal with my partner, he gets to hear what God sounds like to me. I ask him to help me weigh what I’m hearing and to be gently curious about what I’ve written.
• When my partner shares what he is hearing from the Lord (VIRKLER), I get to join him at the growing edges of his life, the places where God is speaking to him.

So, CO2s are a powerful context for making disciples because they are daily and because they focus on knowing God (not just knowing about Him). They are also powerful because they create an environment where disciples get to see a first hand model of what it means to walk with Jesus in an honest, transparent way.

Paul (not Kokulis): “Whatever you have… seen in me – put it into practice.” Phil. 4:9

John

PS. I Googled Paul Kokulis and the picture above is a contemporary one that I found (he had darker hair back in the day!). I haven’t talked to him in years but maybe I’ll send him a link to this post.