Discipleship in action: Breanne

When she found herself stuck at home during quarantine, Breanne decided that she’d like to put her extra time to good use with a Bible study. She connected with a few friends for a small group walkthrough of the Seven Stories of Hope, a discipleship tool that focuses on Jesus’ ministry and God’s heart for people who don’t know Him. For the past year, the people in Breanne’s church had been looking for ways to share the gospel and disciple in their community, as part of the mission to spur the body of Christ into obedience in the harvest field. 

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During the study, Breanne talked with her small group about how to answer questions a friend had about God and Christianity. She also saw discipleship modeled by her mom’s participation in local ministries.

Breanne says she didn’t feel like she had all the answers, but the repeated conversations with her friend about God and spiritual life let her know that she had found a person who might be open to hearing more about Jesus. So after learning more about the calling for all Christians to make disciples, Breanne decided to take a chance and ask if the friend wanted to do a Bible study together. 

To her surprise, her friend agreed, and they began the same Seven Stories of Hope study, meeting virtually each week. One week, Breanne’s friend even invited a family member to join them when they were visiting. 

Breanne said that the friendship already in place helped her have the confidence to share, because if she did say something wrong, she knew they’d have more conversations later. “I felt nervous at first,” she said. “As it goes on you get comfortable.” 

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Breanne is not a theologian. She hasn’t attended Bible college, and she isn’t even a pastor’s kid. She began studying God’s word, was open to have conversations about God, and willing to slow down and look for a chance to go deeper into scripture with someone. As a result, she’s sharing the word in a direct and meaningful way, and although she’s just started, that’s already impacted another person who she didn’t even reach out to directly.

Although Breanne was initially frustrated with the shutdowns and the way they impacted her life, she’s now glad that God used the time to create a space for the study: “In the beginning of the shutdown I was like ‘why am I here?’ Now I’ll take another few months of the shutdown if I had one more conversation that mattered.”

Note: The Seven Stories of Hope are an excellent way to introduce someone to scripture and the heart of God. This study relies on individual biblical stories from Jesus’ ministry, without need for additional materials or extensive biblical background knowledge. Instead, it focuses on facilitating spiritual conversations and learning directly from the text. To learn more about the Seven Stories of Hope, Click here.