Discipling By Jesus

The Crew explores One Metric that Matters, to help us get DBJ down to just 90 minutes

Ernie and Robby rejoice on the strong turnout and powerful connections from the first two sessions

New Crew member Brent Lindquist joins to learn how DBJ differs from traditional small groups, including the importance of communion

After a successful first pilot of "Discipling by Jesus", Ernie and Robby touch base to see if they are on the same page about what should happen next, and how best to position it.  Robby suggests a focus on 'hearing and following Jesus", but Ernie propose "experience and respond to Jesus" as broader and more relational. Robby shares his passion for ensuring movements are reaching people where they...

Does Grace exist so we can fulfill the Law? Or does the Law exist to show us our need for Grace?  Is our greatest work to love the poor? Or simply to love Jesus? Are they ultimately the same? If so, does it matter which order? As leaders, is our primary job to enroll followers in our vision? Expand our vision to incorporate theirs? Point them to Jesus? Help them find their own vision?  Ernie and T...

In this phone call recorded shortly before last Friday's " Finale " of The Great Reset, Eric questions Ernie about why he's ending The Great Reset, and what comes next. Ernie argues that his "original sin" while co-founding The Great Reset was focusing on Ambition and Technique. While not bad in themselves, this led incurably to Arrogance and Law, rather than Humility and Grace . He believes the o...

To start with, David and Ernie both agree that The Great Reset is: Too dominated by Ernie Lacks a clear sense of purpose Lacks consistency of format Lacks continuity of topics The disagreement started when Ernie explained that this Friday (15 Jan 2021) is THE Finale of The Great Reset, and what came after would be Something Different .  While Ernie saw this as an opportunity to re-found The Great...

Ted and Ernie record what may be their last episode of The Great Reset podcast, as they plan for the finale on January 15th.   When Ted asks Ernie about working together afterwards on Something Different, Ernie expresses concern over what he perceived as Ted's dismissiveness of his feelings.  This was aggravated (if not caused) by Ted not responding to a heartfelt email Ernie has shared over Chris...

David and Ernie appear to agree with the statement that "the problem is sin, and the cure is Jesus" -- but seem unable to agree about what those words mean, or even whether or not they agree. David affirms how Ernie is fantastic at handling negative feedback, but confused why he appears incapable of incorporating constructive suggestions. Ernie admires David's commitment and forthrightness, but wo...

Robby and Ernie discuss: Possible limits to simply hearing and obeying Jesus Whether DBS emphasizes Law (obedience) at the expense of Grace (relationship) Whether there is a "performative" act that constitutes being a Christian (e.g., repentance, communion) The difference between "joining with Jesus in his work" (as servants, focused on productivity) versus "joining with Jesus through His work" (a...

To escape from a confused chat thread, David rephrased three concerns he had about Ernie's proposed topic for this coming Tuesday (1/5/2021) on The Great Reset: It does not provide continuity, or address open problems Ernie seems to be placing all the responsibility on David, rather than sharing it The goal should be to model (live out) discipleship, and Ernie's proposal doesn't seem to accomplish...

Robby contacted Ernie to ensure he hadn't hurt his feelings during Tuesday's The Great Reset . He had agreed with Janet that he too would leave the group if it was true that Ernie was espousing non-scriptural foundations, but didn't think that was the case. Ernie admitted that he had partly called out Robby's statement for dramatic effect; the emotional pain was minimal (and addressed).  However,...

After an extended period of reconciliation, Steve and Ernie return to discuss questions of discipleship .  Ernie proposes the alternate term "spiritual fathering" to describe the relationship of Paul with Timothy .  He affirms that this kind of authority-based model, built around implicit trust in the "father figure," is essential for new believers.  However, he argues that: A group of mature beli...

David was surprised that Ernie was so upbeat about Tuesday's conversation with Janet.  Perhaps this is because Ernie was primarily hurt by Janet appearing to withdraw from the group relationship, then reaffirming that relationship (and Ernie's emotions) on Tuesday.  David was less optimistic, because Ernie and Janet had not appeared to reach a common understanding, which implied such problems were...

After a bruising (if surprisingly productive) episode last Tuesday , David shares frustrations about his relationship with Bill. He also has to remind Ernie that the reason he (David) didn't welcome Ernie's input was that Ernie didn't seem interested in understanding David.  Ernie conceded the point, but argued it was wrong for David to bring Bill up if he didn't want Ernie's help.  David immediat...

Ernie is surprised to discover that David: Has not been truly engaged with The Great Reset during Season 6 Does not think Ernie shares his belief that The Great Reset should focus on relationships Feels obligated to conform to Ernie's values, as owner of the group (David, for his part, was surprised that this wasn't obvious to Ernie). Much of this seems to stem from Ernie's perspective that he is...

Ernie and David debrief The Great Reset (12/7) . Should we primarily focus on being Discipled by Scripture ? Or should we be figuring out a way to articulate and implement the vision of our Producer, Ted Hahs? Whose vision really counts, anyway? Will Bill ever come back? And what would it take for David to feel this has all been worth it? References Automated Transcript (UberConference) What are U...

In this powerful follow-on to last Tuesday's episode of The Great Reset , Janet shares about the trauma she experienced as a child, and the struggle she faces between expressing her anger and trying to be "perfect." In particular, she confesses a deep desire to slap whoever dissed her, rather than having to show them compassion. Ernie suggested naming that part of herself "Slappy", and asking what...

David and Ernie both enjoyed Tuesday's episode of The Great Reset, but not in the same way.  Ernie saw it as encouraging progress towards the group learning how to "Love More Like Jesus."  But while David considered it a positive experience, he did not see it as any sort of real progress. He felt it was more like a random walk. Ernie conceded the apparent randomness, but claimed even that can gene...

After several weeks of intense conversations, David and Ernie find themselves at loose ends. Ted has not only taken on the Producer role (with David as Director and Ernie as Writer ), but proposed a new format to experiment with in Season 6. That, plus a relatively uneventful Season Finale, means that the Dynamic Duo have nothing urgent to argue about. Rather that quit early, they take up David's...

Ernie proposes a structure for The Great Reset with Ted as Producer, David as Director, and Ernie as the Writer.  Unfortunately, David is not impressed with the part Ernie has written for him on the coming Tuesday.  Ernie is frustrated that David isn't onboard with his creative vision.  And everything is complicated by the unresolved questions from last week.  How will Ted make sense of it all?  A...

After 20 minutes of chatting and context, David and Ernie resume their discussion from Part 1 on Christ-like leadership, this time with Janet acting as moderator. The goal was not so much to reach agreement, but help them understand why exactly they disagreed.   While the conversation was often passionate and occasionally blunt, both parties expressed sincere appreciation for the other's sincerity...

This week Ernie turns the tables and offers up a critique of David's style of leadership.  David defends his approach based on its effectiveness, and the fact that he doesn't find Ernie's alternatives particularly compelling.  This seems to mark the end of their two-week experiment of David leading the meetings, especially given how Ernie overrode David's decision to call out Bill's negativity las...

In this wide-ranging conversion, Ernie and Janet touch on: The upside and downside of having powerful mental frameworks Apples of Gold's Seeker/Helper model Concerns vs Needs Design vs Training Studying vs Assimilating Scripture References Automated Transcript Apples of Gold ( Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty ) There is no User Error, only Bad Design ( Harry Stevens ) What the Bible says about As...

After a long and winding road, David and Ernie were able to affirm: The most important thing is Loving More Like Jesus The next important thing is tools to help us Love More Like Jesus There aren't any great answers for what will do that The best way to develop such tools is iterating around Revelation, Reason, and Experience Ernie then shared his belief that hierarchical authority structures are...