How To Use The Five Booklets

The Plan:

I like sticking to the plan. That’s why we make a plan, so that we can do everything in our power to stick to the plan. Sticking to the plan is what I’m about, most of the time.

In the last year I’ve started working through Sonlife’s five booklets (Identity, Walk, Talk, Feed, and Clean) with a group of high school and young adult guys. There are five of us, so naturally I call it my “Five Guys” group. Though at this time if we were to add a guy or two, I’m sure I would keep the name the same.

The plan for this group was to do one section of the booklet every other Tuesday. We met for a little over an hour each week and by our third meeting, I could see that the plan wasn’t working. So, as much as I like sticking to the plan, things had to change.

We started with the Identity booklet, which has six sections. By the end of our third meeting, we had finished the first section. The plan had failed, but what was happening was better than the original plan. The guys in my group were asking questions, thinking through the material, and engaging. 

The pace of getting through the material is slower, because there is room to build relationships. 

I think there is great value in the framework provided in these booklets for helping people grow in their walk with Jesus. They are definitely a great disciple-making tool.

How to use the booklets:

I love that these are written in a conversational tone and feel so approachable. The sections aren’t too long (even though we often do finish one each week) which is great for keeping you moving through and engaging the material at a good pace.

Each section has questions to think through and discuss as a group, which we’ve found to be great at getting the discussion going. When one of the guys is willing to share, it opens up the conversation resulting in most of the group sharing answers and thoughts.

I could see these booklets being great for small groups. They would also work for youth Sunday school or even a family study. One thing that I hope to do is a weekend camping trip with my five guys group. We’d take a couple of days, get away and go through one of the studies. The hope is that this would be a great time of building relationships and growing in Christ together.

Study Jesus. Make a plan. And let the relationships be more important than the plan.

The Five Booklets:

Identity
In this study, we have conversations about the identity of God, the activity of God, my identity in Christ, my purpose in Christ, the Body of Christ, and the purpose of the church.

While you can do the booklets in any order and skip around, I decided to start with Identity as I felt it would be a great foundation for the other conversations.

Walk
What does it look like to walk like Jesus? In this booklet, the six sections are: walk in the Spirit, guided by prayer, walk in obedience, guided by the Word, guided by worship, and walk in love.

Jesus made disciples in relationship. So no matter what tool, text, or study you’re using, I’d encourage you to build those relationships. Live like Jesus with those whom you are discipling. Don’t let gaining knowledge be your only goal in those you are investing in.

Talk
In this study, we tackle: talking to God, types of prayer, questions about prayer, talking about Jesus, talking about God’s story, and talking about your story.

Feed
In feed we look at the value of God’s Word, my view on God’s Word, feed on God’s Word, study God’s Word: observation, interpretation, and application.

This has been a good study with my five guys group as we dive into the reliability of Scripture and its impact on our lives as disciples of Jesus. We’ve been able to have great conversations and wrestle with doubts as we look at how an ancient text can have value for our lives today.

Clean
The topics in the Clean study are: the significance of sin, the conviction on the Spirit, confession and repentance, spiritual accountability, and experiencing forgiveness.