Each discipleship group develops their own covenant. This covenant is an agreement about how the group will hold each other accountable. The covenant is composed of individual clauses about what the group members will try to do in their lives. The covenant helps guide the meetings of the discipleship group and also shapes the spiritual life of the individual.
These clauses are grouped in five categories: acts of compassion, acts of justice, acts of devotion, acts of worship, and spiritual promptings and warnings. Each clause is a statement about something that group members will try to do and for which they will be accountable. For example, an act of compassion may be "I will spend an hour each day with my children." Download a list of suggested clauses from the book Covenant Discipleship Groups.
Suggestions for developing a covenant:
- Don't be constrained by the suggested clauses. Make your own, adapted and rewrite to suit your groups needs.
- The goal of a covenant is to challenge us to live as faithful is disciples, but also to be doable. Therefore be realistic. Pick clauses that will be challenging, but also that you are able to achieve.
- Pick between one and three clauses from each category. Too many and your covenant will be unrealistic, too few and it won't challenge you to grown. It is important to select at least one from each category so that your discipleship is well rounded.
- Time is often helpful in selecting covenants. Allow people to "live" with the list for a couple meetings. If there is an impasse in selecting or removing a clause, let it rest till the next meeting and then revisit it. Often time itself will help resolve the impasse.
- Don't let majority rule. Voting on clauses is rarely helpful. Instead, talk it out until all are in agreement. Voting will result in the selection of clauses that some in the group will not keep.
- You may want to use a process of winnowing to select the appropriate clauses for your group:
- Ask everyone to select the clauses that speak to them. This will develop your short list. At this point the members do not need to agree on the clauses. Members may want to do this before the group meeting.
- Ask the group members to share why they picked the clauses they did.
- Ask the group to remove those that they feel that they could not keep at this time. Make sure to discuss why.
- From those that are left, ask the group to select those that they feel speak most strongly to them at this time.
- If at this point the list is not winnowed down to a manageable size (one to three clauses from each group). Take a break and let the list rest till the next meeting. Ask the group to pray about each of the clauses and what they feel God is calling them to do.
- Revisit the list, one by one, and ask the group if this is something to which they are willing to commit.
Each covenant will begin with a pre-amble that is common to every group at Peace. In addition, a group may wish to develop a prayer that will be used to begin each meeting and by group members in between meetings.
The covenant should be reviewed by each group annually or when ever there is a change in the group.
