Developing Followers of Jesus Among the Men of Nags Head Church in Nags Head, NC

Abstract

Based on an exegetical study of the interconnectedness of love for God and love for fellow believers in 1 John, this project is built on a small-group format that utilizes love for fellow believers as an avenue for spiritual growth. Through an eight-lesson study conducted on a weekly basis, participants engage in the command to love one another and God. This engagement involves learning about love from the text of 1 John, as well as participating in spiritual disciplines, and completing practical assignments designed to bring the theoretical idea of love into practice in real relationships with one another.The program was run with six men (the author being one of the six), in the summer of 2021. The program was life-changing for the participants, forging friendships where there had been none, and creating community in the place of isolation. The community created continued even after the program ended, birthing a new running of the program with a separate group of men, and led by two men from the original group (the author is not one of the two).