Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship

Gospel-Centered (Christ-Centered)

I recently read Jonathan Dodson's curiously titled book, Fight Clubs. Dodson is the pastor of Austin City Life Church. He has made his book free to download. Fight Clubs weighs in at a light 51 pages.

In Fight Clubs, Dodson briefly relates his personal experiences with accountability groups he was involved in and how he moved away from Legalistic-checklist-Keeping-the-rules-Duty-driven-accountability-groups to God-honoring-Motivated-by-holy-affection-for-God-sin-fighting-groups.

Dodson worked to create a practical, Christ-centered accountability/discipleship model that would;

"avoid legalism by promoting a Christ-Centered reading of the scriptures... [and] avoid license by taking seriously the fight of faith against the flesh... [and] promote lasting joy in Jesus."pg 50

How Gospel-Centered Discipleship Works:

"Gospel-centered discipleship focuses the heart's attention onto Jesus, beholding and becoming like him." pg 15

Dodson calls on Christians to start fighting sin in a Romans 8:13 way. And he defines the fight in great part as "a fight to believe that the image of Jesus is the best image to fight for" pg 16

Dodson asserts that discipleship is a community project and outlines a model he calls Fight Clubs.

"Disciples of Jesus are part of a community that fights the fight of faith. What we need are small fighting communities that are committed to gospel-centered discipleship."pg 36

Dodson describes these communities (fight clubs) as, small, simple groups of 2-3 who meet regularly to help one another beat the flesh and believe in the promises of God.

There are three rules to Dodson's Fight Club:

1.) Know Your Sin
2.) Fight Your Sin
3.) Trust Your Savior

"The greatest weapon against our opponents is Spirit-empowered faith in the promises of God that have been guaranteed by the death of Christ."

After pondering what I read, I found the Fight Club model to be great for accountability and fighting sin, but not entirely adequate for believers to plug into as the complete solution for discipleship and community assisted spiritual growth. Dodson has developed other outlets that focus on those particular goals more effectively. Before ironing out Fight Clubs, he developed City-groups. (small groups that impact the city as well as the believers)

"City groups are geographically-based, city-focused communities of people that gather throughout the week to share life and truth, love God and one another, and engage the social and spiritual needs of our city. They're awesome, a place where the church can be the church to one another and to the city."

Any thoughts?

The Dodson Family