One-on-one discipleship is how workers are developed
This article urges churches to see people as “sheep without a shepherd” and to respond by training workers through personal, one-on-one discipleship. It explains why significant spiritual growth usually requires shared life and intentional attention, not only weekly programs. It also shows a simple, reproducible method for mentoring that leads to making more disciples.
- Jesus calls his followers to pray for workers and to train others to make disciples.
- Long-term spiritual growth often happens best through personal attention and shared life.
- One-on-one discipleship is reproducible and prepares believers to train others anywhere they go.
By Drew Severson
Picture lost people, the people we live and work with, the people our churches were planted to reach. Now picture the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, standing across from them.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field'” (Matthew 9:36-38).
Jesus compared the people of his day to sheep. Some sheep had wandered off, and others were harassed and helpless. These sheep were in need of someone—workers—who would go to them, care for them, and guide them. Jesus invited the disciples to pray that God would send workers, and he trained men who would labor in the harvest. After they were trained, Jesus expected them to train others, a principle he communicated in the command “make disciples of all nations.”
There it is, the Great Commission, the command that drives everything we do in the church. Unfortunately, few Christians understand how to make disciples personally themselves. Even some people serving in leadership positions have no idea how to carry out this command in their own lives.
The Key
How do we develop workers in the body of Christ? Whether you call it discipleship or mentoring, the key is personal attention—one person intentionally giving up his life for another. Jesus illustrated this truth when he said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it” (John 12:24, 25). For most people, long-term, significant change happens only in a one-on-one situation. It happens through a shared life, and a relationship with someone they can trust, over a period of sharing, learning, and growing together. For the vast majority of people, significant spiritual growth requires more than a once-a-week sermon, a Sunday school class, or even participation in a small group.
Young children need a lot of attention as they grow physically. However, they grow older and become more mature until they finally are adults and can have children of their own.
It works the same way in the spiritual realm. When we accept Christ we become like newborn babes. We require personal attention to become mature believers in Christ. Peter wrote about this spiritual process: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
The Method
Here’s how this can work. I offer to lead a Bible study in my church. Five couples begin meeting once a week. Over the next month, I observe that one of the men who attends seems to desire to grow deeper in his relationship with God. He studies every week and displays a hunger for spiritual things.
So, I ask him, “Would you like to meet together for lunch or after work to encourage each other more in our Christian walk?” If he agrees, we begin meeting together weekly to read the Bible and pray for each other. Through this his faith is strengthened.
As our relationship deepens, we become accountable to each other. We confess our sins, and he experiences God’s forgiveness anew. He begins asking questions about faith and the Bible he was hesitant to ask in a larger setting. We study topics related to the problem areas in his life. We don’t move ahead until he is ready.
During all this, he is being trained to reproduce another disciple. Soon he will have the skills and confidence to invite someone else into this kind of relationship, and the process repeats itself.
It Works!
This is a biblical model for ministry. One reason Jesus called the twelve was to “be with them” (Mark 3:14). As Leroy Eims wrote in The Lost Art of Disciple Making, Jesus gave his life for millions, but he shared his life in a unique way with those twelve men.
Paul was also compelled to share the gospel and his life with those he wanted to influence (1 Thessalonians 2:8). Later he gave this charge to Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). We must constantly search out reliable men who, after we invest in them, will be qualified to teach others.
This model is also reproducible. Once a man is trained, he will be able to effectively minister anyplace he goes. If he moves to another city or church, he will continue to look for a faithful man to meet with one-on-one.
And this model works. It worked for me, and I have seen it work for others. There is no reason to believe it won’t continue working.
When you start spending personal time with another person to help him grow spiritually, something happens in your own life as well. You will find it the most fulfilling and exciting ministry you’ve experienced.
Drew Severson serves on a team leading a young adult ministry at Calvary Christian Church in Bellevue, Nebraska.
