Thanks to all of you out there that contributed last week on Duct Tape Approach to Discipleship.  There were a lot of good thoughts that were generated from that post.  It is hard for me to pull everyone’s opinions together but in this post I am going to begin to try and do so.

For a topic as big as this there is not just one answer. BUT, I do think that there are two parts to discipleship that have been missing in the Church that have been staring at us right in the face.  These two parts were mentioned more that once by all the different people that posted.

I am going to tackle the first one now.  In all of the discussions there was an element that had to be present for any discipleship to work at all.  Whether that was a group or a class.

It is the personal involvement of one believer in the life of another.  This we can call Personal Discipleship. It is not relying on a program or system to better someone but an individual that works in part with the Holy Spirit.

I was reading a blog the other day that talked about a difference between mentoring and coaching.  Both parts are uniquely different according to that article but both parts are needed in Personal Discipleship.

Let’s look at mentoring as one half of the personal discipleship mentioned above;

Mentoring is the act of putting time & effort into someone.  Most of the time this is more for their benefit and not yours.  Although, as it pertains to a Christian life it will benefit them, you, the church and those around them.

  • Mentoring is giving of oneself to build up another individual.
  • It can cost the mentor up front with not much visible potential for a return.
  • It’s like investing though, because you expect some type of return.
  • Even though you may expect a return ‘don’t’ always expect to see it for yourself.
  • There is no set periods of time for mentoring because everyone learns differently and has different needs.
  • Mentoring increases your capacity to love because it causes your empathy skills to develop.

Who have you been mentoring lately?  Where have you benefited from this type of relationship?  What does this look like for the church (big C) in general?

We will hit the second part of this later this week. Have a great Monday!