Thursday, February 6, 2025
Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
A Personal Story of Discipleship
My children grew up in the walls of this church. Since I worked here they often came after school and stayed until I got off work. They attended Awana’s, choirs, Bible studies, camps, VBS - all of it. They volunteered and served. When my oldest son was 17 he quit coming because he worked on Sundays. He moved out when he was 20 and quit going to church. He lived a life opposite of the way he had been raised but remained close to the family, coming to church occasionally for Mother’s Day and Christmas Eve services. He remained the same loving and caring person he had always been, minus a growing relationship with Jesus. I prayed for him often of course. Then almost exactly 10 years after he had quit coming to church he gave his life to the Lord at his little brother’s house in Oklahoma. He was so excited that he called me and his dad immediately on a three-way call. I have never seen someone so excited and so changed immediately, and he has not slowed down or looked back one time.
He started coming to church. He was searching, looking everywhere he could to gain all the knowledge he could. Right after he was saved, our youth minister, Andrew Williamson, was required by his seminary class to go through a book with a new Christian. They didn’t know each other at all but he reached out to my son about meeting to discuss the possibility of going through this book together. They met and you could say the rest is history, but it can’t be left like that because the story is such an example of the value of discipleship in a new Christian’s life.
Andrew started discipling him one on one. Long after they finished the book, they are still meeting. This discipleship was part of the foundation that God had already laid out for my son long ago. It was his perfect timing that Andrew needed to go through a book with a new Christian exactly when he needed to be discipled. There are others that also met with him and poured into him. Now he has surrendered fully to ministry and although this was all part of God’s plan for his life set from the beginning, I realized that not everyone gets this – but hey should! Their relationship through discipleship was a shining example to me of how very important it is for us to follow God’s lead of discipling others and being discipled, just as he said. We should all have the opportunity as a new Christian to be discipled by a mature Christian.
Discipleship is not just for new Christians. It is of utmost importance for new Christians to be discipled, but it is also for growing Christians as well. In a holistic discipleship relationship, both parties grow. There might be a season when a long time believer feels the need to be discipled. We never stop growing and discipleship is one of God’s gifts to us where that growth can happen. Yes, you can grow by coming to church, reading your Bible, going to a Bible study, but there is something special happening when God brings two of his children together in a discipleship relationship.
Like Pastor Jim told us Sunday, the goal of discipleship is information, transformation, and replication. We make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, and it just keeps going so that all the people to the ends of the earth will hear. These were Jesus’ last words, and they were important. He is trusting us – the body of believers – to continue the work that he started – make disciples. Andrew helped with the information and the transformation came day by day as he grew in his knowledge of the Lord and relationship with him. Replication is his joy.
Are you surrendered to discipling someone or being discipled? Who has God placed in your life or laid on your heart? If not pray that he would show you and be open and willing to be obedient in this special calling.
