I came across an interesting challenge from our TG friend
Eric Foley in his blog on discipleship. The focus of his blog entry was on not
doing all our discipling at retreats or over a cup of coffee. But rather imitate Christ and disciple people
as you go. Take people along and let the
example you give on the journey be part of your discipleship training.
For example in the last few years of my time pastoring a
church I stated taking some of the church members with me to hospital
visits. I did not train them to visit
the sick; I just took them with me. We all
learned a great deal by doing it together.
So now let’s take this same principle and see how it fits
TG.
The ‘programs’ we are seeking to fund (missionaries, sending
agencies, rescue ministries, churches and para-churches) all have the same
opportunity to bring people along in their transformation. We can do this through imitation.
Rather than just teaching about the powerful changes of the
local soup kitchen, take them to the local soup kitchen with you. Rather than
just teaching the church attender the power of visiting the sick, take them
with you to visit the sick. For a missionary
serving on the other side of the world you may say, “I cannot take all my
champions to the ends of the earth to experience the outreach.” True, but remember serving the world with a
servant’s heart is at the core of the Great Commission. So show a servant heart serving with them.
Seek ways to serve the champion not just for the champion to serve you.
Allow your service to be a reflection of what you are
teaching them when you do meet for a cup of coffee or speak from a pulpit. Reach
out to others together. Serve as you go and imitate the heart of Christ to the
champion.
Basically we can take people deeper in their journey of transformation
by getting our hands dirty and doing it with them. In this we are discipling by example and
using our actions for opportunities to reinforce the principles we teach. Seeing us practice what we preach as we go is
a key way to getting the message out of the building and into the street.
