Soldier. Athlete. Farmer. These are the models that Paul holds up before Timothy . Each of the three was a member of a group that was engaged in something that was long term. No crash course was available that could produce someone like this overnight.
We would do well to emulate them.
In an era when we are permitted to want our desires and longings met instantaneously, the idea of a long term project does not sit comfortably with us.
"What do we want?"
"Church Growth!"
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
In ministry we are involved in a marathon, not a sprint. We are growing oak trees, not mushrooms. So it is incredibly important that we set about doing the right thing now and not allow ourselves to be distracted into short term gains that may well be wrong, or at best, unhelpful.
In 2 Timothy 2:1-6 Paul commands Timothy to "entrust to faithful men' that which he had, in turn, heard from Paul. How do you think Timothy did this? It surely would have required him to be prayerfully thoughtful and selective concerning those he approached. Is the ministry staff or the mature laymen in our churches doing this? Why not?
Developing long term mature growth in our churches will not happen overnight. It will take time for a minister to work quietly with one or two key men so that they might be brought to a level of maturity where they can, in turn, do the same to other men.
What this could look like
Consider this:
A minister selects one other man and begins to train him properly using a discipling tool such as the "Seven Basic Bible Studies' produced by Matthias Media. He refuses to take short cuts. He goes through the training program in depth. The minister and the layman then commence meeting with another man, someone who is new or who has a mediocre grasp of the Christian faith, and the two of them start taking the third man through the same program.
The advantage of such a method is that the trainee is able to see the trainer using the tool "on the job'. The trainee can ask questions and be given the opportunity to begin developing their own skills in discipling. To say nothing of the phenomenal benefits there are in spending good one-on-one time with key men in the church.
Exponential maturity
What would a church look like if this was maintained over 5 years? Let's say that the minister was able to work with two men every year (6 months allocated to each). Perhaps he could do it fortnightly before breakfast, at their place of work, early Saturday morning or one evening in the week. With each man teaming up with the minister to disciple a third man it may well mean that by the end of one year there are four men who are grounded in the basics of the Christian faith.
Now consider the following year and the three successive years that follow that. Within five years there may well be twenty men who have been exposed to a short course in the Christian Faith and who can teach it to others.
How many churches are you aware of in which there are twenty men who have been instructed in such a way that they are fully capable of instructing or discipling others?
What can we take off the busy minister to allow him to develop such a ministry as this? Imagine how a church would be transformed if there was a constant stream of men being discipled and instructed (in the old days they spoke of people being catechised). It is a great gap in our current church life.
Ministry is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We are in it for the long term. It just might be that with all of our technology and wonderful tools we have forgotten the basic fact that a prayerful man with his Bible is all that has been used over the centuries. Is it time that we got back to basics?
Jim Ramsay is the CEO of Evangelism Ministries, the outreach arm of the Sydney Diocese. Click here to visit the Evangelism Ministries web site.
Photo courtesy Lou Clarke
