Calling students to follow by Brandon Riley
In scripture we see that the call to follow Jesus was often initiated by Jesus himself. In the gospels when Jesus began his ministry and chose his disciples….he didn’t wait for the creme-of-the-crop students of the law to sign up for his discipleship program…Jesus went out and found the men he believed to be ready to follow and presented the opportunity to be his disciple.
Often times in the church we have discipleship programs or small groups or mentoring ministries that funnel students in through a system where they are matched up with a group of students and a spiritually mature adult in order to help them grow spiritually. These “systems” of discipleship are often good and often bear much fruit, but sometimes fall short. I myself have found myself in these types of “systems” for more than 7 years as I have attempted to mentor and disciple teenagers. While these systems are good and useful, they can sometimes be so rigid that they fail to leave room for the spirit of God to move and work.
Over the years I have found great power in calling students like Jesus did to be apart of a small group or mentoring group, rather than waiting for them to be assigned to me. On different occasions I have met students at a student ministry event or a friend of someone in my current small group and asked them if they had ever considered being apart of something deeper that would challenge them in their walk. Most of the time they were interested and most of the time they didn’t come right away but a seed was planted.
Often I will take two students from my small group and disciple at a greater intensity for a period of 9 months. The two students I choose I almost always choose and ask. Rarely will a student come to me and beg to be discipled.
I have found that I always have to be keeping my eyes open and looking for those students who are ready to go to that next step or deeper level. Its an organic process that sometimes systems can’t handle. I’m a systems guy and love processes, however I have had to learn that when it comes to making disciples God’s system is always better than my finite approach.
