It is vital to disciple the next generation. They will help guide us in the present and lead us through the next incredible season to come for the Church. But how do we do this effectively? Here are 7 practical things.

1.We need to Father them

Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians:

“Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” (1 Cor 4:15-17)

Paul considers himself as the Corinthian’s spiritual father because he brought them to Christ but also because he wants them to imitate his life, as children do their parents. I am amazed how quickly young children learn from their parents by imitating them and this is exactly what Paul wants. He then clarifies this later on in the letter:

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1)

So Paul is saying that just as he follows Christ’s example, we should also follow his, but only as he is an example of Christ. Children pick up all the faults of their parents. Paul is not wanting the Corinthians to pick up these but just Christ’s character in him. Paul related to them as his own sons and daughters. This was not a formal mentoring type of discipleship but very relational. John also addresses the believers in the churches of the province of Asia repeatedly as “my dear children” in his first letter. Jesus approached his disciples in the same way. This is how to disciple the next generation.

Although Scripture talks more about fathering, it also talks about spiritual mothers. For example, Deborah, one of the Judges, is called a ‘Mother in Israel’ and Paul gives instructions in his letter to Titus on how older women can disciple younger women. We need both spiritual fathers and mothers in the Church.

This is good in theory but how did this work out in practice with Paul?

For the Apostolic example of this see APOSTOLIC MINISTRY: 7 CHARACTERISTICS OF APOSTLES

2.Share your lives with them

Paul narrates:

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”(1 Thess 2:8)

I once worked with a creative arts Christian team that visited a number of the local schools. One of the team told his testimony one day and I was amazed to discover that this young man had only been a Christian for a year and a half and yet he behaved and talked like a mature Christian of many years and was one of the leaders in the team. In addition he had managed to overcome some habitual holiness issues very quickly. So I asked him afterwards how he had managed to grow so quickly.

He explained how before he had come to faith he had made friends with a Christian youth worker. This guy invited him to hang out with him, at his house, going out for meals, going to see a film, whatever he happened to be doing. So they met up many times per week. During this time he asked the youth worker about many things in his life. When he came to faith through hearing a preacher, he continued to hang out with his friend and to now ask more questions about living the Christian life. Since his friend was so readily available he was able to ask about anything he was facing and about issues of holiness and receive some good answers to them all. So he grew quickly through regular, relational discipleship in which this godly youth worker shared his life with him. Most things are better caught rather than just taught.This is the essence of what Paul did. However, how does this work practically?

3.Let your disciples see your ordinary life

Let people spend time with you at our home when you are doing chores, resting or having a meal. To disciple the next generation they need to see our ordinary lives and our faults as well and how we deal with them. Sometimes leaders seem like models that are almost perfect, because we never see their normal lives. This can give us an impression that we can never be like them! Whereas in reality all leaders have their faults. Our disciples can learn from our mistakes too.

4.Let your disciples journey with you

Most of us have incredibly busy lives and it seems there is no space to disciple people in such a way. I have heard that George Verwer, the founder of the great missionary organisation Operation Mobilisation, manages to maintain many intentional relationships despite his massively busy schedule. How? He does it on the move, inviting people to join him when he is travelling to preach somewhere, or to have lunch with him or to join him on a train trip. The other alternative is to make the space in our busy timetables for this sort of intentional discipleship. This will need us to re-prioritise our diaries.

5.Don’t rely on programmes to disciple

We think in our evangelical churches that discipleship is done through putting the new convert through a discipleship programme. The person does a weekly taught course for say 8 weeks going through some Biblical principles. This is undoubtedly helpful. However, it often doesn’t allow for much personal interaction and dealing with people’s personal problems, which might also not be related to any of the topics covered by our course! The course can be a part of the person’ discipleship but needs to go alongside a form of more relational discipleship. Discipleship in everyday life (as in my example above) has a big advantage in that it demonstrates that God is a normal part of our everyday lives and not just when we go to church.

But of course share lots of Scripture with your disciples and examples of how these verses relate to ordinary life.

6.Place them in a group with a vision to disciple

The other way we try to disciple people is by putting them into a home group or cell group, where Christians meet for Bible study, prayer and fellowship. The group needs to have a strong vision for discipling others (rather than just teaching), be well led, and have commitment to pursuing close relationships with one another.

However, I have seen a lot of new, fired up believers lose their passion after 6 months of attending a home group. How can that be so? It is normally a combination of factors, like the new convert didn’t relate to anyone in the group, no-one intentionally discipling him, low relational commitment and openness to one another in the group, leaders lacking training in discipleship. Such groups are not good to place a new convert in or where you want someone to grow richly in Christ. Comfortable, low commitment groups simply maintain, rather than teaching radical Jesus discipleship.

For more on how to disciple in homes as a church planting strategy see CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS: 4 TRANSFORMING PRINCIPLES

7.Love them!

Spiritual fathering should spring out of a great love for people and the next generation. I spent some time with one of my spiritual fathers at a prayer conference. After sharing at one session, young people queued up to talk to him and hug him. Many wept when they did so, such was the love of the Father that they experienced through him. He has many people and leaders who call him their spiritual father.

This is the quality of spiritual fathering we need today in the Church. Unfortunately it appears to be all too rare.

So let’s be like Paul and Jesus, and intentionally disciple a number of people, through sharing our daily lives with them and loving them like a father.

For more information, see my chapter on this entitled “WHAT CHURCH DO WE NEED? One that fathers the next generation” from my book, “Preparing for the Economic Storm”. This book has many chapters on how to practically prepare for the future. Such as how to encourage the five-fold ministries, encouraging the healing ministry, how to prepare as an organisation etc.

What now?

My book GRACE OUTPOURINGS: 21 DAYS REVIVAL DEVOTIONAL is designed especially to disciple through verses and stories about revival. Do read for a great devotional experience or pass onto others to disciple them in their homes.

My other book also has a chapter on discipleship 5 WAYS TO GET READY FOR A DIVINE VISITATION.