Variable Terrain

I read: 2 Timothy

I found two things in this second chapter right off the bat that spoke to Matt the Youth Director and that's what I'm going to write about today. "Pass on what you heard from me--the whole congregation saying Amen!--to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others."

I actually just finished reading the chapter on creating student leaders in Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry so I guess that is kind of front and center in my brain when I read these verses. Well, it's front and center for many reasons really. I think what I'm really passionate about within the Church is the idea of creating Christians with depth. The quote attributed to Chuck Colson that the Church is a million miles wide but only an inch deep is very true and very horrifying. My passion and my gifts don't really lie in the realm of evangelism but rather discipleship (perhaps that's a dichotomy that I invented but I think that people and organizations and churches seem to fall somewhere on a spectrum between those two points). I would rather see the Christians we have become stronger in faith before we add new ones. We need evangelism, but I would rather see a much stronger core of Christians doing the evangelism than a few strong ones who will bring new people into a church incapable of teaching them anything.

Weird rant. Anyways, the point of this passage is this: we have the students who are fertile ground, who want to learn. And in them we should be making them leaders. Leaders in that they know how to lead but are also competent in their faith and able to pass it on. That's why I love the discipleship model in Greg Ogden's (Ben: Ahem.) Transforming Discipleship so much. It's so simple, so effective, and so necessary. Discipling two at a time with them going on to disciple two more is such a vital necessity of the church right now. Not only is this form of discipleship teaching spiritual habbits, it also mandates that they go and lead.

And then there's the other kind of ground: the rock-strewn, hen-pecked kind. The kind where seeds won't take hold. Concerning those, Paul commands: "God's servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey." What's the basis of what Paul's saying? Keep sowing. Sow until someone, maybe not necessarily you, can start turning that person into a leader.