Although one on one discipleship is wonderful, I quit doing discipleship that way because it’s less effective and only impacts one person at a time.
Interestingly, I had lunch with discipleship author Greg Ogden a few years ago when I was doing some small group leader training at Christ Church in Oakbrook, IL, where he was then on staff. (Greg is the author of the excellent book Transforming Discipleship, which explains Biblical and practical principles for life-changing discipleship.) Greg told me he stumbled onto mini-groups in a similar way. He had been doing one-on-one discipleship for over 20 years. Then while working on his D.Min. degree at Fuller Seminary and developing the material that would later become his book Discipleship Essentials, his supervisor Roberta Hestenes, asked him to try using his curriculum in three different contexts—in a one-on-one relationship, in a group of three, and in a group of ten.
He was surprised to discover that the mini-group setting more powerful impacted people’s lives than the one-on-one or the larger group contexts. He totally changed his approach and has seen deeper impact and greater multiplication. It was obvious as I talked to leaders in his church that day that discipleship had permeated the culture of his church.
What about you? Have you tried Jesus’pattern of investing deeply with a core group of three or four others? What insights do you have to share? What questions do you have about this discipleship pattern?
