I’m anti ‘1 on 1′ discipleship!
Yep, that’s right…we do not do ongoing 1 on 1 discipleship at MSU!
Maybe you think that we’re Christian heretics now.
A few years ago we found that at MSU the 1 on 1 discipleship culture we had adopted was limiting our growth at MSU. So we took aim at that “belief” of how discipleship was done and blew it out of the water. Now we maintain a higher number of relationships and we involve a higher number of students in spiritual multiplication earlier in their involvement with our ministry. The primary avenue of our discipleship now is our small groups and out of that we often gather 2 or 3 at a time to address various issues. It’s not perfect, it’s often messy, but it’s worth it. Oh, and I’d bet you’d be surprised to know that we’re lucky if we have 2 “student leadership” meetings a semester!
Things I’ve learned:
- I do sit down with various students for 1 on 1 appointments every now and then to address certain issues. But not ongoing and certainly not for 1 hour at the same time every week in the same coffee shop.
- I’m kidding myself if I think that everything a student learns about God is found in me.
- Groups of 3 or 4 discussing spiritual growth is way more fun.
- It is awesome-sauce to involve students in spiritual multiplication
What do you think? Am I crazy? What’s the downfalls? What’s the perks?
Lee, Russell,, 1903-, photographer
I couldn’t agree more. I used to be all about 1v1 discipleship.. until i realized every relationship students were having were 1v1 scheduled hangouts in coffee shops! I look to now meet with 2-3 students at a time weekly. And after a season I send them to other folks. We need students to hear different voices and different perspectives. We’re not building clones of us!!!
We still do 1-on-1 discipleship, and we’re not abandoning the structure, but I’ll echo your point: it doesn’t work outside of community. 1-on-1 time has a lot of value when these guys are invested in following Jesus together as a group, and it needs to be seen as a subset of the larger act of community discipleship. It never works when it’s done with those who are outside of the commnity.
Great thought Nick! I think your comment describes the principle that we’d like to be about across the board. That growth is tied to involvement with a community not just a 1-1 time with a ministry leader.
I’d be really interested to hear how you balance your time and who you choose to spend 1-1 time with?
dude can’t believe i never saw this post.
wish you were in our region–1 on 1 is still going strong.
i think about it in relation to stewardship–in light of my scope (the entire campus) and the scarce resources i have to invest in that scope, one on one does not make a lot of sense.
i would cite the shift from one on one to group discipleship as one of the turning points in getting our movement here at chico healthy.
great post!