Discipleship - Passing on

Discipleship  - Passing on

Pr Janice Chern

29 January 2017

Our KKE theme is Revisioning Discipleship

Matthew 4:19

Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.

2 Timothy 1:13-14

13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

v13 “…keep as the pattern of sound teaching…”,
v14 “…. guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you...”
The context of the above verses is in verses 5 & 6 where Paul was reminding Timothy that it was his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice who had faithfully been passing on the faith they received to him.

We are called as disciples of Christ to pass on our faith as we were reminded in Matthew 4:19 “….Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” to make disciples not just in teaching but is also reflected in our lifestyle. A disciple is essentially following a lifestyle - the way we live our live.

Introduction

The example of the celebration of CNY are in many ways instructional based where cultures were passed on and modelling of these instructions by elders reinforces the instructions. In the Christian context, the elder’s lifestyles will coach the disciple the principle of Christian living. As disciples, we need to ask questions to our mentors and check the answers against the Word of God. A disciple making church is to reproduce disciples to make disciples for ultimately it is the aim to make every generation to know the great God and praise His mighty works. Psalm 145: 4

How life change can happen 

The example of how a man who struggle with his lust felt the difference when he was mentored and when he voluntarily decided to end the mentoring relationship. When he was being mentored he felt safe to confide, felt no condemnation, prayed, spent time in devotion, lived a life honouring God however when he stopped the mentoring relationship, bad decisions were made, not seeking God at lives crossroads, spiritual life went dry and felt a lack of guidance. The example showed how in mentoring both the mentor and the mentored needed to work together to reap its benefits.

What Is Mentoring 

The illustration of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, fights in the Trojan War and entrusts the care of his household to Mentor, who serves as teacher and overseer of Odysseus' son. So mentoring is a figure that imparts knowledge and share wisdom to someone who is less experience. In the biblical context, it is to ensure our younger generation is look after and brought up well thus ensuring the generations to come will follow after Jesus too.
V15 also implied that we need to guard else we may lose whatever we have gained.

Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton defined mentoring as

 “A relational experience in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources”.
Resources can be knowledge, money, time, experience, networking or influence. It is enabling another by sharing resources.

Why mentor

In serving together, as leaders, we are being observed. People can pick up if we are emphatic, compassionate, understanding or open. As Christian leaders our lifestyles are important as examples for others to follow. As a family of God we are to look out for each other for when distraction comes and there are disruptions in their Christian journey, support will be rallied to uphold each other. As the old adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We need to reproduce disciples effectively. We need to disciple our next generation to have an authentic Christian faith.

The story of Mentor

Mentor - king went for 20 years of war against Trojan and the elder called Mentor trained up his young son. The King returned to have a young man prepared for his roles as prince.

You can lose what you are taught if we do not guard it. Therefore we need to teach the younger ones how to keep the faith and make it grow.

Barriers to life change

Generational bias can be a barrier to being mentored. A young man can also mentor somebody, for age does not qualify reproducibility. Neither is an older person necessary be a better mentor for in the richness of his experience, he can be bias to the younger person’s faith as they wanted to step out in faith.
The fear of accountability where someone who consistently checks on us, fear of being vulnerable, fear of rejection, fear of commitment are some barriers to the process of being mentored.
In spite of all the above, we are called to be “FAT + H” Christians. Faithful, Available, Teachable and Hungry.
For mentoring is spiritual friendship eagerly helping one another to know, love, serve and resemble God in greater and deeper ways. So sharing of resources will bound to cause life change for life on life will impact life. Sharing of life will impact life. As leaders, our word carry a lot of weight. We need to let go and let God work in their heart. They too need to grasp the heart of the loving Father.

E Stanley jones
My life in my hand is pain and problem but my life in God’s hand is power and possibility. When I saw people who believe in me, I saw my life was different. It helps me to walk with Jesus.

What is mentoring ? 

Why we need mentoring ?

These children are left in neglect. The phenomena is very alarming. Likewise in Churches, the needs to mentor the younger Christians is also huge task. We need to model lifestyle, ask questions, 

How can we do mentoring ?    

Lifestyle and coaching spiritual life for the younger members. 

Conclusion 

Grow FAT and be hungry for God

Faithful 

Available 

Teachable + 

Hungry for God

Questions :-

1) Name the real reasons people don't Mentor. Go deep in your hating.

2) How are you availing yourself to be mentored ? if not, how can you start ? 

3) So, why mentoring in a disciple-making church ?