Two followup questions from last night…

Posted by on Sep 2, 2010 | Comments Off

I’m getting tons of feedback on last night’s “EQUIP: Personal Discipleship” session today.  While the presenters did an incredible job, there are some other things that we’ll tweak in the future to improve those nights.  We could’ve done better from a planning and preparation standpoint and will in the future… but HUGE THANKS to the 100+ of you that were there.

Here are two recurring questions I’ve gotten today following last night’s session (copied and pasted from emails)…

What about introverts?  All of the presenters were extroverted people so relationships will come more naturally to them.  Can an introvert enter into a relationship that “deep”?

Introverts, let me encourage you.  YOU, not the extroverts, have the best personalities suited for personal discipleship.  While someone who leads larger group discipleship (a church, a ministry, a House Group) needs to be able to maintain relational quantity by having lots of relationships, someone who’s investing in someone for personal discipleship needs to be able to maintain relational quality by having a few deep, meaningful relationships with the people they’re investing in.

This is where most introverts I’ve known thrive.  They’re not going to walk into a party and “own the room”, but they’re going to find someone in the room and own their heart.  THAT is the foundation for personal discipleship.  I know initiating the relationship at the beginning will be more intimidating for introverts, but in the long haul they’re built for the deeper relationships of personal discipleship.  Introverts, God created your personality for a reason.  The Kingdom needs you!

I’m afraid if I ask someone if I can disciple them they’ll jump to a defensive stance – “So you think YOU can disciple ME?!”  How can I avoid that?

Here’s why this is tough: the less spiritually mature someone is, the easier it is to offend them and your probably going to be looking for newer Christians to disciple.  A few things…

  • Rule 1: PRAY.  Seriously, pray that God will move someone to ask you to disciple them.  You already know that this prayer is in line with God’s will so He’s going to answer eventually.
  • The people you should consider discipling need to be people who respect you tremendously.  If you’re afraid someone will respond like this, you probably haven’t paid the relational rent necessary to earn their trust and respect yet.  Focus on relationship building right now.
  • Look for God to open the door for discipleship by someone coming to you with their problems.  I’ve only asked someone one time if I could disciple them.  What usually happens is a friend comes to me with their problems and I’ll say, “Hey man, I’ve struggled through this before too.  You want to meet before work on Tuesdays for the next few weeks to talk about what you’re going through?”  Then we’ll start reading or memorizing portions of Scripture together and it turns into a discipleship relationship without them even knowing!

Hope this is helpful.  Keep the questions coming!  If anyone wants to get in touch with any of the presenters from last night here’s some contact info…

Josh Howerton – josh.howerton@bridgesh.com

Rick Howerton – rick.howerton@lifeway.com

John Howard – john.howard@bridgesh.com

Eva Howard – johnevahoward@bellsouth.net

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