For the second interview of someone from a church dealing with Disciple making and equipping ministry I interviewed my small group coach from Victory Christian Fellowship. His name is David Appel and he is the young adults life groups coach. His role is one of lay leadership. He does not get paid to do this role and he is in charge of leading about 6 young adult life groups at the church. So I spent some time with him having him answer some questions about what his processes are for making disciples through this ministry he is involved with.
The first question I asked him was what his process was for making disciples?
David first told me that he believes making disciples to be taking someone from where they are and helping them to become what God wants them to be. His process for this is an organic one. This requires meeting people where they are in their lives, seeing where God is working in their lives and encouraging them to have trust and faith in God to pursue God’s desire for their lives. This is a process that varies from person to person and really depends on where they are with their walk with the Lord.
The second question that I asked David was what the biggest challenge that he faced in making disciples?
David said that the biggest challenge is find the time to develop a trusting relationship with someone and finding someone who is willing to let others speak into their lives. Also something really interesting that he said was that as he disciples others he has to be willing to allow others to speak into his life also. He said that their needs to be an openness to this idea as we disciple people. He believes that developing a relationship where both parties are open, honest and vulnerable is difficult to attain but very important in making disciples. A disciple has to have willingness to change and grow despite any obstacles that may come. Also a person who is being discipled needs to have an honest look at who they are and how they are.
The third question that I asked David about disciple making was what are some of the ways that he equips people for ministry?
One of the ways that he equips people for ministry is to teach people to listen to God’s voice in their lives. He says that if he can teach people to listen to God and his direction, teach them to yield to the Holy Spirit and to obey the direction of God in their lives then everything else will fall into place. Another way that he equips people for ministry is by helping people to discover their spiritual gifts and to encourage them to step out in faith and try new things.
The third and last question that I asked David was how does he measure his effectiveness?
In order to evaluate his effectiveness David has a list of questions that he asks himself and then he evaluates the answers and assesses where they are growing and where they may need support. The questions are as follows:
Are they growing in the knowledge of God?
Are they making disciples of others?
Are they using their spiritual gifts?
Are they nurturing their relationship with Christ through spiritual disciplines?
Do they participate actively in a small group?
Do they attend worship regularly?
Do they actively serve others?
Are they growing in their relationships with family and friends?
Are they exceling or succeeding at work or do they have a good work ethic?
After going through these question and spending time with the answers he says he can gauge where a person is at in their spiritual growth and see what else can be done to help them become better disciples.
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