I love spending time with my 3-year-old grandson. He will work alongside me around the house because he likes to “do stuff with Papi.” Sometimes we will work on a project together or do chores together. Other times we will go for a walk and observe the world God has created. Sometimes we play with his toys together. We do things together for several reasons.
- We both love doing things together.
- My grandson needs to learn how to do things, how to work and how things work. (His favorite question: “How does is work, Papi?”
- He needs to appreciate nature and see the glory of God in nature.
- He needs to learn about the holiness, mercy, grace and justice of God.
- I have a responsibility to pass on to my grandson the things I have learned from and about God and spending time together facilitates that.
I try to do the same thing in my ministry. Not with my grandson, but with others. If I teach a class, I want to have someone in training teaching with me. If I am counseling, I want to have someone in the room observing me to learn how to counsel. The idea is that as we go through life, we should be preparing and equipping others around us to do the work of the ministry. In his report on a recent trip to teach biblical counseling for us in Moldova, Bill Tully said,
I told them it is our desire to see them become effectively equipped biblical counselors who are effectively making a difference in the lives of others who are seeking for answers to the problems they are encountering in life. Therefore, if they are actively applying the principles they are learning personally and practically using the principles to help others find answers to their problems, they will find us to be interested in doing what we are able to do to help them become effective biblical counselors. On the other hand, I also reinforced the fact that we are interested in those who will practice what they are taught, not just simply accumulate knowledge.
One of the questions that came up in the closing Q&A session is one of the big questions of counseling in every culture, “How do we counsel all the needs that arise within our congregations, there are so many?” The answer to that question is also, Strive to always be training someone else!
Remember, there is always someone in our spheres of influence that has less experience or knowledge than we. Therefore, we can always be helping with the discipleship of someone.
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