Author: Jojo Agot

The question of using too much humor in victory group meetings has been coming up a lot lately in our coaching sessions. “We are not clowns!” I insisted. But truth be told, I’m probably saying that because I am not the type of person who can crack a joke spontaneously, at least not in colloquial Tagalog. If I was a natural born jokester, I’d probably dislike my own advise.

My problem lies in the fact that whereas I could very well appreciate the place and value of humor in discipleship meetings (namely, to keep us awake), I am also well aware of our natural tendency to amuse ourselves to death if we are left to our own devices. Perhaps we have all seen discipleship groups that are dying precisely because the leaders had the mistaken notion that discipleship is all about fun and laughter. The Word of God and prayer were relegated to the backseat. I believe that somewhere, a line must be drawn. But where?

Today, Pastor Ferdie Cabiling of Victory Ortigas did a whole day lecture on preaching in our school. Naturally, humor was the first question I asked. I believe his counsel hits the heart of the matter: humor must only be used to illustrate a point and advance the flow of idea. Humor for the sake of amusement only distracts.

Leaders, when we exert more effort at amusing each other than doing the ministry of the word and prayer, we are wasting precious time that we will never get back. We may never have that same opportunity to reach a person with the gospel. May this sober us up of our mandate. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “do not squander time for that is the stuff that life is made of.”

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. (Genesis 1.11)

This is a curious feature of God’s creation, each plant reproducing its own kind. Long before scientists discovered deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) to dictate the genetic make up of reproducing organisms, God was already at work at nature, ensuring us that His creation doesn’t surprise us with weird mutations.

But more than the biological aspect of creation, God actually gave us one basic principle of discipleship: you reproduce the kind of person you are in the lives of those you disciple. Your spiritual DNA is replicated in the people you lead. The kind of culture you live out in front of them will be the kind of culture that they will pass on to their followers.

This is the tricky part. As a discipleship group leader, you are actually in the position to pass on either a bad DNA code or a good DNA code to the people you lead. Each according to its kind. Each leader leads according to the way it was modeled to him by his leader. Whether the next generation will continue to be passionate about reaching the lost is actually up to you now. The ball is in your hands.