Category: Discipleship and Leadership

As you lead victory groups, keep these in mind:

1. Learn to see things through the lens of eternity. Life is too short to be spent on trivial matters. Prioritize things that have eternal implications. Find the place where you could make the most impact and aim for it. Spend your life doing the things that could bring God the highest honor. Or put another way, spend your life in a way that could do the most damage to the kingdom of darkness.

Acts 20.24: I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

2. Never mind who gets the credit. As you do discipleship, you might come across people who would only be there for a season. Some of them move to other places or transfer to other Christian churches. It would be a lie if you tell me it’s not frustrating. Of course it’s frustrating, but only if you are more interested in building your “own” group than the Body of Christ.

In God’s Kingdom, you just need to be faithful with what is given to you. If you have one person to disciple, be faithful with that one. Pour out your life to helping that one person grow. In the end, it’s not the parade of numbers that matter to God but the faithfulness of your heart in embracing what has been entrusted to your care. And if that one person moves out, rejoice at the role you played in his Christian walk.

In the book of Acts, Paul was faithful in preaching the Word to the Ephesians even if he knew he will never see them again. He played his role and moved on gracefully. “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.” (Acts 20.25)

3. Keep watch over yourselves. When you do discipleship, do not forget to take care of your own spiritual life. Don’t you ever buy into the delusion that just because you are fruitful, you are automatically holy. Successful ministry is not measured by numeric indicators. When Christ addressed the seven churches in Revelation, he did not commend the larger churches and rebuked the smaller ones. Instead, he hit at the heart of character, faith, endurance, compromise, idolatry, and immorality.

Acts 20.28: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers…

4. Be shepherds. Don’t treat your victory group members as statistics to feel good about. They’re humans. They’re flesh and blood who need encouragement, prayers, friendships and a tangible expression of the love of Christ. Shepherd them. Know their names and their stories. Bind their wounds and mend their brokenness. Go to lunch with them and listen to their corny jokes. And while you do this, don’t forget that they’ll know when you’re faking it.

Acts 20.28: …be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

5. Raise true disciples. In the book of Acts, Paul warned about people rising up from within the church who will want to distort the truth and lead others astray. Be on guard against this men. But more importantly, before that could even happen, make sure you are raising up true disciples who will take leadership roles in the church. Create a culture of discipleship and honoring God. It may be tedious and would take a lot of time and hardwork but it will save you from a lot of trouble in the future.

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Acts 20.29-31)

Rom 1:11-12 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you– that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

1. The purpose of the coming together of believers is spiritual impartation and mutual encouragement, not just to entertain one another with funny stories and anecdotes. Amusing your discipleship groupmates has its place in the life of the church but there is a serious business that needs to be done in every meeting- the feeding of the word of God.

2. Paul longed to see them for the impartation of spiritual gifts. There is power in seeing people face to face. While electronic communication has a role in keeping in touch with one another, don’t forget that there is a warmth that could never be translated into a million pixels.

3. When you meet, be sure to impart something that could strengthen each other’s spiritual lives. People need encouragement. They need to experience the transforming power of Jesus everyday. Anything less than that drains the life out of them.

4. It is the job of the leader to bring the presence of Christ into the midst of any discipleship meeting, or to be theologically correct, it is the job of the leader to make the atmosphere of the meeting conducive to the presence of God. That is the only thing that would fuel them to come back next time. Make them experience something they can’t get anywhere else- the presence of God.

5. Move in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Pentecost happened not to dazzle the world with a display of an amazing manifestation of power. God can do that using other means. The Pentecost happened to fire up believers to move under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to teach us that there is a way to minister using a power that doesn’t come from our own.

6. Impart spiritual gifts. Don’t give empty words. I repeat, don’t feed them with empty words. Smart quotes may amuse them. Solid arguments may impress them. But only the word of God can give them life. Only the word of God can show them the way to freedom from the slavery of sin. Only the word of God can make them strong believers of Christ.

7. Strengthen them. Don’t beat them to death with condemnation and accusing words. Remind yourself that discipleship meetings are supposed to give life, not inflict death. Communicate love and grace and life and freedom and faith and kindness and mercy. Tell them of Christ’s love, not the raging fires of burning sulfur in hell. When the good Samaritan found the traveler that was beaten to death on the side of the road (Luke 10), he didn’t tell him how stupid he was for going that way and for traveling alone. He bandaged his wound and poured oil and wine on it. That is a picture of tenderness and Christ-like love. The good Samaritan didn’t accuse. He treated the victim tenderly. Let’s do that to our victory group buddies.

8. If you notice the verse I quoted above, it ends with mutual encouragement. When you come together, keep your eyes and ears open. You may be the leader of the group but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from them. The more you pour yourself out to encourage others, there’s a freshness that comes to you from heaven. This is the power of the Holy Spirit that works constantly in us. Look at this verse:

Pro 11:25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. (ESV)
Pro 11:25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. (NIV84)

Random tip for victory group leaders who wish to succeed in their discipleship: turn off your cell phones. Or at least set it to silent mode and don’t touch it again until the meeting is over.

Everyone knows how irritating it is when the person you are talking to stops in the middle of the conversation and starts texting. Aside from the fact that it’s unprofessional, it communicates an unmistakable message that we do not care and that they don’t matter that much to us.

Of course we care. We wouldn’t be there if we didn’t. But no matter how good your intentions are, when your actions say otherwise, that person may never see you again.

I will never forget this one time when I had a meeting with someone who can’t seem to let go of his phone for even a minute. I was pouring my heart out to him in the hopes of getting a proper biblical counsel. I told him stories that were very difficult to talk about but while I was in a state of heavy drama, he was texting under the table. I don’t remember how the meeting ended and I don’t remember what he said that day but I could remember very well the sense of insignificance he inadvertently communicated to me when he did it.

We don’t want to send that message to the people we are ministering to. If we want to show them the love of Christ, we can begin by giving them proper time and attention. That communicates value to them. I know we have important things to attend to but even Jesus, whose mission was to save the entire humanity, took the time to slow down and embrace the children. He showed them their significance by paying attention to them (Mark 10.13-16).

What are your cellphone habits when you’re in a meeting?