Frustration part 1

I can frustrate someone I disciple when...

1. I Disciple them as “Mine” and not “God’s”

1 Peter 5:2, “Shepherd the flock of God…”

Those that we disciple belong to God. It is easy over time to lose sight of this and slowly begin to view them as “ours” or “mine”. I have several guys that I am discipling right now but in reality they are much more than “my guys”, they are heirs, children, beloved in the Kingdom. I am just given the honor to walk with them during this season to help them make disciples of Jesus.
When the perspective of “mine” begins to dominate the way we view those we are discipling then we are taking steps towards manipulation and stunting their growth in Christ.

Key: This frustrates those we disciple because it limits their potential. Those we disciple should have the vision of their life shaped by Jesus and His potential for them. When I disciple as “mine” I limit their potential to “us”.
Here are a couple of practical things that have helped me in this.

1. Disciple through the context of community. This makes disciple making a group or “family” effort, allowing everyone to have multiple trusted influences.

2. Regularly pray for humility as a disciple. It is easy for my pride and opinion of self to get so high that I think I am all that the person needs. (Rom. 12:3, Phil 2:3-5)

3. When the person I am discipling is walking through something that I do not know much about or can’t adequately relate to I try to point them towards someone who is more equipped for that situation.

Frustration

When I say the word "frustration" in relationship to disciple making you may have thoughts like:

"I get so frustrated that he/she won't listen."
"It is taking so long for them to get what I am saying."
"I am so frustrated with the one I am discipling that I wonder if I should just move on."
"They are making me so mad because..."

I want to challenge your thinking about frustration. One simple challenge is this. Most of the time when we are frustrated with those we discple it is selfish frustration. We get frustrated because they do not do what WE want. The is us centered.

But, that is not really the challenge I want to give here. Over my next few posts (I know it has been a while) I hope to expose ways that we as disciplers frustrate those we disciple. Maybe you have never had that thought. None of us are perfect at disciple making and this can cause those we are investing in to get frustrated with us. But we don't see their frustration and our error because we think too highly of ourselves. We may not say it out loud but it is easy to put all the blame on the ones we are pouring into and not take any of the "credit" ourselves.

So get ready to hear about ways that I have frustrated people...

Worth the Read

I thought I would share a few of the books that have influenced me as a disciple maker. I don't agree with everything in every book but they have all made me better, I hope.

Master Plan of Evangelism - Coleman (Best book ever written on disciple making. I have read it every year since 1996. Getting ready for the 2010 reading)

Spiritual Mentoring - Anderson & Reese

Transforming Discipleship - Ogden

Sacred Companions - Benner (I loaned to someone and can't find it!)

Paul's Idea of Community - Banks

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, a conversation in spiritual theology - Peterson

Humility - Andrew Murray

I started reading Life Together by Bonhoeffer today (4/19/10). I feel like it is going to be worth the read...

I am probably forgetting something....