Discipleship

A few decades ago, God put me in a Youth Fellowship where I could grow with other youths in my discipleship journey. I remembered having to meet our Youth Advisor one hour before the Youth meeting so that we could share our quiet time thoughts with him. Our advisor wanted to nurture us as youth leaders, and he was watching our spiritual growth. We were being discipled as a group. Later, he was able to find some young adults in the church to spend one on one time with each of us. To this day, I am thankful for this discipleship journey because it helped me to live my life worthy of the gospel and spurred me to love God, obey Him and to serve Him. I remembered starting to serve God at age 17, and I am still serving God today. Serving God is a great privilege, not a burden.

When I was a working adult, I began to serve in the Sunday School. I worked alongside many mature believers, and they have impacted my life too. Their passion and fervent prayers for the students encouraged me to make prayer a focus in any ministry I was led to serve in. I am always grateful for the many opportunities to serve God, to see His hand at work in and through me to accomplish His will.

When Fah Yong and I worked cross-culturally, we had plenty of opportunities to disciple university students and young adults. It was a joy to see them growing in their faith and influencing others in their lives. Many are now married and nurturing their own families. I remembered a young man that Fah Yong was discipling. He came from a remote village and when he came to the big city, he had to make many adjustments. We needed to disciple him holistically. He had no confidence and he walked with his head lowered – we had to encourage him to lift his head, and to walk boldly and confidently. He ate his meals in a rough manner, so we had to tell him how to eat politely. He had never ridden in a car before. One time, I had to stop him from opening the car door while it was moving – he thought he was opening the car’s window. We had to be patient and love him as a dear brother in Christ. After some months, his pastor was able to see a vast improvement in him not only spiritually but in different aspects of his life.

We can also experience disciple-making in our SGC community. In community, we are continuously impacting one another. We are always learning from one another’s example; your participation in an activity can spur a member to follow suit. Your enthusiasm in sharing the gospel can influence a member to share too. Your active listening will encourage a member to offer a listening ear to someone in trouble. It takes a community to shape a disciple and I am glad we are doing it in YCKC. May the transforming presence of God be evident in all our SGCs. Let us press on together.

In the verse below, Paul encouraged the Philippians to emulate him. We can put this verse into practice by emulating good examples from one another.

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 3:9)

Questions to ponder:

• Which person or community has discipled you over the years?
• How can you be contributing to discipleship – one on one or in a community?

By sister Josephine Yue