Training Men

The secret to training men is "life on life" discipleship. It is investing your life in the life of another. Gunter Krallman minted the term "with-ness" based on

Mark 3:14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

The best training method is never the "classroom environment!" Too often, the classroom becomes academic. It becomes books and instruction instead of the Spirit and inspiration. It is not a mind dump but a heart sharing. It is more caught than taught! It is not book learning but ministry practice that we seek.

The disciple, the student, becomes family, a spiritual son. The teacher invests his life in the life of his disciple.

If you are going to train people, you will have to learn to spend time with the right people. Not everyone has the desire to serve God full time. Many, if not most, will want to live their lives and serve God when they can do so conveniently.

We never want to use people to build our ministry. Our goal will be to use our ministry to build the man. People are not throwaways. We do not begin working with them to get rid of them. We work with them to take them on to full maturity in Christ.

Withness, life-on-life discipleship means that we take a very personal interest in them. We fully plan to invest significant time in them. Our investment will be life-consuming, not just time-consuming. It will be living life together on purpose. It will mean being honest with the person so that they know what is expected, where they are failing, and how they are succeeding.

This form of discipleship is the most fulfilling ministry possible. We will be leaving others to carry on the ministry God gave us. It is what Paul called on Timothy to do:

II Timothy 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.