“The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go your way: behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:2-3)
Lambs among wolves…Encouraging words from Jesus…
As student workers it can often feel like the labourers are few. How often have you thought ‘this is too much’ or ‘I could really do with some help here?’ How often have you felt alone in the task of discipling the students in your care? How often have you been frustrated that your students just don’t seem to be getting it, that they’re not ready yet?
Can you imagine how Jesus felt? He was with his disciples constantly and yet they seemed very slow to ‘get it’. They were asking whether to call down fire on places that rejected them, and even after he was raised from the dead they were wondering whether Jesus would overthrow the Romans by force. They still didn’t get it. They still weren’t ready.
Jesus' disciples certainly weren’t ready in Luke 10 when he sends them out ‘as lambs in the midst of wolves’, and Jesus knew it! Yet he sends them out anyway. He doesn’t wait for their readiness, he knows that part of discipleship is doing, part of learning is practicing, even making mistakes. Sometimes we have higher expectations on those we’re discipling before we send them out than Jesus had! If Jesus is our model of discipleship though (and he should be), then perhaps we should be more prepared to send them out, and get them doing stuff, practicing and making mistakes, before we feel they’re ready?
How was Jesus able to send out his disciples with confidence, even though he sent them as ‘lambs in the midst of wolves’? He knew that the Holy Spirit went with them, and that they went in his name, and with his authority. All that is true of those we’re discipling today! The same Holy Spirit is in them, the same Jesus gives them authority in his name. Though they may be like lambs among wolves, he is with them and goes before them. When we send out our inexperienced students, our confidence is not in them so much as in the Holy Spirit who is in them!
We can use this mindset when we think about discipleship. Sometimes we become the bottle-neck for discipleship in our churches. Sometimes we can think that we’re still learning how to disciple people, and we haven’t quite figured it out yet! So how could those students we’re discipling possibly be ready to disciple others?
In Matthew 28, Jesus calls his disciples to make disciples. He called on his scared, bewildered, unrefined disciples to begin to make disciples of others - knowing that the Spirit would enable them - and thus began the Church. We’re part of the disciple-making movement that Jesus began, and we too are called to make disciples, who make disciples. If we aren’t releasing our students, those we’re discipling, to go and disciple others, then we’re not fully doing what Jesus has called us to do! We’re not called to make perfect disciples - even Jesus didn’t do that! We are called to make disciples who make disciples.
Who are you discipling? How can you release them to disciple others? Where can you release your students to have a go and make mistakes - trusting that the Holy Spirit will work in the process?
If you’d like support in creating a culture of discipleship in your church, you can book the Fusion Coaching Team to run a training session. You can also buy our book How To Make Disciples That Make Disciples to equip your students to start discipling others.
