Why I am glad I was discipled by a layman
(Note: this article used to be on the Navigators’ web site. It then disappeared. It is used here without permission)
1. At the time, I was closed to the influence of “preachers.” I thought they were paid to be good and we laymen were “good for nothing,” if you know what I mean. Of course, I now realize that anyone who knows Christ is full well able to introduce me to him, but I must be willing to let him open his mouth about the subject, and I was not. I met my discipler in a church, but I was within a few weeks of abandoning the idea of going to church meetings altogether.
2. I am glad I was never the subject of his newsletter. He didn’t need to raise funds from the Christian public to finance his ministry. He supported it through a business God had given to him. Therefore, I never had to wonder if he was thinking of using my story (success or failure) as a topic to interest his donors.
3. There was never a hint that I need to repay him in any sense. I didn’t need to support him financially or any other way. There was a time, however, when the Lord laid it on my heart to repay him. I offered to buy him a car or do other favors to repay the tremendous benefits his ministry had brought into my family’s life. He replied, “To repay me, go and do the same for another.”
4. I never felt the need to imitate him and become a vocational Christian worker. When you are discipled by a man whose life is attractive, it is only natural to want to be just like him in many ways. This is particularly true in the early days, before you get a clearer picture of the varied grace of God and how unique He can be. If my discipler had been a staff worker with a Christian organization, the only natural thing would have been to desire to follow in his footsteps. After all, if he thought it through and found this to be the best way to live and serve, then why not me, too? Because he was a businessman, I felt quite content to stay in my own business and saw God bless my ministry right there.
5. By walking in my shoes, he never provided me the excuse that I could not do a particular activity because “I am not a professional.” In fact, he set a tremendous example in Scripture memory, far more disciplined in this than most paid Christian workers I have met. I once heard a layman remark to a vocational worker, “I can’t memorize verses because I don’t have the amount of time you have.” My discipler never gave me comfort to use that excuse.
6. By being a businessman himself, he was able to appreciate and understand the pressures on me as a businessman. He was not only willing to help me in these areas, but extremely well qualified. His specific advice and the sense of accountability caused me to treat my career as an important tool in God’s method and to maintain stewardship, testimony, and ministry emphasis.
Author – Jim Kennedy
