PART TIME TEACHER, FULL TIME DISCIPLE MAKER

It’s no surprise to you, that young adulthood is full of so many new and exciting ventures. One of the most common and time-consuming adventures for most Young Adults, is the grind of either pursuing or beginning in a new, full-time career. And, between this and balancing their ministry commitments, friendships, family, romantic relationships, hobbies, their own spiritual growth journey, and everything else that fills their schedule… our young adults may feel there is simply no time left for them to disciple others. 

your YAs are to pursue their chosen career path and work as a Jesus-like uni student or employee with excellence, even Jesus was a skilled worker and worked as a carpenter! The reality is, we need to work to live – how else are we expected to pay for our living expenses? 😉 But what if our YA’s discovered that their life calling was to live for something more than just their 9-5?

DO YOUR YA’S EVER QUESTION THEIR CALLING?

I’m sure that you would know some YA’s who express that they feel a strong pull to a certain degree or career choice – those know exactly what they want to study, where they want to work and what they want to do with their 5 year, 10 year 20+ year plan. Maybe they received a prophetic word about how they would spend their lives, and have been working towards that goal for many years. Maybe your young adults see themselves becoming a teacher, a lawyer, a nurse, some kind of professional. 

On the other end of the spectrum might be those young adults who bounce around choosing their occupation seemingly aimlessly, with little passion behind how they fill their days, hoping to find something that fits their unique skill sets and that they can see themselves doing, but not having much success.

Of course your YAs are to pursue their chosen career path and work as a Jesus-like uni student or employee with excellence, even Jesus was a skilled worker and worked as a carpenter! The reality is, we need to work to live – how else are we expected to pay for our living expenses? 😉 

Regardless of if they have a clear picture for their future, or if their vision for their future is a bit more skewed, there is an undeniable fact – that they are CALLED to be a full-time Jesus like discipler.

In leading YA’s, we want to remind them, that whilst their job is important, it is NOT their primary occupation. That indeed, they can instead, see themselves as a PART-time student/employee and a FULL time discipler. 

Jesus left a very clear instruction in the GREAT commission, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations…’(Matthew 28:19-20). 

Yes, Jesus wants us to become skilled employees, to contribute to work that aligns with our skill sets and design, and to complete our work with excellence – but this was not his last instruction

His last, overarching call for all who choose to follow Him was loud and clear; to go and make disciples.

As a leader of YA’s, you might like to brainstorm some ways to assist them in discovering that this call may be a little more than optional.

NOT JUST A NURSE WHO DISCIPLES BUT A DISIPLER WHO DOES NURSING….

Being part of a community of disciplers, I remember the time when I observed my friend get this wrong. My friend’s new full-time job had accidentally and sneakily begun to consume most of her world. She was so preoccupied with understanding her new role, adjusting to the change of full-time work, making friends in her new workplace, etc. only to realise that discipling had incidentally become a side-hustle to her life. She was a nurse who discipled on the side. Her main identity was wrapped up in the new job and all this entailed, where a lot of her time, concern, care, investment had become to be about her new job. No longer did her face light up when she was sharing stories of investing in others, but her joy seemed to come from her work updates, the stories of the patients she was seeing and the perks of a full-time salary and the new lifestyle she was living. She was distracted and it became evident in the things she talked about, how she spent her time and what she was passionate about. Thankfully,  by the grace of God, and in doing life with some people who spoke truth into the situation, she realised that she had gotten it wrong. She realised that she was pursuing her identity as a full-time NURSE rather than a 24/7 discipler. This wake up call alerted her and she made some adjustments. 

This friend wrote down all the ways that she was putting her ‘nurse’ career in front of her ‘24/7 Discipler career.’ She made some adjustments so that she could be more consumed by her occupation as a selfless DISCIPLER rather than her occupation as a NURSE. These changes impacted what she prayed about, how she invested her time, where her priorities lay and what she truly cared about. Through doing so, she began to see herself as an authentic Jesus-like discipler who did nursing, rather than a nurse who was like Jesus when it suited her. 

YOUR YOUNG ADULTS HAVE FULL TIME JOBS

We can encourage these YA’s that they are disciplers who go to uni, not uni students who disciple. 

They are disciplers who teach, not teachers who also disciple. 

They are disciplers that engineer, not engineers that disciple. 

They are disciplers who cook, surf, clean, play soccer and many other things, but ultimately, they are DISCIPLERS, that’s WHO they are. That’s who God has created and instructed them to be. This is what they are called to and commissioned to do, as a devoted Jesus-follower and disciple.

ACTIVITIES YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR ‘FULL-TIME DISCIPLER’ YA’S

• 24/7 DISCIPLER TIME SCHEDULE

Run an activity where your YA’s make a mock/ideal ‘schedule of a discipler’ (e.g. Monday morning prayer for the people that they’re discipling before work, Tuesday fasting, Wednesday prayer with a small group of girls at church to see multiplication occur in their community, Thursday evening phone call with someone they are discipling, Friday evening community of practice for Discipling. Saturday morning extended worship and prayer). 

You could use an excel/google spreadsheet or other method to create an ‘ideal’ schedule. Then they could compare this to their weekly schedules and reflect on some of the following questions –  When they are distracted during the week, what are they doing? Scrolling on tiktok, spending a long time with friends when they should be studying, bingeing on the latest Netflix series? Or are they spending their time researching, learning and developing, connecting with others meaningfully, praying alone and with others. What do they personally find distracting and unhelpful, and what can they cut out to make time for discipling?

• PRIORITY LIST

Get your YA’s to write out their life tasks, commitments and priorities and rank them in order of priority and importance. Encourage them to consider where their priorities lie and how their schedules reflect this. E.g. studies, ministry, family, relationships, community, work, discipling. In doing this activity, they may see that their priority actually is to develop in their spiritual journey – and as such, want to invest time in discipling, but really, their current schedule is not aligning with or reflecting that….Or maybe they realise that their priority is not discipling and so there is some investment that needs to be put in helping them understand their identity as a discipler first and foremost. 

• DISCIPLER JOB DESCRIPTION / COVER LETTER

You could do an activity with your YA’s split in groups of 3-4. In small groups, they can create a ‘job-description of a discipler.’ Get them to write out the unique skill sets, strengths, character traits and competencies of someone who would be a wonderful applicant for the role of a 24/7 discipler. What would this job entail, how many hours per week, the pay, the reference checks. Have some fun with it too! But take some time for reflection at the end where your YA’s can compare themselves and their lives to this job – description. Where can they make some changes to become a more successful ‘applicant’ for this unique career and occupation?

I pray that your YA’s would become excited as they learn that they have a calling, a purpose and a place to invest their time – in becoming a 24/7 disciple maker. I pray that God would allow your YA’s to see that they are called to an occupation that is greater than a day job, and reaps eternal reward. 

 

Be blessed, 

Elle Zeibig – GenJ Team Member.

If you would like to learn more about how you can effectively invest in YA’s, and help them live out their God-given occupation, we’d love to connect with you. You can connect with us by clicking on the ‘contact us’ page of the website, or by finding us on instagram @genjofficial.