Discipleship and the SMP
This blog entry is directed to the youth leaders who are bringing teams to serve with The Boston Project through our Summer Missions Program (SMP), a one-week service and missions trip to Boston. These youth are involved with our long-term outreach efforts, and also challenged to learn more about themselves, the city, and God. I thought I would post this to give some insight into one of the programs that I lead.
This month, our ministry staff has been studying and reflecting on the biblical concept of "making disciples." In Scripture, discipleship is central to Jesus' plan - not only in his command (the "Great Commission"), but even in how he spent so much time with just 12 men. He could have been running around the country using every spare moment to meet real and meaningful needs. Yet he poured much of his time into his followers. Paul continued this pattern, writing to Timothy, "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (2 Tim. 2:2)
Specifically, our staff has asked, "What does it mean to make disciples in our context at The Boston Project?" Because our ministry is multi-faceted, there are probably several answers to this question. For one of our staff, it may mean intentionally reaching out to a 17-year-old young man, playing basketball, involving him in a teenage Bible study, spending 1-on-1 time together, and getting to know his family.
But when it comes to the Summer Missions Program, how do we see ourselves in the "disciple-making" process? How are we helping to "make disciples" when we see teenagers for a week, and then they're gone? Here are a few of my thoughts on this question (I am also open to hearing your thoughts - please share):
1. Our staff disciple your youth. It is our sincere hope that our staff are able to enter into meaningful relationships with your teenagers that result in real and lasting transformation in their lives. The only way this happens is through prayer, and I have seen it enough to know that God can do amazing things. Even in the context of a few days, God can use our staff to love, guide, challenge, and inspire teenagers. That's why we have about 1 staff for every 5 youth. We want to be more than directors of your week - our staff love your youth even before they arrive, and are committed to walking with them as they take steps on their journey with Christ. Let me also say that you and your adult leaders are crucial to supporting our staff and helping them to understand your youth.
2. Our staff give you the opportunity to disciple your youth. We know that as a leader in your youth group, you probably get overwhelmed at times with details, schedules, emergencies, and those times when everyone is asking you "So what are we doing nooowwwww?" That's why we take care of the details - from organizing cleaning times to leading discussions, from setting up activities to helping with waking up a dozen teenage boys. We want you to take advantage of the valuable time that you have with your teenagers that you may not have during your "normal" life. Hopefully, this is a chance to reconnect to why you do youth ministry in the first place - to invest in the lives of your teenagers.
3. Your youth may disciple people here in Boston. There may be opportunities for your youth to spend time with a local resident, a homeless family, a senior citizen, or a teenager in our neighborhood. Although it may only be for a few minutes or a few hours, we trust that God can use those encounters to move people closer to himself. Maybe disciple isn't the best word for this, but can there be spiritual impact? No doubt.
4. People here in Boston may disciple your youth. In what may be a twist, your youth may grow closer to God through their experience with someone they meet in Boston. Many times, we can think of a missions trip as a time to "give," but often it's more about what you "receive." For an example, a youth team works at a senior couple's home to do some much-needed weeding, cleaning, and around-the-house projects. While there, the senior couple sits down with them and shares their rich spiritual history of how they came to know Jesus Christ, and have been walking with him for the past 65 years. Who has given, and who has received? Who has really been discipled? After all, Jesus did say we would meet him in the "least of these."
5. We are all being discipled in the sense that we are entering into a "guided experience" with someone we trust while seeking God together through prayer and study of His Word.
There are probably several more ways that "discipleship" happens in the context of the Summer Missions Program. And while a one-week experience may not match up exactly with how Jesus discipled the 12, we trust that 1) it fits into where long-term discipleship is happening already (both in your group and in Boston), and 2) God can use short-term experiences to create long-term transformation (just look at Zaccheus).
So those are my thoughts on discipleship and the SMP - I would love to hear yours, as well!
