Jym Shorts

Jym Shorts - October 8, 2015

by Jym Gregory on October 08, 2015

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” -Matthew 28:19

When Dedra and the girls and I were serving in Costa Rica as missionaries, another young missionary at the same language school in which we were studying asked me if I would join with a group of four other men and meet with him at 6:00am on Tuesday mornings at the school. I agreed, and asked him the purpose of the meeting. Prayer? Counsel? Fellowship? He simply said he would let me know the first time we met.

When that first meeting time arrived, Pepper (the missionary’s interesting name) informed us that he would like to take us through a discipleship method he was developing, so that he would be better prepared when he arrived in South America for his full-time mission assignment. We all readily agreed, and we began immediately. He handed us the book The Master Plan of Evangelism and Discipleship by Robert E. Coleman. I had heard of the book, but had never read it. Pepper started out by asking us all to share briefly our conversion experience, told us a bit about himself, and then told us his plan for discipleship. We would read the book, discuss its implications for us, and then allow Pepper to disciple us as if we were new believers. We would then give him feedback on how effective his approach was and how he could disciple more proficiently.

What followed was twelve weeks of being discipled by a believer who was younger than me, both chronologically and spiritually, and one of the most exciting studies I’ve ever experienced. Pepper was passionate about the gospel and passionate about training men to know that gospel and the God who made it possible. He was specifically training men, using 2 Timothy 2:1-2 as his call: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” It wasn’t that Pepper didn’t care about women and children; he did, he simply knew that he was a single young man who would be serving in a culture where men were the undisputed leaders in their homes. In many of those homes, the men were abusive and lived more as dictators and gods before their cowering families. Pepper had a desire to transform that culture by reaching out to those very men with the gospel and training them to live like a Christian man should live – with love and compassion for his wife and children, and a desire to lead with a Christ-like servant leadership, not as a bully with a larger body frame and a mandate from Scripture.

As the study drew to a close, I found that not only had I been thoroughly challenged and trained, but I had watched Pepper grow in his ability to teach and train by being humble enough to ask the men in the group where, precisely, his teaching or his approach was falling short. He did not allow us to simply say “that was good.” He knew he needed to improve, and he demanded that we be honest with him so that he could grow. He had a keen self-awareness, and he was willing to have his feelings hurt a bit if it meant that he would learn in the process and be a stronger believer and leader as a result. It was refreshing to watch, and I learned a great deal from his humility. He didn’t pretend that he wanted to learn, he really wanted to learn, and to prepare himself for ministry.

I still get email updates from Pepper. He is now married to a Latina woman and serving as a discipler/trainer in Latin and South America. Churches have been planted and men discipled in the faith. His humility still comes out in his newsletters. I learned from a younger believer and am better off for it, and it reinforced my determination to see men and women discipled in their walk with Christ. My prayer is that our current discipleship series will challenge you now in the same ways that I was challenged then.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jym

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