Intentional Discipleship: Take Someone With You
IPHC Men’s Ministries Theme for 2024 is “24/7 Men Being Intentional in 2024,” emphasizing intentional, personal, spiritual formation and intentional discipleship where men are challenged and equipped to disciple men in their sphere of influence. Every man needs an older man like the Apostle Paul to mentor him. Every man needs a peer mentor like Barnabas and a younger man like Timothy to disciple. In his book Intentional: Living Out The Eight Principles of Disciple Making, Pastor Brandon Guindon says, “The central mission of the church is to make disciples. Sadly, few have ever been intentionally discipled, let alone know how to make a disciple. This is a tragic deficit—a clear gap between the mission of disciple-making and the few people who actually know what disciple-making is. Jesus clearly demonstrated how to make disciples.”1
Pastor Guindon then outlines the eight principles of disciple-making as seen in the life and ministry of Jesus. They are as follows:
1) Listen with the intent to understand.
2) Seek the Holy Spirit.
3) Develop potential.
4) Take someone with you.
5) Be interruptible.
6) Speak truth.
7) Stand firm.
8) Release them to go.
One of the most powerful foundational principles of the Christian faith is that we no longer need to do life alone. Christ’s sacrifice made way for a relationship with him and one another. Not only are we supposed to be in relationship, we also belong to one another (John 13:35). Relationships are not an optional luxury reserved for socially outgoing people. “The sad reality,” says Stu Webber, “is that most men live in rock-ribbed, self-sufficient isolation.”2
A 24/7 Man is committed to pursuing vital relationships with a few other men, understanding he needs brothers to help him keep his promises. Real-life relationships are the glue that holds intentional disciple-making together, and without these relationships, the whole idea of relational discipleship becomes just another program. Pastor Guindon says, “When relationships become central for us, we become more unconsciously capable in disciple-making. And we look more like what Jesus modeled when we recognize the power of taking someone with us. Practically, this means intentionally inviting others to ‘go along’ with us as we do life.”3
Pictured Left to Right: Rev. W. A. Mills, IPHC Men’s Ministries Director, Rev. Frank Gentry, Retired Pastor, and Rev. Jim Gray, Senior Pastor at Greenville First Pentecostal Holiness Church, Greenville, NC. Pastor Gentry mentored both men when they were growing up as teenagers at Greenville First during his pastorate that spanned twenty years from July 1974 to July 1994. This picture was taken on Sunday, July 7, 2024. Pastor Gentry preached that Sunday from Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”, the same text he used in his first Sunday sermon at Greenville First 50 years ago.
As I reflect upon the men who have discipled me, I see they all provided a positive model of Christlikeness. They extended an invitation to grow in my relationship with them, whereby we shared life experiences, allowing for good questions and the impartation of knowledge that is best passed on in real-life relationships that communicate integrity and authenticity.
One such mentor was Rev. Frank Gentry of Greenville, NC, who became my pastor following my father's death. My father, Rev. W. Albert Mills, Sr., had been my pastor my whole life. He introduced me to Christ and discipled me as a boy. After his sudden passing, there was an unexplainable void, which I now know all these years later was the absence of a mentor. Pastor Frank filled that void. He took me under his wing as a teenage boy and young man, discipled me, and trained me for ministry. Without any fanfare, Pastor Frank practiced the principles of intentional discipleship. He took me with him. Pastor Frank is 85 years old today and still speaking into my life. It has been my joy to take others with me, intentionally discipling them to disciple others.
Let’s start a revolution of intentional discipleship. Practice taking someone with you. Try to model disciple-making, grow in relationships, enjoy shared experiences, ask good questions, and impart your knowledge. Pray the Lord would prompt you to include others in your daily activities. Ask Him to remove any fear of risk or inconvenience that would keep you from bringing someone along. Pray your conversations and time spent with others would glorify the Lord and build His kingdom.
Get your copy of Intentional: Living Out the Eight Principles of Disciple Making here!
Take the Disciple Maker Assessment here!
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1Brandon Guindon, Intentional: Living Out The Eight Principles of Disciple Making, Zondervan, 2023
2Stu Webber, Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart, Multnomah Books, 1999
3Brandon Guindon, Intentional: Living Out The Eight Principles of Disciple Making, Zondervan, 2023
