Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen, then

He said to them “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus called them to become disciples. He would teach them how

to win souls as they followed Him and learned hands on how to witness to the lost. A professional fisherman would teach a novicehow to catch fish by teaching him where to go for fish. What thebest hours are for fishing, what bait to use for certain kinds of fish,

what equipment he would need, a net, a hook, etc. and how to use theequipment properly. With the help of a mentor the novice could learn

quickly what would take him a long time to learn on his own.

 

Jesus preached to crowds but He also had a hands on ministry with His Disciples where He taught them apart and they learned to be fishers of

men by listening to Him teach and seeing His character modeled. The admonition was to follow Him. Follow His example of love and being

a servant. Once they were taught Jesus sent them two by two to witness.

 

The apostle Paul’s ministry was to be a church planter. He made three Missionary journeys. On his journeys he took along younger believers

and discipled them hands on as they taught in different areas. After they were proven Paul would leave them in the place where he taught and he would move on to another city. This is the admonition he gave to Timothy, one of his disciples; 2 Timothy 2:2 The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Paul reminded Timothy that he had carefully followed his doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, & afflictions that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium & Lystra. Timothy knew first hand how Paul had suffered for the sake of the gospel. Much of the time Timothy was with him. Paul’s manner of making disciples was definitely a hands on teaching.

 

As a young Christian I was greatly moved in my spirit by the teaching our pastor taught about our responsibility to witness for Christ. I went

to the pastor and told him that I wanted to be a witness but was afraid because of having no experience and not being well versed in the bible.

I told him that if he would go with me I would go. He seemed pleased and ask me when was the best time for me to go. I told him Friday night. He said to come around 7:00 and we would go. All week long I spent time in prayer and reading my bible in anticipation to going witnessing with the pastor. On Friday night I drove to his house and knocked and his wife Gloria answered the door. I have come because Pastor Keith and I are going to go witnessing I said. Oh! she exclaimed, he must have forgotten, he went fishing with a friend. I was disappointed and discouraged and it was several weeks later before I was able to go witnessing with a friend.

 

A fire cannot be taught. A fire is caught. A small flame can grow and extend itself. I was drafted and sent to Korea and while I was overseas

my wife went to a Missionary training camp located in the Mendecino forest in California. At that camp she met people who had left houses

and families to proclaim the gospel. These people were mentors to her. On top of that a forest fire swept through the forest and the missionary candidates went to fight it and 14 of those men were burned up in the fire. The peace and courage the widows showed over their loss left an indelible memory on Elaine’s heart. Most of them continued on and went to the mission field. When I returned from Korea I had seen hard-ship and death and when I attended church it seemed artificial and bogus. I told Elaine that if that was all there was from attending church I wasn’t going back. She said Dean, I know people that their faith is real. Lets continue our plan to be missionaries and you will meet these people. We went to Modesto California where the New Tribes mission had a training camp set up and entered into the program.

The first challenge we faced was living by faith. The mentors were there who were demonstrating it. Right away I knew I needed to look for work because we had very few funds. I ask one of the men where he worked and he replied, I don’t work at a secular job, we don’t have time in the course for it and the need on the mission field is urgent. I said you then must have

some good support from your home church. He said no! we trust the Lord. That blew me away. I said how does that work? He showed me Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God & His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. He said God says that if we put Him and His work first he will supply all of our material needs. Fifty + years later I can testify that God is faithful and has always supplied all of our needs. We spent four hours in the morning studying God’s word. In the afternoons we went out to talk to people about God. We were putting into practice what we were learning in the morning. In the evening we started bible classes in homes that allowed us to go teach them. Concerning mentoring and hands on ministry they paired us with someone to witness with. They would pick a more mature person who was more versed in the scriptures and put him with a novice like me. I was given a partner named Dave Beckman. He was a bold witness. When we came to a crowded street corner in town Dave reared back and began to preach in a loud voice. I ran behind a car and hid. I was both shocked and embarrassed. However, in a couple of weeks I was also proclaiming the gospel on street corners. We met all kinds, JW’s Mormons, Christian Scientists, Catholics, atheists, etc. andwe often had to ask questions and study the word when we got home in order to know how to answer them the next time we met them.I must say that my first mentor was my wife that challenged me to trust God and serve Him. Since then I can name a number of them that handson help to shape my life.

 

In Bolivia Elaine and I spent 35 years working among a tribe of Indians called “Chimanes” these people had only a very warped concept of God when we went there. But little by little they began to believe and embrace the Lord as Savior. One of our co-workers, Len Gill, had a launch and every year he would make a trip up river to visit the many Indian villages. Len always took a young believer with him on his extended trip of three to six months. This young believer would just listen to the message the first two or three times it was presented but then Len would say “tonight youwill teach”. The young believer stammered and had to be helped some but by the time the trip was over he was teaching with boldness and confidence.I saw this repeated several times when Len returned from his trip and theyoung teacher was an asset to the local church he participated in.

 

Some years back I decided to take a meat cutting course offered by the local college. I wanted to put in my own meat processing business. I

enrolled in the course but instead of sitting in a class room and studying meat cutting theory we were directed to the teachers meat cutting plant near Shelton Wa. He lined us up and handed us a sharp knife, an apronand a quarter of meat. He showed us to a table and told us to start boning the meat. He observed and directed our work and after a few weeks we graduated with honors and knew how to both cut and process meat. It wasa hands on operation directed by an expert butcher and we learned to do itright with not an hour in the class room.

 

I once fellowshipped with a group of Christians who called themselves the “Shield of Faith”. They were a mission minded group and financed their Mission work by working in construction. One of the men who was a building constructor taught another member of his group to build houses. In fact, he taught six men in the group to be constructors. These families would send and support a family for six months to a year as missionaries to Korea. Then that family would return and continue to build another house while another member went to take the place of the family that returned. I am sure that in our fellowships we have talented members who could mentor others allowing them to make a better living and support God’s work.

When God told man to go and multiply and fill the earth He was also talking about not only reproducing physically but God also wants us

to reproduce spiritually.

 

You may ask me at this point if I am saying that Corporate discipleship is not needed. Certainly not! God has gifted certain men to teach the body of believers. These men are well prepared and teach the cardinal doctrines that believers need to know to be able to avoid false teaching and to fully understand God’s grace. There are the “sent ones” that are church planters who go start new works where the gospel has not been preached and the men who have special gifts in evangelizing the lost. There are those with special gifts that stir up and encourage the believers. These all work together to build up the church. The big gap I see in most churches is the lack of spiritual mentors who are willing to become a hands on spiritual parent to the new believers and weak believers who need hands on help to develop. The harvest is great & the laborers are few, pray that the Lord of the harvest Will thrust forth laborers into His harvest