Ankerberg Show

Dr. John Ankerberg: All right, we're back with Sunder and Shamala Krishnan. We're talking about what was the apostle Paul's method of encouraging, helping other Christians grow in the faith or discipling them.

It's found in 2nd Timothy, chapter 2, verse 2, and here's what the apostle Paul wrote to a fellow believer named Timothy, who was at Ephesus. He said, "Timothy, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, you entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

You've got four people that are involved here. You've got the apostle Paul, number one, teaches Timothy, number two. He says, "Timothy, you pick out some good guys, some faithful Christians, number three, and you teach them what I taught you, and then you have those guys go and pick out somebody else and tell them to teach what Paul told Timothy and Timothy told you." We're passing on what you need to know to grow in the Christian life, to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, and how the Gospel spreads. Now, explain this a little bit more, Sunder.

Sunder Krishnan: I think first of all from my own personal life in terms of a testimony, just to show that this really works. I’m a pastor, before I retired, and I speak to hundreds of people. But the biggest transformations in life that I can point out in my congregation, there may be others I know nothing about, are the ones in which I’ve been able to do this: take the faithful and able ones and then begin to build into them by meeting regularly.

It started three years into my ministry where a young man came up to the front after service and I prayed with him. He said, "What are you going to do with me now?" I told him, well, this was July, in September we're going to be... He said, "The fire will go out by September. What are you going to do with me now?" I said, "Okay, come on Tuesday morning to my office at 7:00." I hadn't the faintest idea what I was going to do. But it was the beginning of this: what you have learned, take a faithful and able... The ones that want to come, they are the faithful and able ones because the hunger is already there in their heart.

It also works the other way. I got so excited about this that over a period of time I began to be on the lookout for faithful and able people in other areas and I would then toss out an idea to them. I’d say, "Hey, would you consider meeting with me once a week?" Some said no and some said yes. The ones that said yes, we continued. In the last 10 years of our ministry in our church, we actually intentionally identified 16 couples and we chose them for these two things: faithful and able. They love Jesus and they love the church. We were building into them and eight of those people have now become elders in the church as well. I'm completely and totally convinced of this.

But John, as soon as you started reading, the Holy Spirit put into my mind: speak to the fathers who are listening. We think about all of this in terms of such big, big ideas that we forget that if you're a father or a mother and you have children, you've got people right there in your home whom you can apply this principle to. You learn, you teach them, and you teach them to teach others. If fathers and mothers were to see themselves called to this task of raising up spiritual champions in their home, I think that would transform a nation within a generation.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah. Encourage pastors that are listening right now that have such a busy schedule. How would they start?

Sunder Krishnan: I think two ways. First of all, be open for divine initiative. That's how I started. I didn't expect anybody to show up. It happened. So be alert. If someone comes to you and says, "Hey, can you meet with me?" don't say no. Make time for that person. Ask a few questions to make sure they are faithful and able because it's not everybody. We are told, Paul said to Timothy, "faithful and able, faithful and able," so there are criteria.

But if this person is faithful, and a few questions can discern that—why do you want to meet with me? what are you prepared to put into it?—I would say to pastors, "Guys, this is your opportunity for life change." Nothing brings joy like being used as an agent of life change in somebody else.

Dr. John Ankerberg: I'll give you an illustration. In our own church, we had a pastor that came in and he wanted to teach our whole congregation how to do what Paul said: pick a group of people and start to meet with them. He started it not with people in the congregation; he started it with the church staff. For six months, he met with them. Instead of having their staff meeting, he had a discipleship meeting with his own staff. After six months, he told his staff, "Now you go into the congregation and pick out two or three people and just ask them if they would like to meet with you once a week."

They did it. Eventually, our church has over a thousand such little groups meeting once a week, and it's growing. Maybe pastors, you ought to take that into consideration. Start with your church staff so you know where they're all at.

Sunder Krishnan: I'd say one more thing. If you're not a pastor—and this is a pastor telling this story—don't be discouraged. My wife would say she doesn't have formal theological training, yet this is something she does all the time: meet with people, mentor them, and light a fire within their hearts and they begin to do that for others.

Dr. John Ankerberg: Yeah, I would say some people don't want to meet with the pastor. They would rather meet with a layperson or another woman or another man that would say, "Listen, I would just like to meet with you, and we'll have coffee once a week. Would that be okay? And we'll talk about the things of God."

They could use the very course that we are teaching right now. Maybe share this with them for half an hour, listen to it, and then just talk about it for 10, 20 minutes afterwards or as long as you want, and take them through each week the very things that we're talking about. Hopefully, that's what they're doing. Other advice?

Shamala Krishnan: I was going to say to women my age—I'm a mother and a grandmother—the Bible talks about older women discipling younger women. The first thing I have to ask myself is, am I living the kind of life that somebody wants to emulate? I remember on our first sabbatical, Sunder and I went to Vancouver. Before we left, our children—our son was in university, our daughter had graduated and was at a job. It was a new chapter in our lives. I said to the congregation, "During these six months that we're away, I'm going to ask God what He wants me to do with my life over this next chapter."

As it turned out, we stayed in three homes on our way to Vancouver. We drove. In those homes, I observed the women. In two of those homes, I was inspired by them. Then we got to Vancouver and I met Eugene Peterson. I had not read a single book of his. My husband had read them all, but I met the man and I was so impressed by him. He was 64 at the time, and I remember a song from years ago called "When I'm 64." I said to the Lord, "When I'm 64, that's the kind of person I want to be." That gave me a vision of things I would need to do, but the goal was to become a certain kind of person.

To what I would say to women my age is that I'm hoping that we are the kind of women that the younger women want to emulate, want to be discipled by. In my experience, I have found that God has actually brought younger women into my life who have said, "Can you meet with me?" We don't go through a book necessarily; they just want to talk about life and do life together. That's how discipleship or discipling younger women has worked out in my life.

Dr. John Ankerberg: All right. One thing more as we close. This is not just our thoughts, but the Lord Jesus said, "Follow Me," and then you have the apostle Paul saying, "What you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

The plan of growth that He's given to everybody in the church is to pick out somebody to work with and encourage them, teach them things. You'd be surprised how many people would say, "Yes, I've been waiting for somebody to ask me to pay some attention to me." The question is, will you open yourself up to the Lord to even be willing to find out if He would use you that way? All right, that's it for this week. We're going to close now, and I hope that you'll join us for our next session.