Growing it, in yourself and others

None of this is self-improvement. It is cooperation with something God is already doing. Five practices carry it, and the order is part of the teaching.

1. Pray Luke 10:2 daily

Ask God to send workers — including yourself — and to show you where He is already at work. Chapter one made the case; this is where it becomes a habit rather than an agreement.

2. Walk in the Spirit

The fruit is grown by the Spirit, not manufactured by effort. The more closely you walk with Him, the more the fruit grows, and the more effective you become at disciple-making — in that order, never the reverse. Working directly on your effectiveness while neglecting your walk is the most common way capable people go dry.

3. Model first, then multiply

People learn DNA from example, not explanation.

And model at the floor, not the ceiling — the plain, copyable version. There are two tests, not one: can the newest disciple do what they watched you do, and having watched you, do they believe they could? Miss either and it stops at one generation. An impressive performance fails the second test even when it passes the first.

4. Coach others with patience

Multiplication takes time and growth is gradual. Model, assist, watch, launch — and the patience is the difficult part of every one of those four, because each step requires you to do less than you could.

5. Trust the Word and the Spirit

I planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who caused the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is of significance, but only God, who brings about the growth. — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (OTB)

Paul is describing his own ministry, and he is blunt: the planter is not of significance. We do not need to produce results. We need to obey and cooperate.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in them will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. — John 15:5 (OTB)

Why the order holds

Each step is unstable without the one before it. Modeling without prayer produces a technician — competent, tired, and reproducing competence rather than dependence. Coaching without modeling produces advice nobody can copy, because they never saw it done.

And every step collapses without the last one. A person who believes the results are theirs to produce will eventually take the group back — not from malice, but because they cannot watch something they feel responsible for grow slowly. That is the same conviction that lets a facilitator sit in silence while a group works: don’t chew their food for them.

Recite this

Pray, walk, model, coach, trust. We eat and we digest; God gives the growth.

Try it this week

Take the practice you are weakest at and do the smallest real version of it once this week. Not all five — one.

I will practise ________________ this week by ________________.