World Evangelism Podcast

Cultivating Lifelong Impact through Intentional Mentorship in Ministry

June 13, 2024 • W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Mentoring for Mission by Gunter Krallman

Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman



Are You Called?: A Checklist to Discern Your Calling from God by W. Austin Gardner


Key Take Aways

1. Mentoring faithful and capable individuals is crucial for future ministry leadership.

2. Teaching others to win and work ensures continued growth and impact in the ministry.

3. The concept of "life on life" discipleship promotes intentional and purposeful investment in others.

4. Investing time with mentees is more effective in creating meaningful relationships and fostering growth.

5. Prioritize developing personal relationships and friendships with those being mentored.

6. Jesus' purpose to train disciples for greater works emphasizes the impact of mentorship on world-changing initiatives.

7. Participate in the Facebook group or page for additional resources and networking opportunities.

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Are you looking for practical, real-world advice on mentoring and discipleship in ministry? Check out the World Evangelism Podcast with W. Austin Gardner.

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W. Austin Gardner:

This is Austin Gardner, welcoming you to the World Evangelism Podcast. This is a place where I desire with all of my heart to help you and bless you and add value to you and your ministry. I know what it's like to be where you are. I've been on the mission field. I've traveled a little bit around the world. I've started churches in the United States of America and in Peru and I've helped others do the same in many other places. I know what it's like to buy land and not have a preacher and find a preacher or find a young person and train them until they can take over the ministry. I know what it's like to work with young Americans. I know what it's like to work with young Latin Americans and I also know what it's like to work with young people in various countries of the world. I have been talking to you about mentoring for several weeks and I've tried to do that about once a week to share with you that this is like the most important, significant ministry you could ever be involved in. Now, mentoring is a kind of a business term and some of you might be uncomfortable with that, because the idea is a wise man who brings along another man and shows him the ropes, and that's kind of what mentoring came to mean, but I use that term more in the sense of the Bible term teaching others also, or discipleship, or training up men to do the work of God.

W. Austin Gardner:

All of us know that it is vitally important that we train others to do the work that we're doing. We all know that life comes to an end and we move on. Some people I have a friend that's been in the same church pushing 50 years now. He's done a great job and he's a great man of God but most don't do that. But even at that, one day you wake up and you get the news that you've got cancer, or physical ailments begin to take place or you are in such a position that you'll no longer be able to do what you've always done. None of us live forever, and so that means that we must train others to take our place and to continue the ministry and to do much more. That's what the Apostle Paul taught Timothy In 2 Timothy 2,.

W. Austin Gardner:

Paul said now listen to me, timothy, what you've heard me say in front of a lot of other people in a lot of different places, in a lot of different ways. I want you to go find some faithful, capable young men that you would have teach to do the same also, and that's kind of the Tennessee Hillbilly version of 2 Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 2. But I would like. I'm always asked, and some people want to rush into training people, and so I'm often asked how do I know who I can train? Well, I think the verse gives you a great deal of information about what you're going to do along that lines.

W. Austin Gardner:

The first thing it says is faithful men. So you know, when I meet a lost person, if they ever come in the doors of my church, I immediately start thinking about where they could be if God saved them and worked in their life, and I want to help them. But I'm only going to invest my time of mentorship in faithful men. So they have to be saved. Now I am going to witness to the other person. I'm going to try to do discipleship with him, because basically you are taught scripturally to do discipleship before they're saved and then they get saved and you do discipleship afterwards.

W. Austin Gardner:

You say where does it say that? Well, in Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18, we're going to go into all the world to teach them. Go and teach all men. We're to go and make disciples so people get saved. When you teach them, you have to teach them truth so they can trust Jesus, so they can be saved. Then you teach them to all these things whatsoever I've commanded you. So it is teach, baptize, teach. It is teach to win and teach to live it. It is teach to win and teach to live. It's to teach to win and teach to work. So we win them to Christ and then we teach them to work. So I'm going to work with faithful men Now.

W. Austin Gardner:

Faithful men means that they're saved. Obviously, faithful men means that they have learned a degree of faithfulness in their life and they're starting to attend church. Now let me just tell you all, along the way, I'm still working with them. I was working with them to get them saved, and now they are saved and I'm working with them to get them faithful, because I know that I can take them from wherever they are to wherever God would have them if they'll let me. So we work with faithful men. We work with faithful men. We work with faithful men. Now, we don't commit everything to these new people because we're not yet there.

W. Austin Gardner:

So it's very similar to raising children, and when you're raising children, you don't teach a three-year-old what you teach a six-year-old, and you don't teach a six-year-old what you teach a 16-year-old, and that's an obvious truth. And so you want to help them build their faithfulness. You want to help them build their faithfulness. But then there's another part of this verse and it says that they are able to teach. They have the ability, the capability.

W. Austin Gardner:

I have had and over the years in my ministry I've had special kids that had special needs, needs and they weren't mentally able to be leaders. They couldn't do many things. My sister, who I spent many hours helping learn to read and to do all the things that she was doing, she could have never been this person I would train if she were a male. So they have to be able to teach others. So that means they're going to have to learn how to be winsome enough to be friendly enough to work with people, enough that people will listen to them, and they're going to have to be able to understand the truths and formulate the truths and put them into practice so they can teach others. So when I'm getting started, put them into practice so they can teach others. So when I'm getting started, when I'm getting started, I am learning all I can, I'm listening to what I've been taught, I'm looking for faithful, capable men and then I am working to commit, to give them, to trust them with everything that's ever been placed into my life.

W. Austin Gardner:

We have the perfect example of that, if you would, and that is in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he practiced what I call and I've read it in other places. Actually, I just thought of it in Spanish and I found out it was not as new as I thought it was, but nothing is. I call it life on life discipleship. One life impacting another life, life on life discipleship. There's a tremendous book that you can get your hands on by Gunter Kralman, mentoring for Mission, and you ought to read that book because it's tremendous. You ought to read the Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman, another tremendous book. It'll change your life. But it's life on life discipleship.

W. Austin Gardner:

You know, jesus taught people. He went out and he found people. Now he is the God-man and he called people to him and the Holy Spirit worked a great work and they came out and followed him. They left everything they had, they stepped out to follow Jesus. But you know, in the very beginning he only let them go with him and watch him. They had to watch him and then slowly along the way, he began to add a little bit of responsibility to him. He gave them a responsibility and then he would teach them about a responsibility. He would actually teach his message publicly and then later, when they were in private, he would explain the message to his guys because they didn't understand what he'd been teaching. That's Matthew, chapter 13, if you want to check that out.

W. Austin Gardner:

But it's life on life. It is you investing your life in another person. One of the most powerful verses in the Bible about mentoring is Mark 3, verse 14. The Bible says that he ordained 12. He chose, appointed, picked, ordained 12, put in the way 12 that they should be with him. Gunter Kralman calls this with-ness, not witness, but with-ness, w-i-t-h. Dash, n-e-s-s. In other words, it wasn't that he was witnessing, but they were spending time with him and he called them to be with him, that he might send them forth to preach, so they would come and live with him and follow him and listen to him and watch him and do with him. And they would do and he would watch and eventually he would turn the ministry over to them. Now, when you're talking about being with them.

W. Austin Gardner:

Sometimes people like to say, well, I'm watching the Super Bowl with my guys, well, that's like spending time, but it's not investing time. You want to invest time. If you're discipling or mentoring, that means that the time is done on purpose. That doesn't mean you couldn't go on a camp out together. It doesn't mean you couldn't play games together. It doesn't mean you couldn't watch the Super Bowl. But you have to intentionally be teaching and asking questions all along to help them grow. It has to be a part of your mentality. I am working at growing them.

W. Austin Gardner:

And so Jesus says when he said he was alone, he didn't mean alone. He meant alone was with his disciples In Mark, chapter 4 and verse 10, and when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve. It wasn't even just the twelve when he was alone. So when he wasn't in the big crowd, he still wasn't alone. He gave up that personal part of his life and other people shared that. Now, typically, we only share that with our wife. And alone, he gave up that personal part of his life and other people shared that. Now, typically, we only share that with our wife and children, not even our closest friends, but Jesus shared it with them. In Mark, chapter 4 and verse 34, he says, but without a parable. He spake, he not unto them, and when they were alone he would expound it, he would teach them the scriptures.

W. Austin Gardner:

This alone time with Jesus meant they saw him in the early morning, they saw him in the late night. They saw him when he was off praying. They saw him when he was preaching. They saw him when he was sleeping. They saw him when he was eating. They knew Jesus in a personal, intimate way that only the most intimate family. Now, that's a very dangerous position, especially for us. It was even dangerous for Jesus, because Judas got really close to Jesus and Judas spent time with Jesus and Judas, quote-unquote, loved Jesus, but he would later betray Jesus. I often warn people that if Jesus had 1 out of 12 go bad, we'll probably have 11 out of 12 go bad. So you need to know that it's a risky business, but it's well worth it.

W. Austin Gardner:

By the time we get to Acts, chapter 4 and verse 13, we notice that they saw the boldness of Peter and John and they realized that they were unlearned and ignorant men and it shocked them, they marveled and they took knowledge of it and they started thinking about it and they said we know what it is. They've been with Jesus. They have been with Jesus and so being with Jesus taught them Now when they're with us. When they were with Jesus, obviously they learned good and right and perfect. But when they're with you, they're going to see too much. They're going to see you when you're angry, and you shouldn't be. They're going to see you when you're sad and depressed, and you shouldn't be. They're going to see you when you're discouraged. They're going to see you when you're encouraged. They're going to see you when you're playful. They're going to see you when you're moody. That's a really dangerous time.

W. Austin Gardner:

When I was a young preacher, I was taught by big-name preachers that you should keep a very great distance between you and your people, because familiarity breeds contempt. The more they know you, the less they'll like you. Now some of you have been very successful because they don't really know you and you've never been accused or mistreated or said lies about you, because no one really knows you enough. Sometimes preachers are like living in the heavenlies and they descend from the heavenlies and give their message and ascend back up into the heavenlies and at best they shake a few hands or like a big shot speaker that comes in off the green room. You know the room where you're alone, away from the people, and the room where you prepare to speak.

W. Austin Gardner:

I was taught that if you spent too much time with your people, they would see your feet of clay. I want to tell you that's true, but I believe it's important. I believe it's essential. I believe they don't think they can do it because they think of you as the high and mighty and lifted up and the one that's seated in the heavenlies. And they know they're not like that, because none of us are like that, are we? None of us are really like that. But when they know you and they find out you're just a man and you put your pants on like they do and you get up like they do, and you have good days, you have bad days, they learn from that. Well, god can use me too. God can use me too because he's able to use the preacher that's teaching me.

W. Austin Gardner:

And so I want to challenge you to spend lots of time. I want to challenge you to risk them getting to know you. There'll be some crosswords between you and your wife and they'll see it and hear it. They'll see you respond incorrectly to a church member or to your children. They'll know that you disciplined your children harshly in anger the other day. They'll know and they'll be able to use it against you. But we live in a cancel culture world where we're really kind of nervous about that, aren't we? We're like everything I say can and will be used against me in the court of public opinion. But if you're going to train men, that's really where you're going to have to get. You have to realize it doesn't matter what they think. I'm not doing this for what the public thinks. I'm not even necessarily doing this for what my trainees and my disciples think. I'm doing it because it's what pleases Jesus.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now here's the next part that I think that's extremely difficult for many people in leadership positions and people that are trying to accomplish what I'm talking about, and that is they are jealous. You know they don't want anybody to get more limelight than them. You know they don't want anybody to get more limelight than them, and you will have people that are your training, that will want to bump you off and take your place, and they will take opportunities to discredit you and absalom you. You know, speak ill of you and win the hearts of the people and maybe throw you out of your kingdom. Nothing new there. It is risky. It's risky. That's why kings killed all the children of the other king, and kings didn't allow their children to have that kind of power.

W. Austin Gardner:

But you have got to have a different attitude. Your attitude has to be I want them to do better than me. I know they will eclipse me, I know they will put me in the shade. I mean, that's basically what all of us, as parents, want. I don't know of a parent among us that wants our children to be less successful than we are. I think if there is a parent like that, they're very selfish. I want my children to succeed. I want my children to do greater things than I ever did, and I've always wanted the people I trained to do greater and bigger things than I have. And I learned that from the best. I learned that from Jesus.

W. Austin Gardner:

The Bible says in John, chapter 14 and verse 12, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, if you believe on me he's talking to his disciples the works that I do shall you also do. The works I do shall he do also. And then it makes this crazy and wild statement. It says greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father. Well, first off, I see the attitude of Jesus and you know, peter and Paul accomplished more, numerically, than Jesus did. They saw more people saved. They saw more people saved. They saw the gospel extend further than Jesus did. Jesus didn't write any books in the Bible and yet Paul wrote a good third of the Bible New Testament. They did greater works, but that's what Jesus wanted. But also it was because of the next thing we're going to do as we train. Jesus knew they would do greater works than he would because he was going to go to his father.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now that verse doesn't clear that up real well. That didn't tell us what that means, but we know what it means because we've studied scripture. And what it means is I'm going to the Father and he's going to send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's going to live in you and dwell in you and do great things in and through you. And so Jesus left and the Holy Spirit descended on the church in great power and they spread the gospel like crazy across the world. God gave them the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God allowed them to preach and teach to even people that didn't understand their language. God allowed them to see miracles done. God allowed them to withstand horrible, horrible mistreatment and abuse. God did a great work amongst them. That's what the Lord Jesus did.

W. Austin Gardner:

So I want to kind of sum all this up with this the stated purpose of Jesus was to be with them, not use them. Now, some fellows that I've dealt with over the years, they want disciples, but what they really want is a bunch of free labor of young men that have to do what they want done and they felt like, well, austin just had all these guys doing all of his work for him. Well, that's just totally not what the Lord wants. That's not what Jesus had in mind. He wanted to be with them. They became his friends. They became his. He told them I don't call you my servants, john 15. I call you my friends. And so we've got to arrive at a point where we want them to be our friends. We're going to have to kind of drop the Dr Doodoo Loodle. You know my name's Big Stuff and I'm somebody and I float from the heavenlies. We got to drop some of that and become friends and become friends.

W. Austin Gardner:

He didn't want to use them. He wasn't training them to build a church, he was training them to be with them. Now he's going to send them forth to do a ministry, but he just loved them. I love the story of when he's walking on the road to Emmaus don't you? And he acted like he didn't want to go with them. He acted like he'd rather go on and they said, well, why don't you come with us? He kind of acted like he wanted to go on, but he really wanted to be with them and he left to go with them. That's who we ought to be. We ought to be that.

W. Austin Gardner:

So, as I kind of sum up what we've looked at, the greatest missionary who ever lived, the greatest pastor who ever lived, was Jesus, and he spent three and a half years doing the work. But when he left, he only left with 120 people in attendance in the upper room. If you were to compare him to the big, famous fancy church planters, he failed. If numbers are your goal, jesus was a failure. He had some big days but he didn't have the big numbers. But you know what he did? He trained 12 men, 11 of which would go on and do greater things. They would shake the world. In their lifetime. The world turned on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but it was those disciples that spread the word. What was his goal? Was it to rapidly plant churches or was it to train men that would train others to plant churches?

W. Austin Gardner:

So, as you step out to do the work, as you're on the field right now, and as you're doing whatever it is that God's called you to do, I want to challenge you to mentor people. I want to challenge you to take what you've heard, all that that you've learned all that time in Bible college and seminary, and I want you to find some faithful, capable men and I want to challenge you to share that with those men that they might know the Lord Jesus. I want to challenge you to share that with them that they might grow in grace and accomplish great things for God. And that's what the message is today that you and I would find faithful, capable men, commit all that we know to them and help them do more for Jesus than we've ever done. That'll be it for today on mentoring.

W. Austin Gardner:

I really thank you for taking the time to listen or to watch on YouTube. If that's what you're doing, I am very thankful for how God seems to be blessing the podcast. It seems to be picking up some momentum. I'd appreciate it if you'd give it a like. You can join the podcast on Facebook under World Evangelism Podcast. I've got a Facebook group or page set up for us. You can obviously download the podcast and subscribe to it. I just would like to help people and I hope this is a help and I hope that you've been blessed by it. And if I can do things better, please let me know what they are. I want to do the best I can to bless you and help you do the work that God's called you to do. God bless you. This is Austin Gardner signing off from the World Evangelism Podcast. God loves you. I love you, thankful to be your friend. God bless you.