Discipling

Whilst we were on holiday Ian and Ben went walking all the way up a mountain to a glazier. Not as easy as that sentence was to write. Ian has had experience of this and so when the going got tough he would hold out a walking pole to Ben so he could cross a waterfall without fear. Ian said afterwards that there were times when he was scared but he didn't tell Ben as that wouldn't have been a help.
What a wonderful opportunity to be able to disciple Ben in things he knows!
Ian has also noticed that when he took a friend climbing Ben was telling Peter the things that he, Ben, had learned from Ian. Again a wonderful example of discipling.
But this discipling was a long slow process, not at the time getting much reward. But even though Ian has done this, when I complimented him on doing something so rare he replied that he had had this happen at school. Though in the end it transpired that this had been in a group setting not one on one.
I think we so often see doing anything with anyone as something that we do in groups, at times the larger the better, transmitting information and hoping that some of it goes somewhere, which at times it does. But actually doing groups is much more rewarding than one on one discipling because, for one people notice when you are 'leading a group', but see it as either just 'hanging out' or something else not so rewarding.
How can we take the Great Commision and either reduce it to a group thing or even say 'its not my calling' when it is one of the commands Jesus left us with. In fact most of what Jesus gave us was lifestyle but this was a command! But how come we have missed the point, or said it is too hard?
I cannot remember who it was, but I think it was Henri Nouwen who said if we all discipled one person for one year, then they discipled one person for a year, and they discipled one person for a year, and during this multiplication everyone is discipling for a year in next to no time we could win a whole nation to Jesus, not just as converts but as radical followers of Jesus.