Discipleship: Learners vs. Experts

Discipleship is a challenging thing, but everyone is an expert at something!

Webster’s online dictionary defines “Expert” as:

Adj: 1) Having or showing knowledge and skill and aptitude. 2) Having or showing great skill or knowledge or special training as expected of a professional; “an expert opinion”.

Noun: A person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully.

I Discovered Experts Are All Around Me

A few years back I helped run a Mums and Toddlers group out of a local church. The goal  was to provide a place for community, and a place to build relationships with non-Christians.   I was there to provide a service, and hopefully share all that I knew about Jesus to women who had no clue.  Running a successful Mums and Tots, for me, was an achievement in itself—even more so as I was the foreigner, had no kids of my own, hailed from a different social class, and was one of the few whom believed in this whole relationship with Jesus thing.

In the early days of this venture, I found myself almost weekly thinking of things that I could chat to these women about.  We were different ages, different backgrounds and different lifestyles and yet they came every week, and I was there to greet them.  One week I would share about my plumbing problems, the next about my haphazard love life.  I started to realize that as they were able to offer me their opinions, pieces of advice, or generally learned life knowledge—a relationship was being formed.

It seemed that as I allowed them to offer their knowledge and wisdom about every day things, they started to invite me into their lives more and more.  After a while, they would come in and share bigger obstacles:  kid issues, partner problems, faith questions, etc, etc.  What I realized was there seemed to be a pattern forming there.

A universal rule of give and take seemed to be settling in:  I allowed them to share what they knew well, and slowly, they began to accept what expertise I had to share.  The only thing I knew well at this stage was people and Jesus.

Now I Call Out the Expert In Everyone

I’ve realized since then that these simple observations about sharing and learning are ingrained into most of the discipleship interactions that I have today.  When I’m leading intentionally, my first thought as I meet new people whom I’m teaching or a new group that I might be leading is, “How can I allow these individuals to speak of what they know well?  What life experience they can share, what task can they perform that is manageable, what area of my life can they impart wisdom into?”

Although I’ll be the first to admit that I miss opportunities on a regular basis to practice this, when I do succeed, the outcome is remarkable.  People are put at ease and more willing to listen and take wisdom when they know you’ve done the same.  As Christian  leaders especially, the assumption sometimes from those around us can be that we have the valuable information to impart.  One of my chosen endeavors is for them to feel that they also have valuable information to give.  I might be the only so-called Christian expert that they know—but I want this to be life-giving, not defeating.

You might be thinking, “But we as Christians leaders do have the spiritual wisdom that our followers, newcomers, need!”  and you would be right!  What is also right is that we as Christian leaders and role-models need to put value on people’s life journeys, and their life experiences.  As they share, and grow in confidence in their ability to impart help—then they will be more likely to take our wisdom and expertise in turn.

Everyone is an expert at something!