The "I Think I'm Going to Puke" Moment of Disicpleship With Students

Your hand reaches over the top, desperately trying to find a hold.  To the right, to the left, and then finally you find a sliver of an edge that you can grab.  Holding onto that fraction of an inch, you pull and push and get just enough of your body up over the ledge that your weight isn't on your exhausted legs anymore.  That's when it hits you, laying there on your stomach, your feet dangling out in space, trying to catch your breath; you've made it!  All of that work, all of that stress, the uncertainty of it all finally comes together as you top out on the climb.  Deep down, no matter how many times you may or may not have done this before, you know somethings changed inside of you.  As cliche as it sounds, you know that you won't ever be exactly the same as you were before.  There is a new piece to who you are. 

No matter how many times I've went rock climbing, topping out always produces the same feelings in me.   When you get to the top of the rock face and hoist yourself up and over, it's just such excitement, pride, relief, hope, and honest joy.  If you've never done it, I know it sounds hokey and made up, but it's not.  It's an amazing experience.

As I've taken students climbing over the years, I've learned to recognize when a student decides they are going to finish the climb or not.  There is a place, usually around 50-60% of the way up the rock face, that you can tell if they are going to give in to the fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty and come down, or if they are going to push through all of it and make it all the way up.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but there is this point where all of the encouragement from below, all of the instruction before they started, all of the thoughts they had going into it fade, and they simply decide this is something worth doing.  This is something worth finishing.  They will pay the price and see this through.  It becomes THEIR climb, THEIR challenge to finish.  So they do.

In our discussion on the five levels of spiritual growth on the pyramid, the fifth one is the level of Leaders Producing New Leaders.  It's the idea of a student who has moved through the relationships, evangelism, beginning discipleship, and advanced discipleship and then decides to pour all of that into someone else.  It's the last level for students on the chart, so it's the smallest, with the fewest students, and it's almost impossible to program and create.  We can set up relational events (level 1) where students get to know each other.  We can build the gospel (level 2) into times so students hear it clearly.  We can provide clearly regimented Bible training and skills classes (level 3).  We can even create service opportunities  (level 4) for kids.  But this level is a bit different.  For this one to really work, a student has to make that decision.  They have followed Jesus up this rock face, but now they have to decide for themselves if they are going to move forward to the last level or not.  Many don't.  Some do.  It's between them and Him much more than with us as their youth leaders. 

For students who do, it means they turn around to their peers and begin looking for people to build relationships  (level 1) with, and prayerfully considering who they can walk through the five levels with.  It's the very essence of discipleship.  That's why we make it the goal of the process.  We want to make disciples who make disciples.  It's Biblical (Matthew 28:19,20 among many other verses) and it resolves this issue of how many students we "lose" at graduation.

But it's largely beyond our control.  We program towards it, and model it.  It is up to our students, in that period of stress and uncertainty, to decide if they will keep climbing or not.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this.  Please contact me or post a comment below.