As we follow Jesus and Fearlessly make Him known God provides people to walk with as we follow Him.
Check out Karen and Barb’s fearless follower story of friendship and discipleship.
Karen: As a longtime Christian, I’ve been involved in many Bible studies, small groups as well as volunteering and leading in many areas of the church, so I have a lot of community with other Christians. And yet, I’ve always felt this void in my life as part of the Church—I had a longing to have someone who I can dive into scripture with and have them help me apply what I’m learning to my life, to encourage me and hold me accountable to keep growing in character and to being in the Word. So many of my Christian friends talked about Mentors and Disciplers who were key in their faith journey I desperately wanted that—to have someone to pour into me. I’ve asked several women over the years to walk with me and was always turned down for various reasons- the main one being that they don’t have time for ‘another thing’ in their lives…. I gave up looking, thinking it wasn’t in God’s plan for me.
Barb: Prior to moving to Michigan and subsequently coming to Ridge Point, I had been involved in church planting and various aspects of women’s ministries and discipleship. I came to Ridge Point because I looked for a church that was doing a Beth Moore Bible study. That study is where I met Karen and a number of other wonderful women who were willing to come alongside me and help me adjust to living in this area and yet encourage me to continue my walk in the Lord. When the opportunity presented itself to help disciple another woman, I gladly volunteered because I had learned long ago that when I disciple someone else, I work harder to maintain my personal spiritual walk.
Karen: And even though I thought it wasn’t going to be a part of my growth journey—I’ve always had a heart for discipleship—for having Believers pouring into other Believers. I started using that format within a ministry I lead in and am always connecting others together for that reason. Knowing my heart, Mick had asked me to be a part of the In Training Pilot Group. I was SO EXCITED to FINALLY be getting a woman to walk with me. He paired me with Barb, someone I had met in passing through a Bible Study we had both attended. I liked Barb, but I laughed at first—she had never been married and isn’t a mother—so HOW in the world would she be able to walk with me as a Christian wife & mother? But after a few times meeting for coffee, just to get to know each other, I realized very quickly, that when you have the most important thing in common— loving God and the desire to grow closer to Him —that is all we needed as the foundation for our relationship.
Barb: When I was first paired with Karen, I was shocked to find that she had been a Christian for many years. I had thought that I would be working with someone who was newer to the faith. However, we both quickly learned that we were literally “iron sharpening iron”. It has been great to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses and knowing that we can be totally honest with each other and help each other grow.
Karen: Barb suggested we find a time that is “Ours” — and when she first suggested meeting weekly, I was already feeling spread thin as a busy mom to two teenagers and was skeptical that I’d be able to stick with it but it’s not only something that we’ve been able to stick with, we find that we feel a void in our weeks whenever we can’t meet. We’ve been meeting every Tuesday morning for over a year. We’ve journeyed through a Bible study about discipleship principals, challenge each other in our ministries, ask questions, point out truth and share ways that the Word has been challenging us in our lives. What I love most about our time together is how easy & organic our time together is—we don’t have an agenda (other than talking about the Word) and I’ve learned that discipleship happens in the context of relationships rooted in Biblical Truth.
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
If you are interested in walking with someone as your Follow Jesus contact Mick@fearlessfollower.org
