Welcome

The first step in practical discipleship is to make your disciple feel welcomed into your family. For all practical pourposes, your disciple, even though you may know them, starts out as a virtual stranger and while they may fee uncomfortable in a new setting with you, you and your family will need to acclimate to this new setting with them.

Something Non-Threatening

To start, try inviting them over for some non-threatening event at your house like dinner, a movie, game night, ect. Something light and fun to get started is what is needed to allow a level of comfort to develop.

Something To Get Started With

I usually start by giveng two items to a new disciple (see right margin for links). The first is an open letter for discipleship that is a modified version of my article on "How Can I Disciple Someone If I Haven't Been Discipled", and secondly I give them a "where are you at" worksheet. These give the disciple something to work on and think about untill the next session.

The open letter describes my heart and intent for discipleship, some of my past struggles in my Christian faith, and a challenge for the potential disciple to take the next step in their faith journey.

The "where are you at" worksheet is a way to identify common problems in faith fundementals as well as life scenarios. The first part is easy, asking to rate how you feel about things from 1 - 10 while the second page asks you to put into your own words how you feel about situations. The final part which is crucial for married couples is asking them to discuss their answers with eachother which can get straight to issues of trust and communication inside a marriage.

Time

Discipleship doesn't happen quickly, this is going to take time. Make sure the people you disciple know that this process could take quite a bit of time and durring the initial cycle of "where are you at" / "addressing issues" phase it will take you as their mentor time to pray and craft response and action plans with them.

Trust

Without trust there can be no discipleship. Confidentiality is the most important factor to a new disciple, that you will not put their openness on display in the rumor mill is vital. There must be an understanding that neither the mentor or the disciple will break this bond of confidentiality unless specified up front. The only way this bond should be broken (other than by consent) should be if someones life was in danger due to drug use or threats of suicide.

Backup

The assisting in someones spiritual well being, growth, and correction is not something to take lightly. I would highly recomend that you request your pastoral staff pray for you whily you're on this journey and request that if they have any suggestions from their experiance in counseling that they share with you resources and techniquest that they have used in the past.

Don't Be Mr. Fix-It

While the first stage is going to address areas in the disciples life that need correcting or fine tuning, you need to move them into a self feeding mode where they are studying the scriptures and applying Gods word to their own life. This may take some time but the end result is worth a lot more than you trying to put out annual fires in their life forever.