We occasionally get the question about why we minister one-to-one rather than in small groups or large events. The Bottle Illustration helps people understand the difference between one-to-one discipling and group discipleship.
Look at the picture above. There are glass bottles of various sizes and positions. All of those bottles are empty. But we’d like to fill them from a busket of water. What would be the best way to do that?
In a local church, a pastor teaches a message from the front of the church. Maybe our picture represents the front row of the church. The pastor has worked hard all week on a sermon that can help Christians grow. Each bottle (Christian) is open and ready to receive this week’s teaching. So what does the pastor do?
Front the front of the church, the pastor gives the message to the congregation. Consider that a bucket of water – clean, refreshing water – that is intended to help each person grow a little more that week. So the pastor heaves the bucket of water toward the open bottles and just might hit every bottle (at least in the front row).
But how much water gets into the bottle with this method? If you were given a bottle of water, would you throw it at the bottle or do something else?
With the one-on-one discipling method, we take the water bucket to the row of bottles. Taking our time and aiming carefully, we begin to pour water from the bucket into the bottles – one-by-one. As one bottle fills, we can move to the next bottle.
There are two “problems” with the one-on-one method. Some water still doesn’t get into a bottle. And by filling the first few bottles, other bottles get no water at all. If you consider the needs of the many of the needs of a few, you can simply keep throwing water from a bucket.
However, there is certainly much more water in a few bottles than there is all of the bottles from the first method.
A couple principles to consider: 1. People learn better with direct, personal discipling. And 2. The technique should always be driven by the task.
The task that Jesus set before us was to make disciples – not just wet the bottles. That requires us to get personal with someone else.
Drop your comments below about the Bottle Illustration and how it may help your focus.