Four No-Prep Discipleship Activities
You’ve got 5 minutes until your next discipleship appointment, and, for whatever reason, you didn’t prepare. Life happens, but we don’t want it to take away from the quality time with your disciple. Here are four easy but important ways to spend time with your disciples.
Pray for the lost
Go on a prayer walk together and pray out loud for different pockets of campus. Pray for your disciple’s lost friends (we use C2:8 as a tool for this). Pray for the world, especially countries connected to your students.
Share your faith with the lost
One-third of discipleship should be in ministry. While evangelizing shouldn’t be a last resort, this is an excellent way to spend time with your disciple if you didn’t prepare. Evangelism tools like Soularium or Perspective Cards can help, but don’t hesitate to simply walk up to students and ask them if they have a few minutes to talk about God.
Talk through your disciple’s Personal Development Plan
At the beginning of each semester, set up a Personal Development Plan. PDPs are a great way to see measurable, self-initiated growth in your disciple’s life. Every few weeks, refer back to it.
For meetings where you have nothing prepared, walk through the PDP. Specifically focus on root issues and unpack what is going on at the disciple’s life. Discuss how unbelief in the Gospel is hindering their growth.
Talk through your Discipleship Multiplication Chart
Every week, I review a Multiplication Chart with each disciple. This chart shows who I disciple and who my disciples are discipling, keeping the vision in front of them.
On the days you have nothing else planned, you can take this time to talk through each student they disciple and the next steps in evangelism. Discuss your disciple’s Bible study, what they have planned for discipleship this week, and how you can help them prepare.
By all means prepare! Do not show up to your discipleship meetings every week empty handed. But we all have those weeks where we just can’t quite keep up. Having some go-to backups will help you make the most of your time in discipleship even when you don’t prep.
Reflection questions
What discipleship activities do you do on a regular basis that require little to no preparation?
What are the things in your life that take priority over preparing for discipleship meetings?