We Can't Do It Alone

2003 youth ministry in Harrison County, KY, looked a lot different than 2024 youth ministry in Harrison County. In 2003, we had been building up, over the last four years, a group of youth ministries within the local churches that were ALL thriving. We had partnered with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Harrison County High School to do a monthly youth group night called “the Gate,” where 300 kids from 6th through 12th grade were attending as though it was the most important thing we did. Several of our youth groups would do events together throughout the year like Ichthus (a Christian concert festival in Wilmore, KY, where around 30,000 would gather for the weekend) and the 30 Hour Famine (a lock-in event where students would raise money to help in efforts to fight world hunger and fast for 30 hours.) None of it was by accident, though. There was a concerted effort by the youth ministers to be intentional about Harrison County.

The first part was collaboration. We all had the ability to work within the context of our own church bodies, but we realized how much more effective we would be if we worked in tandem. The best discipleship always happens when there’s a team behind our efforts. We encouraged one another, built each other up, and corrected each other when we needed to. We created a brotherhood among the local youth ministers and welcomed any new youth minister once they were hired. Our students noticed it, too. It was nothing to see a few youth ministers out to eat and a host of students in tow. 

That’s the second part of the equation here…the students. We poured into those kids. Students didn’t just see their youth ministers on Sunday and Wednesday. They saw us throughout the week. We spent a great deal of time with these teens. We ate meals, went to movies, had Bible studies, and just hung out with them. Every youth minister saw the importance of intentional, relational discipleship, and we all poured ourselves into these kids. They weren’t our mission field. They were our spiritual sons and daughters. I had four young men that I poured into heavily over the four years that I was in Cynthiana. One of them wasn’t even in my youth group. Of the four of them, three are in ministry positions within the local church, and I got to play guitar at Leesburg with the fourth twice last month at Leesburg. Much of that is due to continuing those relationships well past my time there.

Did you catch the main concept here? Relationship. Discipleship isn’t a program we do. It’s pouring ourselves into people. The Apostle Paul was the blueprint for how to do this. Paul knew how to partner and pour. After his conversion, Paul hit the road with Barnabas. 

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Acts 13:2–3

For the next decade, Paul and Barnabas would travel throughout the Middle East and into Asia. They were sent out by the Church at Antioch and set apart by the Holy Spirit to spread the Good News of Christ together. As a duo, they were able to make disciples in Cyprus, Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. In Lystra, Paul was stoned. Imagine how that may have ended up had Barnabas not been there. They were partners in Christ and as disciple-makers. It was also during their time together in Antioch that we first see the believers of Christ called, “Christians.” Their partnership saw many disciples made, and the Church grew because of it.

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Acts 14:21–22

Just as Paul had an encourager and partner by his side, he also had one that he was pouring into that would be like a son to him. His name was Timothy.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.
Philippians 2:19–24

For several years, Paul and Timothy traveled together doing ministry and making disciples. Paul poured himself into Timothy, mentoring and teaching him what it meant to be an apostle and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus. Timothy was only about 21 years old (some say as young as 16) when he began to travel with him, and Paul saw the potential that he had. Eventually, Paul sent Timothy off to his own ministry, where he would take the lead and continue the work that he had been doing with Paul all those years. This didn’t end their relationship, though. The book of 1 Timothy is a letter to Timothy from Paul 13 or 14 years after they first met. Their relationship wasn’t just a “6-month program.” It was a lifetime commitment. Even though Timothy was younger, probably in his late 20s or early-to-mid 30s, Paul entrusted him with the work of the Gospel.

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
 1 Timothy 4:12

Discipleship is all about relationship. Who is your Barnabas? Are you trying to go it alone, or are you working with others? Who is your Timothy? Are you pouring into someone who will pour into others? One thing is for sure. We can’t do it alone.