The great value of one to one ministry

Christians meet together in all kinds of ways. The large worship service is like the flagship of most churches; it has the great advantage of many people hearing and learning the same things at the same time. Many churches also have small groups of some form, which help a great deal in terms of personal connection and interaction. There is another form of meeting that Christians should consider for its many unique advantages: meeting one to one with another Christian.

In an age where we all value efficiency, one to one ministry seems very inefficient. You cannot reach many people at a time. It requires a lot of people to be involved if this is a major ministry in your church. Yet there are very good reasons to have this kind of ministry be prominent in your church, and for you to be personally active in.

We have Biblical example of this kind of thing. For example, Titus encourages older women to train the younger women in the church in a variety of things (Tit 2:3-5). I would imagine that this would be more likely done one to one than in a ‘women’s instruction Bible study group’ as we might be tempted to do it today. Apollos was corrected and taught in private by Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18:26. It is also more than possible that instructions such as Timothy being asked to entrust Paul’s teaching to faithful men (2 Tim 2:2) were often carried out in a one to one context.

One to one ministry provides unique advantages over group ministry. Let me list a few of them:

• It is more personal, which helps both people to be open and honest with one another.
• People have more opportunities to ask their own questions.
• A time and place can be arranged more easily. It can be scheduled for unusual times for busy people like early morning or lunchtimes.
• This kind of meeting can be done quite smoothly online if needed.
• It helps more people in the church family to be directly involved in word ministry. It is too easy to think that explaining the Bible to people is something done by the professional up the front, and one to one goes some way to dispelling that myth.

We have used one to one ministry quite a lot in our church in the past and are currently in a push to expand this as we see so much opportunity. The church I serve contains many migrants and we have many newcomers whose English is a work in progress. One to one ministry has proved to be a great help to those with limited English where groups are too difficult to navigate. You can go slowly with time to repeat anything that is not understood.

One to one ministry has incredible value in evangelism and discipleship. You can take the time to explain key gospel concepts thoroughly. As each person is different, you can take the time to answer the different questions people have. You can be more sure that what is being communicated is also being understood.

There are lots of ways of doing one to one ministry. Some just open the Bible at a gospel and read a bit together and discuss it. Others use pre-prepared material. At our church, we have used Christianity Explored and Just for Starters, along with other Bible overview material written in-house. If the church can provide such material free of charge it removes one barrier to people taking part (and it doesn’t cost the church very much).

Training is needed. We’re running another training session for our people in March. If someone is to volunteer to serve in this way, they need to know what is needed and how it looks. Maybe you could interview two people who have been meeting together in front of church one Sunday?

Consider one to one ministry. It is of great value in explaining the gospel, and those who are involved in it grow in their passion for God and for ministry.