The summer after I graduated from high school, I walked into a piano lesson wanting to play like Ben Folds; I walked out wanting to be like Dr. Hsu. My teacher, the late Dr. Hsu, was a world-class pianist. He could have spent that hour networking with other elite musicians or instructing Juilliard-bound students, but he elected to spend some of his valuable time with me. I will never forget my first lesson with him. After only moments at the keys, he opened a large book and showed me a picture of the Parthenon. He asked me about art and beauty. As our discussion progressed, we moved from the piano bench to comfortable chairs. He made tea. He shared musical knowledge and godly counsel. As we sipped and spoke, a relationship was born that continues to impact me to this day. Over six weeks of teas and keys, I grew. I grew more like him. I have never again practiced piano with the single-minded focus that I applied that summer. However, time with Dr. Hsu formed more than my musical abilities; it also transformed my vision of who I wanted to be and how I wanted to spend my life. This man of elite ability chose to serve me and help me develop. It was contagious. It was powerful.
Ben Folds was a piano-playing rock star, but Dr. Hsu made me see the appeal of a life outside the spotlight. Dr. Hsu enacted the truth that godliness combined with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6); and, though piano playing is likely not exactly what Paul had in mind when he spoke of working with one’s hands, Dr. Hsu exemplified Paul’s statement that it is a beautiful ambition to seek a quiet life (1 Thess. 4:11). By inviting me to think, speak, pray, and question with him for one summer, Dr. Hsu’s fingerprints have been on all the students that I have mentored since. Along with other key influences, he took time to know me and invest in me, which prepared me to invest in others. He graciously selected me for a season of focused attention, and God has faithfully multiplied the outcome. Who would have thought that a summer of one-on-one piano lessons could have such a wide-ranging impact? Though I didn’t understand it at the time, Dr. Hsu was practicing God’s plan of discipleship through apprenticeship.
God has always been in the business of selection: He chose a people; He chose prophets; He chose disciples. The unlimited God narrowed His focus—not to love the world less but to love it best.
In The Lost Art of Disciple Making (1978), LeRoy Eims says, “Whoever is thinking about or is now involved in a ministry of making disciples (Matt. 28:19) should think soberly about . . . selection” (29). God has always been in the business of selection: He chose a people; He chose prophets; He chose disciples. The unlimited God narrowed His focus—not to love the world less but to love it best. God’s perfect plan was to reach many by mentoring some. Jesus was compassionate to the masses and taught the crowd, but He apprenticed just twelve men. While this strategy purposely limited his scope in an immediate sense, He chose this method to change the world. Likewise, teachers must love and serve all their students, but loving best might mean intentionally investing most deeply in only a few. Jesus mentored a small group of men, each with weaknesses and struggles, but those men went on to “[turn] the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 KJV). Could it be that academic disciple-makers can impact the widest range by narrowing the scope of their efforts? Could selectively apprenticing a dozen help every student experience more of the love of Christ?
Less Can Be More
Teachers must understand that it is not possible to be close with a hundred students, but that does not make the work futile. Jesus, the God-man, is fully God and fully human. As God, He is able to know, care for, and mentor an unlimited number of people. However, as a man, He limited Himself in both time and energy. Limited as it was, there was never an earthly ministry more effective than his.
Like Jesus, teachers have limited time and energy. The Lord spent three years with His disciples; teachers often have only a single year with theirs. Dr. Hsu had six weeks with me. How can we wisely steward the limited resources we have been given? I am making the simple but counterintuitive assertion that we can love more students more by focusing on fewer of them. This idea is not about leaving anyone out or showing favoritism. Rather, it’s about taking the opportunities that God gives.
Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–27). Who does the Samaritan help? The one man who is in his path. The world is filled with broken people and myriad needs, but this man fulfills the second commandment by loving his neighbor. If you recall, Jesus tells this story in response to the question “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). And, while all people are neighbors, created in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect, the Lord does not command us to love neighbors but to love our neighbors. There is freedom here in that we can trust that God will put the right people in our paths. He did it for the Samaritan, He did it for Philip (Acts 8:26–40), and He will do it for us. We are called to show a baseline of love and care to all. Jesus has compassion on the hungry crowd and feeds them, but He does not invite them all to eat with Him in the Upper Room. He teaches the crowds on the hillside but brings only three men to the mountaintop to witness his transfiguration. As teachers, we are invited into more than Jesus’s plan; we are also invited into his process.
Paul tells us that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe it (Rom. 1:16). However, the verse does not stop there. The gospel is for all, but it goes first to the Jew and then to the Greek. God’s plan is to love the world, but His love is applied to the world through an intentional process. If we want to love all our students well, we need to invest in some specifically. When teachers disciple some, those students will in turn disciple others. We can see this in the life and ministry of the Teacher. He taught his disciples and then commissioned them to teach others to obey all that He had commanded. This is the apprenticeship model: self-replication. But how does a teacher begin to intentionally consider what selective mentoring might look like in a particular context?
The Call
Paul’s invitation in 1 Corinthians 11:1 is a model for disciple-makers. He calls the church in Corinth to follow his example as he follows Christ. All believers are disciples of Christ, but we are also followers of those who walk the narrow road just a few steps ahead of us. The first step for teachers—academic disciple-makers—is issuing the call generally for students to follow your example. Note that Paul does not address his invitation to a specific few but to the whole church at Corinth. His life is an open book before them. While teachers need not share every personal detail of their lives with their classes, we must be ready to be an example to them of godly living. In order to apprentice some, the first step is to be generally available as an example to all.
The Criteria
It is not enough to issue a general call for discipleship. Instead, academic disciple-makers must seek to develop specific relationships as God gives opportunity. Based on Scripture, along with personal experience, I suggest that teachers be specifically attuned to need, affinity, and continued connection.
In On the Road with Saint Augustine (2019), James K. A. Smith recounts an experiment that demonstrated how being left out of a simple game can cause a person to feel meaningless in regard to life in general (127–128). In the school environment, students can experience ostracism and isolation regularly. Teachers should be on the lookout for students who are left out. Consider the Good Samaritan: each passerby sees the injured man, but only one responds by engaging the needy person. Likewise, Zacchaeus is an outcast, hated by many, but Jesus turns toward the sycamore to turn Zacchaeus toward the Father. The first criterion for selective mentorship is to notice need. The gospel meets needs; it brings the lonely into families, the hopeless into joyful anticipation, and the broken into restoration. Disciple-makers meet needs in this way as well.
The second criterion is affinity. Have you ever noticed how many of the disciples are fishermen? At least seven. That represents more than half the core group of Jesus’s followers. If there had been a modern business model behind the selection process, the group may have been highly diversified so that Jesus would have had access to many different walks of life. However, this was not His design. As the disciples started following Jesus, they connected their communities with him as well. Affinity presents opportunity. In my own teaching experience, music has often proved to be a valuable connection in mentorship relationships. Rather than being connected by fishing line, guitar strings often unite me with students. Every teacher has affinities in common with students. Consider your passions and hobbies. Do you share a love of books, movies, sports, cooking, or gardening with your students? If so, could it be that your shared affinity may be God’s divine opportunity?
The final criterion that I look for when selecting students to apprentice is continued connection. There were at least two sets of brothers in Jesus’s core group. These men would be connected through a physical family for their entire lives, but they established an even deeper relationship as eternal brothers in Jesus’s family. I also look for family connections in my classes: church-family connections. If students are part of my church, I know that I am likely to see them more often during a given year. In addition, I am likely to have a continued relationship with those students even after they move on from my class.
The Commission
After identifying potential mentees, what does apprenticeship actually look like? Many resources are available to help in this area, but simply put, we invite students to walk with us as we walk with Christ. Paul writes, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). The idea here is more than just walking the same path as a particular leader—it’s becoming like that person. The essence of apprenticeship is self-replication. This takes pressure off of us because no fancy models must be followed. More freeing is the fact that there is no need for perfection. Eli was nothing close to a perfect man, but he was the right mentor for Samuel. Paul was the chief of sinners, but he was right for Timothy. Have you ever wondered why Paul did not say, “Follow the example of Christ” but “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ”?
Students are not perfect and, therefore, do not need perfect mentors. They need followers of Christ. They need teachers who have not yet attained the goal but who are pressing toward it imperfectly (Phil. 3:12). They need to see active repentance and growth. A perfect person cannot grow and learn, but that is exactly what we are calling imperfect students to do. Follow me in growing, learning, and repenting as I do the same in pursuit of Christ.
Case Studies
Selective mentorship is biblical, and it is also practical. Here are a few real-life examples of how it has worked in my experience.
A few months ago, I noticed a student in need. He came to me with deep frustrations. He felt like many of his peers were not necessarily seeking truth, but instead simply wanted to get through school without really thinking deeply about anything. He had doubts and questions about his faith, and he felt alone in those things. I shared that I, the Bible teacher, also experienced questions, struggles, and doubts. This opened the door for honest conversations about how to seek truth. I meet his need not by answering his questions but by taking them seriously. Since he came to me, we’ve started reading a book together that tackles one issue that has plagued his mind for some time. It’s a two-person book club that allows both of us to learn from the writing and from dialogue with one another. While this apprenticeship is still very much in process, I pray that he will not only learn to wrestle well with big questions but help others to do the same.
During my first year of teaching, one student in the praise band made a concerted effort to be available for relationship. We shared an affinity for music and worship. He sought me out at events in order to sit with me. He wanted to help me connect well with the school, but he also wanted an older brother in the faith. That relationship blossomed. We played and sang together, and I also helped him apply to colleges, think about vocation, and sharpen his critical-thinking skills. However, our relationship grew exponentially when God orchestrated an opportunity for us to spend time together daily. During his senior year, his free period aligned with my planning period. Every day, he came to my room and worked with me. We made copies, cleaned the classroom, and set up for chapel. He wrote his papers while I graded mine. We talked about our lives. After graduating, he became a leader for other young adults. He actively sought to spend time with peers a few steps behind him. He bought them coffees and invited them to Bible studies. A few years later, he left town for college and immediately became an older brother for those in his dorm. Happy to drive sick students to the doctor and have an open door for those in need, the mentee became the mentor.
Finally, a few years ago, I built a relationship with a new student while coaching the cross-country team at my school. Coaching presented a multiyear opportunity to stay connected with students. As we piled up the miles in the heat of a South Carolina summer, this student and I spent significant time shoulder-to-shoulder. Time spent shoulder-to-shoulder led to the opportunity to regularly eat lunch face-to-face in the cafeteria. With those miles and meals came conversation. There wasn’t one impressive, transformative step along the way. Instead, the way, made up of hundreds of little steps, led somewhere significant. Over time, we talked about faith, work, church, goals, and so much more. As we grew together, it was not difficult to see this student reaching out to his peers as well. He started running with another student in order to be an encouragement. He started being more intentional about his mealtimes in order to maximize important relationships. My time with him was a catalyst for him to spend meaningful time with others.
As need, affinity, and continued connection came into focus, I sought to capitalize. By building apprenticeship relationships around shared experiences—a book club, music, and running—I was not able to connect with every doubter. I did not invest equally in every member of the praise band. Nor did I mentor every cross-country runner. Instead, I tried to make the most of the chances that the sovereign God presented. While I am confident that I didn’t handle these chances perfectly and likely missed many opportunities, connecting deeply with a few has had an impact on many. I may have tossed seed and watered, but God gave growth (1 Cor. 3:6). He has a perfect plan to use imperfect teachers for effective discipleship.
Conclusion
We can be confident that the sovereign Lord who controls kingdoms (Dan. 4:17, 25, 32) also controls classrooms. We can trust that one way to love all the students at your school best is to make the most of the chances God gives to love a few specifically. The Good Samaritan did not save every injured person, but that was not his task. His task was to take the costly and meaningful opportunity that God gave him. You cannot do it all, but you can give your all. The Lord used three years with twelve men to ignite a world-changing movement. We can trust that He may use similar methods to ignite a school-changing movement as well. You might be a Dr. Hsu to one or two of your students. Where do you see need, affinity, or opportunity for continued connection? Don’t pass up the opportunity to mentor a few; it might well be God’s plan to turn your school upside down for his glory.
Works Cited
Eims, LeRoy. The Lost Art of Disciple Making. Zondervan, 1978.
Smith, James K. A. On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. Brazos Press, 2019.
Dr. Kelly Hayes teaches classes in Bible, worldview, and worship at The King’s Academy in Florence, SC. He also serves as biblical integration team leader and chapel coordinator. Kelly has served as pastor and teacher in environments and groups that have spanned age, size, and region. He was educated at Liberty University and Southern Seminary. You can read more of his writing at LeadLikeThis.com.
