“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” – John F. Kennedy

I believe we all want to make a difference in the world, to know that our life matters, and to know that once we’re gone our presence will be missed.

Although what this looks like will be different for all of us, I believe each and every person in this world can make a bigger difference than they ever imagined.

I heard someone put it this way, “there are some who are called to millions, but there are others who are called to the one who will reach millions.”

It doesn’t matter how many people we reach; we can all reach at least one person.

I think this is so important to remember as a Christian who is called to make disciples. Oftentimes this calling can seem quite intimidating.

But truthfully, it’s a lot easier than we make it and I hope by the end of this post, your perspective on discipleship completely changes.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about discipleship since I recently went to see the movie The Forge which did a great job breaking down what discipleship looks like (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.)

But until you get a chance to see the movie, I want to offer some tips that have helped me in seeing my call to make disciples in a completely different way and I hope that these tips will help you as well to see your call in a new way.

1. Start at Home– This is one that is very easy to overlook. Often times we desire to do something BIG. We want to do something that everyone can see and celebrate us for. Of course, this isn’t true of everyone, but when you look at our society today, it seems like a majority of people want to be in the spotlight. People are quitting their 9-5’s because they believe they have been called to ministry and most people seem to have this idea that ministry must include a platform and a following. However, after being one of those people who thought that way, God begin to change my heart and my mind, and now I fully understand that ministry starts at home. It’s easy to want to run out and try to save the world, but what about your children, what about your spouse, and what about those family members that you never even shared with them how God changed you and your life.

2. Start Where You Are – People often use the excuse that they don’t know their bible well enough or that they wouldn’t know where to begin to disciple someone, but I want to encourage you that you can start exactly where you are. For me, I love sharing with people how God has transformed my life, and I’ll often share a scripture or two that kept me encouraged during hard times. I’m not leading a bible study or hosting prayer meetings and neither do you have to do those things. Yes, those things can be a part of discipleship, and you don’t have to be a bible scholar or prayer warrior to do either. I’m just saying as you are growing in your walk with Christ, you can still reach out and help someone else who may be a few steps behind you. Do what you can do and trust God to do the rest.

3. Start Now – As I already mentioned, you don’t have to be a bible scholar or a prayer warrior to disciple someone, you already have everything you need so there’s no reason to put it off any longer. I’ll use myself as an example, God put two people on my heart this year to begin being intentional about pouring into them. One was a wife and a mom and the other was a young lady who I am almost twice her age. I do my best to regularly check in with these ladies and see how they’re doing. If they are going through something, I listen and I ask Holy Spirit what He would have me to share. I am also intentional about praying for them and whatever they may be going through at the time. I aim to show them Jesus and point them back to Jesus in all our interactions. Of course, I strive to do this with everyone I interact with, but I am very intentional when it comes to these two women, and I invest more time and energy into them then I may do with others. As you are reading this, I’m sure there’s at least one person who has come to your mind who you can begin today to be more intentional about disciplining.

Imagine you pouring into that one person’s life for the next year and that one person going on to reach millions because of what you did. It can happen. I just watched a podcast where this lady shared how out of the many foster homes she was in as a kid, there was only one lady who took the time to treat her good and took the time to point her to Jesus. This episode as of today has over 130,000 views and thousands of comments about how this one woman’s testimony changed their life.

You can be the one to change someone’s life just like you could also be the one to change the lives of millions because truthfully when we each one, reach one we are actually reaching way more than we will ever know.