Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
As a Christian wife, God blesses you with the privilege of investing in other souls as others have invested in you. As you receive God’s Word in your daily study of Scripture, as you hear God’s Word preached from the pulpit week after week, and as you hear God’s Word read in the context of your home in family devotions or in bible reading with your husband, now God graces you with the joy of pouring what you’ve received into others.
So, be discipled and mentored. Be instructed and taught. Be submissive to your husband and allow him to read with you, read to you, teach you, and engage in dialogue about God and His Word together. But do not forget that you also have the wonderful, God-given opportunity to disciple others as well.
How can you disciple others? Here are five pastoral suggestions for Christian wives to consider.
1) Disciple in the home. A disciple means that one is a follower of Christ. To disciple in the home means that you follow Christ and plead with others to follow Christ together with you. You as a Christian wife may have children and you can disciple them in the context of your own home. You don’t need a big, flourishing ministry at church to “do discipleship.” Start where you are right in your home with those that God has entrusted under your care. Disciple your children toward Christ and show them, teach them, instruct them, and admonish them in the joy of following Christ!
2) Disciple on the go. You may need to go to the grocery store and perhaps you could take someone with you. You may be taking a meal to a family in your church that just had a baby so you may choose to take someone along with you. Disciple as you go may include bringing another Christian woman along with you as you go through the normal day to day activities. Perhaps you as a Christian wife are going to another younger mom’s home for an hour to encourage her while her children nap. Consider taking another woman from the church to join you for this fellowship, encouragement, and prayer. And ask good questions as you travel and talk together. Speak of Christ and of His gospel. Marvel at His grace and of His works! Discipleship doesn’t have to be a bunch of additional hour-long appointments. If you think and plan wisely, it could be done as you do the normal routine in your life as you bring another lady along with you in those duties.
3) Disciple when you gather (with believers at Sunday). Think of gathering with the family of God as opportunities for you to serve others. After all, we are to build up one another and we are to edify one another constantly. You may be primarily tied to the home as a Christian wife if you have smaller children. There’s nothing wrong with that. But refuse to fall into the thinking that you’re just not able to serve in the church because you’re too busy at home. Consider making Sunday a place where you intentionally and thoughtfully approach one person and initiate a Christ-centered conversation with them before or after worship. It may not be a planned gathering at Starbucks, but make no mistake, a Christ-centered conversation that advances holiness and stimulates thinking on Christ and on Scripture is discipleship! What if God graciously raised up 10 Christian women to reach out to 10 women at Church for this kind of verbal encouragement and discipleship ministry! May God use you to encourage others in your local church.
4) Disciple a woman in your church. Maybe you are a godly wife are in a season of life where you’re retired. Or perhaps the children have all moved out. It may be that your children are old enough and they’re all in school. Or, perhaps you’re married with no children yet. You can be a godly woman who disciples others by initiating a discipleship relationship with another woman (or two!) from your local church. Find a time and place that works. Pick a book of the Bible to read through together (e.g., Titus, Philippians, James, Romans). Talk through it little by little and apply it specifically. Pray for one another. You may even have small children and unable to get out of the home much of the week. But perhaps you could do it early on a Saturday morning while your husband is with the children and you gather with some ladies early for study of the Word and fellowship. The point of all this? To grow together with others and follow Christ together as the family of believers.
5) Disciple with much creativity. Let us not try to fit every form of discipleship into a cookie-cutter form that can’t be creative or adapted to your schedule. For instance, don’t underestimate the importance and encouragement of letter writing. Perhaps you are gifted in this and you love making, designing, and writing cards. So do this. And encourage women in the church regularly through this form of stimulating them toward Christlikeness. Or you may have time to make phone calls to ladies and share a Scripture with them from time to time and to pray together. May the Lord help you to be thoughtful, creative, intentional, and proactive in your pursuits of discipling others as a woman of God and as a follower of Jesus Christ.
This is part of the forthcoming eBook on The Duties of Christian Wives.