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This past Sunday our excursion in the topic of discipleship brought us to Ephesians 4:11-16. The main thought drawn out for us was to be equipped and minister to one another. As this main thought was being drawn from the text, Pastor brought up a series of questions for us to think through about the text such as “who are the pastors to ‘equip’ and what is the equipping for?” We learned that we (the saints/the holy ones of God) are to be equipped and this equipping is for the work of the ministry, to help each other and build up each other (through ministering to one another) into Christ. At the tail end we were left with a couple application questions (the third here being my own):  

1.      What do I want for _____?

2.      How am I pursuing that in _____?

3.      How should I (start to/continue to) pursue that in _____?  

I think it would be helpful for you (the reader) to fill in the blanks with a couple of normal, everyday relationships that you have in both your biological family and in your church family (such as wife, husband, child, brother/sister, church member). No matter what person you fill in, the first and primary thing you should want for your spouse, child, sibling, or church member is for their growth in Christ. The specifics come in how you are pursuing that. Let me fill in the blanks as an example:  

1.      What do I want for my wife?   I want my wife to grow in Christlikeness.  

2.      How am I pursuing that in her?   I am pursuing Christlikeness in my own life to lead by example. I am providing for her the means to grow in Christlikeness: intentionality with reading Scripture with her, praying with her, gathering with the rest of the body under the preaching of the Word, fellowship with the body outside of that time.  

3.      How should I (start to/continue to) pursue that in her?   I should continue to do those things. I should be intentional to ask heart-related questions that get to the heart of the matter and not just surface level, including what she is learning from her time in the Word and the cares on her heart that she is praying over with God. I should be praying those things for her as well. I should be active in killing the sin of selfishness and be sacrificial in my leading of her as Christ was/is sacrificial to me.  

This is only a short example.  This example is not a made-up example, but my real thoughts about my situation. I pray this real-life example even stirs in you transparency of heart and encourages you to begin thinking and writing out your own answers to these questions.