Radish Unit Notes for Mentors
These explanatory notes are provided for the discipler engaging with the Radish Course book Material to expand upon the stated aims at the head of each unit so that as a discipler you will have better understanding of what you might expect and what the desired outcomes would be for each unit. We trust that you find these helpful.
Unit 1: Why Bother Anyway?
Unit Aim: We'll explore the need for discipleship, and look at evidence from the bible so that we can decide if we're 100% up for this, or not.
The aim of Unit 1 is to establish the link between dreams and their delivery by development. You should expect the Radish trainee to be able to identify immediate aspirations but also to encourage them to plan further ahead and to bring God into the equation. The Unit also aims to set out biblical examples of development and discipleship from the Old and the New Testament and our inclusion in the need for discipleship through the great commission found in the New Testament. So the main aim of Unit 1 is to engender a desire and passion for discipleship and the beginning of understanding as to what discipleship is about and why.
Unit 2: What's It All About?
Unit Aim: In this unit we take a look at how the New Testament defines discipleship; exactly what does the word mean, and what should we look for in a discipler, and what can we expect?
Unit 2 then goes further into an exploration of the biblical meaning of discipleship including word studies. This unit begins to bring definition to your role as discipler and to the trainees role as a disciple of Jesus. You should also aim to see the trainee grow in self awareness as they begin to identify what they are like in friendship, relationships, what encourages them and the areas they need to do further work on with your and God's help. You should also aim with the trainee to begin to identify other people in their circle of life relationships who might be important in contributing to the discipleship programme (the mentoring matrix). Finally please ensure that there is very practical application by setting action points for learning and doing.
Unit 3: Priorities
Unit Aim: In this Unit we shall identify and explore the main areas that discipleship develops us in, and determine whether or not God has a priority of order as we set targets in each.
The Unit starts with an exploration of the wrong (Greek) thinking which divides in an unbiblical fashion the sacred from the secular. It is designed to place an emphasis and growing understanding within the trainee of intrinsic development through character rather than extrinsic development through rules and laws and rituals. In tabular form the Unit seeks to help the trainee understand the different areas of their lives, what they mean and how Jesus is involved with the potential for development in the second table as to how Jesus might be involved where He currently isn't. You might expect this Unit to begin to throw up issues of performance and value, self-image and self-worth, peer group pressure, etc. The Unit ends with a look at leadership criteria as found in Titus and Timothy again in an attempt to engage the trainee with scripture.
Unit 4: Discipleship Through Learning
Unit Aim: Anyone who is keen to be discipled must be teachable; they must be prepared to learn. This Unit will help you to identify the characteristics of someone who is teachable, the biblical importance of learning/training, and some keys to effective learning, and to your preferred learning style.
This Unit is designed to help your trainee explore the criteria and hallmarks of teachability and relate how many of these fit them. By placing an emphasis on learning through watching, through copying, and through questioning the Unit defines a process to develop good habits and to learn to learn. Please expect the trainee to be very specific in what they have learned from each of these three methods. The Unit also outlines the learning style table and it would be helpful for you to fill this in yourself before expecting the trainee to do so and to reflect on the insights it gives to your learning style. This is not an administrative exercise and you are encouraged to discuss with the trainee what learning style fits them best, how your can adapt your discipleship times to fit this, and how you can stretch them in the other learning styles.
Unit 5: Discipleship Through Obeying
Unit Aim: Obedience is often viewed negatively, as a subservient attitude or as someone's attempt to control and manipulate. But for the disciple of Jesus, obedience is a vital key to maturity. In this Unit you will examine three important areas of biblical obedience and apply them to your life.
This Unit looks at obedience and should begin to provoke issues concerning attitude, servant-heartedness, rebellion, etc. By engaging the trainee with passages in Ephesians you should be able to be able to be very specific and practical about areas of their moral integrity. Increasing trust and openness should also begin to bring sin issues to the fore here which will require confession, prayer, repentance and practical pastoral routes away from temptation and areas of weakness exposed. Please be prepared to be both real and mutually self-disclosing with the trainee to further build trust and to lead by example.
Obedience through faithfulness is likely to highlight issues that revolve around dependability, responsibility, reliability, time-keeping, ability to complete a task, etc. Again please be prepared to be very specific with the trainee in these areas. This section of the Unit finished by looking at faithfulness in friendships and is likely to throw up unresolved issues of broken relationships, unforgiveness, bitterness, pain, anger, resentment, etc, with a clear need for teaching on forgiveness as an act of the will. You may need to look out for issues of restitution as well as repentance and forgiveness.
The final area on obedience looks at submission to leadership and accountability and you can expect this section of the Unit to provoke conversation and discussion around openness, honesty, self-disclosure, trust, etc, please be prepared to push deeper into your relationship with the trainee by the end of this Unit.
Unit 6: Discipleship through Serving
Unit Aim: In this Unit you will discover the importance of serving in the context of discipleship, the servant nature of biblical leadership, how to tell whether you are servant-hearted or not, and what the key hallmarks of a servant of God are.
This is a very practical Unit aimed at demonstrating to you and to the trainee how servanthearted they are and the specific areas and people whom they are currently serving as well as those where they need to develop greater levels of servant-heartedness. Please do not be embarrassed to allow your trainee to find a practical way of serving you during the week that you engage with this Unit. Please be real and faithful with your trainee as you assess their servant-heartedness in tabular form. With time and discussion devoted to this Unit there is the potential for the Unit to produce increasing levels of self-awareness concerning selfishness and a brokenness before God with a desire to be used by Him and to serve and be useful to others.
Unit 7: Principles of Discipleship – Selection
Unit Aim: The previous Six Units have established the need, definition and arenas of discipleship. Now in this Unit we're going to investigate some of the criteria and means of choosing who disciples whom. By the end of this Unit you and your discipler will have clearer understanding and expectations of your respective roles.
Obviously we have previously encouraged you to read forward from this part of the material prior to beginning the discipling relationship with your trainee. In coming back to it now your aim is to see the trainee grow in their understanding of their current levels of maturity. You should also hear honestly from them what they are expecting of you, although you may need them to help them and expand their expectations as for many this will be there first experience of hands on discipleship. The Unit also aims to help the trainee identify people that they can be passing on this good practice to. Please help them realistically identify this person and think through how they might begin to actively engage with them and develop them. This is a crucial unit in that it stops the Radish material thus far becoming simply self-centred and internalised, but begins to point the Radish trainee towards possible outlets of giving away what they themselves are learning.
Unit 8: Principles of Discipleship – Demonstration
Unit Aim: Once Jesus had selected His disciples, He embarked on a clear sequence of development easily identified in Matthew's Gospel. After selection came demonstration, so in this Unit we'll look at the nature of biblical leadership by example, the importance of role modelling.
You can expect this Unit to engage you in a positive discussion concerning youth culture and the main influences within that culture on the life of your individual trainee. Identification and self-awareness again should grow through this as well as issues of peer group pressure, as well as a clearer understanding of the way that your role-modelling is impacting the trainee. I must encourage you not to be embarrassed in this but to speak honestly and openly about the positive influence you are having and the things that you have got to give away to them. The Unit will also ensure that you are engaging with your trainee in prayer, as well as encouraging further reflection and review of action points set. Please ensure that these are practically and specifically followed through. The Unit takes on a further stage the importance of your trainee giving what they are gaining through their own identified “Timothy”. The Unit will also require you to be very honest about your own areas of weakness (obviously in an appropriate context). The Unit has great potential for furthering the depth of your relationship with your trainee.
Unit 9: Principles of Discipleship – Instruction
Unit Aim: Instruction forms the next part of Jesus' method of discipling after Selection and Demonstration. This Unit will look at how Jesus did this, and at key elements of teaching and prioritisation. By the end of the Unit you will have a framework for discipleship teaching content that you and your discipler can use as a D.I.Y. Checklist.
The potential for further understanding your trainee is greatly enhanced by this Unit particularly as you reflect on the log they are required to keep on how they spend their time for a week. Whilst the log looks daunting it is well worth the effort of filling in for one week only. The Unit will also be useful in helping your trainee prioritise areas of their life, an is an exercise we would recommend that you do both with them not for them but also an exercise that you do for yourself. It is important to recognise that this Unit potentially defines the first twenty minutes of your weekly discipleship meeting from here on in as you work through the suggested list of prioritised instructions at the end of the Unit. There is much opportunity here for further discussion and prayer as appropriate.
Unit 10: Principles of Discipleship – Impartation
Unit Aim: Jesus' method of discipleship follows the process of Selection, Demonstration and Instruction, followed in Matthew 10:1 by Impartation, which we look at in this Unit. What is impartation, why is it important, and how does it happen? This Unit aims to answer these questions and suggests practical ways that we can grow in heart as well as head and action.
A Unit which attempts to grapple with the intangible area of impartation and to heighten the trainees awareness of importance of receiving from God. The Unit will identify the disparity between that which we know and that which we live and how we subsequently feel about these things. Please at all costs look to avoid condemnation or negative conclusions. At the end the Unit has a number of practical suggestions which will increase the trainees capacity for receiving from God. Please be ruthlessly and specifically prepared to work through the challenges involved in all five of these areas.
Unit 11: Principles of Discipleship – Participation
Unit Aim: After Jesus spent time Imparting heart and vision to His disciples. He took care to enlist their active Participation, in Matthew 10:5. This Unit will therefore explore why and how we grow as disciples through Participation, and t he importance of monitoring.
Please expect to spend a little time doing the review section on Unit 7-10 as outlined as this will clarify to the trainee where they are currently at and give them a sense of momentum. The rest of the Unit is designed to help the trainee engage with active and not passive participation. Expect to see challenges in areas of passivity, apathy, fear of failure, fear of making mistakes and of taking risks, bad use of time, prioritisation, laziness. It is likely to require quite a lot of specific target setting, energy, monitoring, encouragement and not a little challenging on your part! Please particularly look to allow your trainee to participate with you in a task including subsequent monitoring and feedback from you.
Unit 12: Principles of Discipleship – Delegation
Unit Aim: And so we reach the last stage in our examination of the Principles of Discipleship as evidenced by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. We look in this Unit at Discipleship and Delegation, found in Matthew 28:16-20. You will be able to tell good delegation from bad, how and why delegation works for our good in discipleship, and how you can develop others through effective delegation.
An initial exploration by the trainee in this Unit at areas where they have given jobs away with probably disastrous results is designed to teach the principle that delegation in the short term does not work and that we should realistically embrace that as first position. However the Unit goes on to further indicate the need for delegation in the medium to long term by helping the trainee examine how you have delegated to them and subsequently how they have learned through this. And the Unit ends with in tabular form an attempt to help your trainee identify the areas they have faith, vision, desire for in terms of delegation from you. Please be specific about this task and include reviews that follow. The reviews should indicate a growing awareness of the principles and practice of delegation as well as an increasing reliability, trustworthiness, faithfulness, task completion, prioritisation, time-keeping, etc.
Unit 13: Practice of Discipleship – Parameters
Unit Aim: In these final four units we move from Principles to Practice. This unit will explore the nature and need of establishing clear definition and parameters in discipling, always coming back to the practical questions; how will this work, what will it be like?
This is the first of the final four Units which together establish good practice in discipleship and discipling. By looking at the importance of expectations your trainee is encouraged to define their top five parameters/boundaries/guidelines for their discipling and we encourage you to assess these realistically with your trainee as to the extent to which they are happening. Please also do the same for the top five parameters which I list in the subsequent table. An assessment of all five will help you identify the current nature, level and depth of your relationship with your trainee not only from your perspective but also and more importantly from theirs.
Unit 14: Practice of Discipleship – Identifying Gifting
Unit Aim: Your discipler understands that no-one gets discipled in a vacuum; you get discipled as you engage your gifting for God's Kingdom. In this Unit we'll look at how to spot our own and others' gifting, and understand the different ways that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, have gifted us.
Please expect this Unit to give you further indication concerning the health of the self-image and self-worth of your trainee as they list their potential weaknesses particularly in terms of the length of the lists and their strengths and weaknesses, particularly in terms of the length of the lists and the time it takes them to compile each one. The list the trainee is asked to compile should begin to help them and you understand patterns and rhythms which reveal some of their internal (both positive and negative) passions and their giftings.
Please also be prepared either personally or through appropriate access facilitated by yourself to work through the challenge for your trainee of being filled with the Holy Spirit and beginning to move in spiritual gifts. The ones listed are obviously specific to helping your trainee understand and identify their giftings. If this is not your own personal experience then can we encourage you to join with your discipler in humility to finding someone to pray for you both in these areas?
Please be prepared to go through the tabular identification of gifts revealed through watching, not only for your trainee, but also for the person that your trainee is seeking to develop. Remember that you are looking to identify giftings not as an end in themselves but as a handle to get access to the life of your trainee to further see Christ-like character and understanding formed in them as well as the development of their gifting. Therefore the identification, development of their gifting is not an end in itself, but a means to the end where the end is maturity in Christ and character development through discipleship.
Unit 15: Practice of Discipleship – Reflection
Unit Aim: Unless we are careful and determined, the mad pace of life (school, work, social, church life, etc) can crowd out time to think. This Unit aims to outline the importance of reflection as part of the Practice of Discipleship. It will also give you tools to find a way of reflection that works best for you.
Working with the predominant age range which encompasses Radish trainees you will find this something of a challenge in helping many Radish trainees understand and engage with the importance of reflection. It is all the more important that you are personally demonstrating this to them. The Unit will impinge upon issues of prioritisation and time management, but you are encouraged to particularly explore the internal understanding of and acceptance of the need for reflection rather than simply the mechanics of how to reflect. That said please help your trainee develop consistent and persistent questioning techniques. Please be prepared to have yet another go at encouraging them to keep their journal! Equally and up-to-date course book will help them with their reflection, this will be a good moment to go back over unfulfilled material. You should be aware that it is not uncommon for trainees to struggle with keeping a journal and this portfolio up-to-date, but all feedback received thus far indicates that those who don't regret having not done so and those who do benefit greatly from it.
Unit 16: Practice of Discipleship – Feedback
Unit Aim: Our final Unit will explore the nature and value of feedback, who does it and how. By the end of this Unit and Course, you will be in a position to exercise the ministry of encouragement towards others, and to receive constructive criticism from them.
This Unit provides an excellent opportunity for your trainee to put into practice the benefits of positive feedback with you. Please do not be embarrassed at provoking and receiving this as well as practicing it with your trainee. It would be helpful for you to ensure that the trainee is actively encouraging three named people every day for the next three weeks through your own process of monitoring. The Unit also places a fair challenge upon you, extended to your trainee to ensure that you are also keeping a record/portfolio of the discipleship process you have embarked upon. This would involve not only how your trainee is doing but also how you feel you are doing (and how they feel you are doing) in the discipleship process, thus stimulating further good practice and ensuring discipleship by example. Please be prepared to embrace this challenge.
The Unit ends with an overview of the course identifying three main areas of growth in character, understanding and skills and an opportunity to reflect on the best and worst parts of the course. This is not merely for feedback's sake to the course designers but also in order that you and the trainee might find further ways and opportunities and areas for ongoing growth and discipleship.