Trinity Evangelical Free Church

The theme for the March/April issue of Trinity's Trumpet was "Nurturing Discipleship." After I wrote my column in the youth section of the Trumpet about nurturing discipleship, I wanted to reconsider what I had written. I put very little thought or prayer into "nurturing discipleship." Now, a week later (go figure) I have more thoughts on "nurturing discipleship," paralleling it with my military experience.

In the military we have two main sayings: "Go strong or don't go at all" and "An Army of One." As an Army of One, we are one, meaning that it's not what a person does individually, but what everyone does as one. Now inside the phrase "An Army of One" is another saying "We leave no one behind...no one." So how do we leave no one behind? Christians call it "nurturing discipleship," but in the Army we call it "battle buddies." A battle buddy is a person whose got your back in battle and out of battle. A battle buddy knows where his buddy is all the time...physically, emotionally, militarily, in other words he knows the character of his buddy and how he acts off duty.

In the church no one should be left behind, because we are an Army of One, under Christ. Unfortunately people fall through the system and some are left behind, so what does that say about us as a church? My prayer and challenge is that in our youth group we would leave no one behind and we would all have a spiritual battle buddy. Amen.

In Christ,
Dex