Stories at The Well
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Learning to Disciple, Learning to Trust
When I began The Well’s College Ministry Residency, I just wanted to learn how to disciple others. Instead, God taught me that discipleship starts with presence and trust, not performance.
When I first started the college ministry residency, I told my teammates that my biggest hope was to learn how to disciple people. I knew how to share the gospel and lead a community group, but I did not feel confident walking with someone one-on-one and helping them grow in faith and obedience. What I did not realize then was that God would not only shape how I disciple. He would reshape what I believed discipleship even is.
My teammates never gave me a checklist or a step-by-step formula. Instead, they modeled what they wanted to multiply. They invited me into their lives: into their homes, around their families, out on campus, and into ordinary moments between ministry events.
That is where I learned that discipleship is not primarily information transfer. It is imitation.
That is where I learned that discipleship is not primarily information transfer. It is imitation.
It is opening your life and saying, “Come watch me follow Jesus.” Like the “show, not tell” principle in writing, real discipleship shows faith lived out day by day so others can join in and eventually multiply it. Over time, I realized that is exactly how Jesus discipled His followers. He walked with them, ate with them, and let them see His life so they could do the same once He returned to the Father.
One of my first weeks on campus, after hours of meeting students, one of my teammates looked at me and said, “Welcome to college ministry. Bet you did not realize when you signed up for this residency you were stepping into being a missionary at UT.” She was right. I had not expected that. But a year later, after hundreds of conversations on campus, I have watched God grow my trust in Him in ways I did not see coming. Now I am praying about serving in full-time missions after residency and beginning to take steps of obedience in that direction.
During Welcome Week this year, I met a freshman who told me he was not sure he would go to heaven because he did not feel “good enough.” As we talked, I shared the gospel, and right there he chose to surrender his life to Jesus. So many people had planted and watered seeds in his life before that moment. I simply got to be present for the harvest. After following up with my teammates and me, he asked if I would baptize him, and I did. Since then, he has not engaged much in community or discipleship.
Part of me grieves that because I want him to keep growing. And if I am honest, part of my pride wanted him to become a “Well College story.” But God keeps reminding me that fruit is not the measure of success. Faithfulness is. My role is partnership, not control. Every time I say yes to Him, He grows my trust: saying yes to the residency and leaving a salaried job, saying yes to raising support, saying yes to approaching strangers on campus even when I feel nervous, saying yes to openness toward missions. Each yes creates more intimacy and dependence on Christ, and I am grateful for it.
Looking back, this residency has transformed how I see discipleship, ministry, and multiplication. I came in wanting to learn how to disciple others. I am leaving with a vision to make disciples who make disciples. God has shown me that multiplication happens through presence, imitation, and trust, not performance or control. My hope is to keep living a life that shows what it looks like to follow Jesus and to trust Him with each next step, wherever He leads.
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