Digging Deeper: Make Disciples — Investing in Others with Patience and Presence
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…
Matthew 28:19a (NIV)
Make Disciples – Investing in Others with Patience and Presence
Let’s be honest—people can be very… peopley.
Every single one of us comes with baggage. Some of it’s obvious. Some of it we keep tucked away, hidden under layers of personality, performance, or pain. And whether we realize it or not, that baggage affects how we show up in the world. It can make us short-tempered, distant, guarded, or inconsistent.
In short: we’re complicated. All of us. And yet, this is the world Jesus stepped into. These are the people He called—including us.
When Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” He wasn’t just speaking to a squeaky-clean crowd. He was commissioning flawed, overwhelmed, imperfect people to invest in the lives of other flawed, overwhelmed, imperfect people. And that’s still the call today.
Discipleship is not a drive-by act of kindness. It’s not a one-time conversation or a check-the-box good deed. It’s a life-on-life investment—one that requires time, patience, and intentionality.
In my work as a domestic missionary to coaches and athletes, I’ve had the privilege of discipling people in both structured and unstructured ways. Sometimes it looks like a weekly Bible study—knee to knee, Scripture open, lives being shared and sharpened. Those moments are powerful, and I treasure them.
But some of my most meaningful discipleship relationships have started before the Bible was ever opened.
There were a couple of years when I had athletes who regularly excused themselves from team devotionals. It would’ve been easy to write them off, to focus only on those who stayed. But instead, I felt drawn to invest differently—to show up in the ordinary moments: sideline chats, hallway conversations, casual celebrations, and shared disappointments. And slowly, a foundation began to form. No judgment. No pressure. Just presence.
One of those athletes never did sit through a full team devotional. But she graduated having seen Jesus in how we lived and loved each other—and in how I treated her with consistency and grace. That’s discipleship, too.
There’s a kind of disciple-making that’s structured and intentional. It involves Scripture, prayer, accountability, and shared spiritual growth. It’s beautiful. It’s needed.
But there’s also a kind of disciple-making that happens before conversion—before the Bible is opened. It’s slower. Quieter. It involves building trust, earning the right to speak into someone’s life, waiting for the Spirit to soften hearts and open doors. And it’s just as holy.
Discipleship is both/and—not either/or.
So let’s be bold in the discipleship that looks like opening the Word and walking alongside a brother or sister in faith. And let’s be just as faithful in the kind that begins with presence, patience, and prayer—with planting seeds we may never see harvested this side of heaven.
Jesus never shied away from the mess. He moved toward it. And He invites us to do the same.
Prayer:
Lord, thank You for calling me not just to believe, but to invest in others. Give me patience when it’s slow, grace when it’s messy, and boldness to walk alongside others even when I don’t see the fruit right away. Help me trust that You are always working—sometimes in ways I can’t yet see.
Reflect:
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Who in your life might need more than a quick word of encouragement—someone who needs you to stay, to walk with them, to listen first before speaking truth?
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What kind of discipleship is God inviting you into right now—structured or slow-burn, or maybe both?
Minda Seagraves has been married to her best friend, Russell, for 17 years and is mom to Carson and Maddie. She is also a full-time missionary with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, serving as a chaplain to local female high school teams and supports 380 staff across four states in the U.S. and 20 countries in East Africa as the Regional Director of Talent Advancement with FCA. Minda and her family live in Acworth and have been attending NorthStar Church since 2020.