Rugby discipleship

I saw something cool last night.

I help coach the local high school rugby team. Rugby being not as popular in the US, every year we have to start from the basics and teach the newbs how to play, starting from how to handle the ball. I've been working with the forwards, getting into scrumming down.

Monday, our first day, I showed all the new players how to scrum down by letting the returning players form a scrum. I then tried to teach each one of the new players their new position, where your head and shoulders go, where to bind on, etc. After about an hour, things were still looking ugly.

Yesterday, our second day, I took a new approach. I mingled in the returning players with the new players. Each returning player had a newb, and he showed them how to bind, where to keep your head, etc. Within ten minutes, we had a pretty good looking scrum.

Discipleship should look the same. Instead of trying to teach new believers all the basics, doesn't it work better to pair them with another believer that will walk with them and give them little tips along the way?

This year we're trying something different for our end-of-the-year series in the Jr. High Ministry. I have always tried to do a "last hoorah" kind of night, in which I give all my advice to 8th graders as they go on to high school, and try to give some tips to the 7th graders, as they move up. This year, for the month of May, each 8th grade small group will run the show. Everything from the lights to the lesson. I'm anxious to see what things they will have to say that I leave out. It's going to be a great way to end the year.

Have you ever done something like this with Junior Highers? What was the response? Pros and cons?