One to one ministry has incredible value in evangelism and discipleship. You can take the time to explain key gospel concepts thoroughly. As each person is different, you can take the time to answer the different questions people have. You can be more sure that what is being communicated is also being understood.

Christians meet together in all kinds of ways. The large worship service is like the flagship of most churches; it has the great advantage of many people hearing and learning the same things at the same time. Many churches also have small groups of some form, which help a great deal in terms of personal connection and interaction. There is another form of meeting that Christians should consider for its many unique advantages: meeting one to one with another Christian.

In an age where we all value efficiency, one to one ministry seems very inefficient. You cannot reach many people at a time. It requires a lot of people to be involved if this is a major ministry in your church. Yet there are very good reasons to have this kind of ministry be prominent in your church, and for you to be personally active in.

We have Biblical example of this kind of thing. For example, Titus encourages older women to train the younger women in the church in a variety of things (Tit 2:3-5). I would imagine that this would be more likely done one to one than in a ‘women’s instruction Bible study group’ as we might be tempted to do it today. Apollos was corrected and taught in private by Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18:26. It is also more than possible that instructions such as Timothy being asked to entrust Paul’s teaching to faithful men (2 Tim 2:2) were often carried out in a one to one context.

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