Introducing One-to-one Week

To mangle a phrase from an old mobile phone company’s ad campaign:

Who could you have a one-to-one with?

When one2one (now T-mobile) asked celebrities who they would like to have a one-to-one conversation with, most of them chose famous dead people: Martin Luther-King, Elvis Presley, and so on.

This week, on the blog, we’re going to focus on Christian one-to-ones. With normal people. Living people.

WHAT'S A ONE-TO-ONE?

One-to-ones are intentional Christian conversations. It’s talking to someone else, or listening to someone else, about Christ. It can be as informal as a chat at the school gate or over a drink in which you share Christian encouragements or prayer requests.

But often, it’s a bit more deliberate than that; it involves opening the Bible up and looking at it together. It’s based on friendship and those everyday conversations; but it’s arranged and organised. Sometimes it’s two Christians of roughly the same age and stage; often it’s an older, more experienced Christian with someone who’s been following Christ for less time. Or it might be a Christian meeting up with a friend who isn't a Christian but wants to find out more.

And here’s the thing: anybody can “do” one-to-ones. There’ll be someone we all know that we could one-to-one with. But often, church members leave it to the full-time “experts”. And the full-timers have a lot of other stuff on their plate… so although anybody could do it, and everybody thinks it would be great if somebody would do it, in the end nobody does it.

And that’s a real shame, because one-to-ones are rocket fuel for the Christian life. They’re catalysts for deep, real, Christian friendship. They’re manure for growing Christians (OK, I’m struggling for metaphors now).

THE BLOG THIS WEEK

So this week, do keep coming to the blog. You’ll find:

• interviews with church leaders about why they make one-to-oneing a priority
• normal, living Christians talking about how they’ve benefitted from one-to-oneing with both older and younger Christians
• someone who isn’t yet a Christian on why they love one-to-oneing.
• some great pointers to resources to help you, and your church, with one-to-one ministry.

So we hope you’re already thinking: who could I have a one to one with?

But by the end of the week, we’re hoping you’ll be thinking:

Who will I have a one to one with?