George Krebs

George Krebs didn’t grow up in church. At 12 or 13 he went to a church and felt very uncomfortable and didn’t come back to church for a while. Later, a friend in high school got saved and offered a comforting and non-confrontational approach to the gospel. Although this piqued his interest, George didn’t come to the Lord until 19 when he saw a Billy Graham film on TV. Over the next few months, he got more involved with some Christian people who encouraged him to come to church. He became familiar with the pastor of his church who discipled him and helped him grow in the Lord

His philosophy on discipleship is that you must learn how to live out the gospel in order to be discipled. Discipleship through friendship vs. programming is the best way according to George. Also, you must be very proactive about discipleship. Just inviting someone over to talk doesn’t always work; you must seek the people out and make sure you spend time with them. Another phrase he used was “spiritual projects”. What he means by this is that you can’t disciple someone with a completion goal in mind, you have to love them as people.

He also shared with us a story about a man that he was able to disciple through friendship. It was really neat to hear a first-hand account of how that man came to Jesus through the George’s friendship and acquaintance with other Christian men.

I really appreciated George’s matter-of-fact approach to discipleship. No books, no formulas, no special recipes to make disciples, just the example of the gospels. It was very refreshing and probably the least intimidating example of discipleship I’ve seen this semester.