1-to-1 Mentorship Model Surpasses Expectations
"Are you Ron Proctor?"
Three men approached the 53-year-old at a wedding reception, and Ron didn't know any of them.
"We heard you were going to be here," one man said, "and we wanted to meet you."
This connection between strangers began when Ron started taking their mutual friend, the groom, through a 1-to-1 spiritual mentoring process. Then the groom mentored his best man, who in turn met with a friend, and so on. At the wedding, Ron saw 4 "generations" of spiritual descendants.
Ron Proctor's life is about creating spiritual descendants. He leads a ministry called Life Builders, which helps transform people like the groomsmen into followers of Jesus who teach others, who in turn teach others.
The process starts simply by meeting 1-to-1 with someone for teaching on how to focus on the biblical command to make disciples of Christ. An essential part of Life Builders' strategy involves sending someone out to spiritually mentor someone else.
In 1995, Ron left his role as a pastor and joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. He wanted to simplify his life and get back to what he calls the basics of the Christian faith: evangelism and discipleship.
Ron and his wife, Della, compiled materials from Campus Crusade into a 24-lesson notebook called Real Faith, then used it to train men and women in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They named their ministry Life Builders: Building for Eternity. Today, over 70 staff members serve with Life Builders in 21 cities around the United States.
One of the first people Ron mentored was Dr. Ron Yamamoto, a Japanese American called "Dr. Yam" by his friends. He received Christ in medical school, then began a practice as an orthopedic surgeon. He met Ron through church, and was eager to begin discipleship.
Dr. Yam has also performed 4 of Ron's knee surgeries. During one of them, just before the anesthetic was applied, Ron said, "Wait, I want to make sure everyone here has assurance that they're going to heaven when they die."
During the surgery, Dr. Yam asked a nurse what she thought about Ron's comment, and he was able to communicate his relationship with Christ to her.
"Life Builders has taught me not to have fear or apprehension about sharing my faith," says Dr. Yam.
Now, before surgery, Dr. Yam asks to pray with all of his patients and he offers them a Bible. And every month, a few commit their lives to Christ in his office.
Dr. Yam knows that he needs to tell others about Christ despite the circumstances of his life.
"The ministry helps people understand that the Christian life is not lived by circumstances," says Ron. "The Bible tells us that circumstances and feelings do not determine our identity in Christ."
Ron uses visual illustrations during discipleship appointments. Since many of his appointments are in restaurants, he often uses the salt and pepper shakers.
"This represents our experiences or circumstances," says Ron, holding up a pepper shaker. "This salt shaker represents God's Word. The Christan life is not lived by letting circumstances control us but rather God's Word."
In the student center of Dallas Baptist University, there are lots of salt and pepper shakers, and there are also lots of disciples. Ron's involvement at the university began when he was asked to bring the Life Builders 1-to-1 spiritual mentoring process into the school.
In 1995, a shy Korean named Tai Keung Yeung enrolled in a class Ron taught. Although the majority of students are Christians, Tai was an atheist.
When Ron assigned his students to write letters about how they became Christians, Tai asked his teacher what he should do instead. Ron asked Tai if he would be willing to write to 15 of Ron's friends and ask them to pray that someday he would become a Christian. Tai agreed.
"That started the ball rolling," remembers Ron. "With 15 people praying for him, it was only a matter of time."
Ron and his family warmly accepted Tai as a new friend, even inviting him for Thanksgiving dinner one year. And eventually, Tai accepted Christ.
A week later, Ron and Tai began meeting at a Luby's Cafeteria near Tai's home to go through the Life Builders process.
"I feel like my faith is getting stronger every time I meet with Ron," says Tai. "I can trust Jesus more, and I have more confidence."
Although the class assignment passed long ago, Tai recently wrote a letter to his parents and 2 brothers who live in Hong Kong, telling them about how he became a Christian. In a culture where the children never teach the parents, Tai took a bold step in telling his parents about his new beliefs.
Tai is beginning to understand one of the key elements that Life Builders teaches.
"Life Builders is not [merely] a discipleship ministry," says Ron, dipping 3 large french fries into his ketchup.
Instead, he says it teaches people to follow Jesus' Great Commission, where He commanded his disciples to "go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). Life Builders trains people to talk with others about their faith and to invite them to make the same personal discovery.
"I'm convinced God made Life Builders just for me," says Ron. "Every time I teach this material, God teaches me. Like when the devil wakes me up at 3:00 in the morning reminding me of some past sin, and I have to choose either to listen to him, or to believe by faith that God has forgiven me."
Choosing to live by faith, Ron wakes up each morning ready for another busy day. But the energetic director of Life Builders doesn't spend much time at the national office; in fact, he doesn't even have an office there. His personal assistant, Peggy Ark, manages the details of the ministry. Ron's real office is the Texas highway system.
"It's important to meet people at a place that's convenient for them," says Ron. His green Ford Taurus is his cubicle, and he is usually talking on one of his 2 cell phones.
"I return 90% of my phone calls in the car," says Ron.
One of the places Ron meets people is at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. In 1999, church leaders realized that aside from their jobs, they were not really telling others about Christ and personally mentoring them in their faith. Then they met Ron.
"A lot of my staff had never been discipled," says Rev. Pete Briscoe, senior pastor at Bent Tree, "so we weren't even sure how to do it. Then Ron and another Life Builders couple came in and walked dozens of our staff members through the process."
Now, over 200 people have become involved in Life Builders through the church.
The growth appears uncontrolled, as one person meets with another, and on down the line. At the Atlanta Bread Company, a restaurant down the street from Bent Tree, several people can be found on any given day in the middle of Life Builders discipleship sessions.
Ron has not met most of these people, and he probably never will. But he sees God blessing the ministry as it multiplies far greater than one man ever imagined.
