by Trace Watson
“And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
(2 Tim. 2:2)
Paul's words here are to one of his key disciples shepherding a flock in Ephesus, an influential city in Asia Minor, positioned to continue spreading the kingdom of God. To accomplish this, Paul does not tell Timothy to find the biggest venue and fill it with a huge crowd and preach to thousands all at once. No, he tells Timothy to take the truths he has heard Paul say to many people and pour these things into reliable men who will be qualified to teach these same foundational truths to others. He is not saying to avoid the masses. He is saying to reach the masses, you need to invest deeply in a few. This seems counterintuitive, but it is exactly what Jesus did too.
Jesus' pattern: love everyone, bless many, invest in a few
When we look at Jesus' life and ministry in the gospels, one of the first things we notice is what he did for the crowds. He taught them, fed them, healed them, and performed countless miracles. In fact, John 21:25 tells us that if everything Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. There is no doubt that Jesus had, and still has, a heart for the world!
But here is something surprising to many people: despite all he did for the masses, Jesus spent the majority of his time with just twelve men. This was not because he cared any less for the crowds. Quite the opposite—his focus on the few was also for the sake of the many. You could say that Jesus loved everyone, blessed many, and invested in a few.
What this looks like in Malaysia today
So, what does that look like today in Malaysia? Let me tell you about a dear friend, Zhi Hao (name changed for privacy). He is a solid brother who loves Jesus and studies God's Word faithfully. He has taken diploma-level theology courses and genuinely cares about people. He is not on staff at a church. He works full-time in education, living out his faith in the marketplace like most believers do. He knew how to love people and serve his church, but the idea of intentionally discipling someone? That was new ground.
When I approached Zhi Hao about discipleship, I honestly was not sure how he would respond. I am not his pastor, and my own journey with Jesus has been far from perfect, marked by missteps and much grace. But I knew from Scripture that discipleship is not about having all the answers. It is about walking together and learning to follow Christ more closely. I invited him to consider what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, to follow me as I follow Christ, trusting that God would shape us both in the process.
Learning to walk together
We agreed to study Scripture, pray, fellowship, and do evangelism. As we began meeting, God started working in both of us. We studied the Bible inductively together and explored spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, fasting, and Scripture memory. Some weeks were rich and fruitful; other weeks we both showed up tired from our full schedules, sacrificing limited free time to meet. But we kept spending time together.
Then we started walking. I mean this literally. We would go on a prayer walk through our city, and I would model how to begin conversations with strangers as we went. We would share the gospel together, sometimes awkwardly and sometimes naturally. I learned from watching his warmth and compassion with people, just as he learned from watching me step out in faith to start conversations with strangers.
I invited him to teach portions of workshops I was leading, and we would prepare together beforehand. He would watch me lead, then try it himself while I watched, and we would debrief afterward. The roles would shift: sometimes I was the teacher, sometimes the encourager, sometimes just the brother who was one step ahead on the path and could point out where the rocks were.
The first signs of multiplication
What I watched God do in Zhi Hao's life still fills me with joy. He started leading adult Bible studies with a new confidence, something he had not done before. He taught not as someone with all the answers, but as a man with a vision to make disciples. God used him to help five people come to Christ in a short time, and he has since begun discipling two men, including one he had just led to the Lord.
But here is what really shows how God multiplies: Zhi Hao and his wife recently launched a new small group in their church to reach out and disciple young adults, seeing an opportunity to invest in this crucial generation. And how did they start? By approaching two young men for discipleship who have shown themselves faithful to invest in others in the small ways they know how.
This is 2 Timothy 2:2 in action. What Zhi Hao heard from me, he is now entrusting to reliable men who will teach others. And those “others” are already being discipled with the expectation that they will disciple others in turn. This is how the gospel multiplies: through ordinary, disciplined believers who faithfully entrust the same truths to the next reliable person.
The foundation of multiplication
Life-on-life discipleship is the most common casualty of a busy schedule. But we find time for what we believe matters, and we cannot afford to treat as optional what is essential for the church to multiply. Investing in a few is the foundation of meaningful, lasting impact and church multiplication. It requires patience, vulnerability, and can be messy. But it is the method Jesus chose and Paul passed on to Timothy.
Will we trust God's way of multiplying his church—investing deeply in reliable people who will teach others, believing he will multiply his kingdom?
Author
Trace Watson lives in peninsular Malaysia with his wife and two children. He is a PhD student and investor who has made Asia home for over a decade. Trace preaches and teaches in the local church, but his greatest passion is the deep work of personal discipleship—meeting with a few men one-on-one and leading smaller groups committed to multiplying the gospel.
