1. A Lasting Promise – so pumped about developing a new study for premarital preparation and marriage enrichment. This is a book we used when I was offering Medical Marriage Enrichment Retreats for CMDA and MMFM. Ingram, our Board Chairman, will help me field test this study but I was asked to produce this for one of our trainers (Jahnavi) who got engaged recently to a former boyfriend living in Turkey. My second Masters was in Marriage & Family Counseling so this will be a fun study for me. Keep in mind, this too is biblical mentoring plus discipleship training. Think of couple-to-couple discipleship training. Most if not any of us were not effectively trained well for marriage.
2. National Christian Foundation. Will Austin has suggested I proceed to apply for NCF membership / funding. Is anyone willing to offer some support / accountability as I proceed to complete this application? This seems to be a large national “go fund us” type of platform where donors support our mission of “Training Reproducing Disciples”. Our account will be set up for non-cash stock donations. Let me know if you wish to learn more about this opportunity.
3. FYP (prayers) – the funding has remained the same all year. I have 3 more trainees who have pledged gifts at some time. I still aim to offer fintech / banking services starting Oct 1. I am hopeful all of you will get a free account and test this with me. The Visa cards will be called DingoBlu (DB). Guaranteed by a real FDIC Bank. Promises better interest rates and cheaper fees.
4. I am still waiting for the probate process to release my Mom’s 2016 Hyundai Elantra. Has only 30k miles. Plus we can also keep praying for a good used vehicle like a Toyota 4Runner. Keep in mind, I can always receive a donated vehicle for a receipt and then sell the vehicle to generate funding for our 501(c)3 non-profit. Similar to Kars4Kids national program.
5. As always, keep praying for more trained participants to pray / recruit for a trainee. This is the only way to see if our work is successful.
6. I am encouraged by the progress of Pastor Peter, a 43 year-old pastor in Tanzania – one of my trainees who found our BM website. He is presently in the neighboring country of Burundi for 3 weeks training pastors on discipleship training using our Biblical Mentoring model and resources. He also has several church planters he is training using our Training Disciples to Train plan.
7. I need to make better progress with World Impact to get the copyright permission to reprint their book – The Making of a Disciple so this resource can bee translated into the Swahili language that is used in Eastern Africa. This is important as both Peter in Tanzania and Stanley in Kenya have other pastors to train. Plan B is to write my own study guides that may not need copyright permission and then get the study guides translated into Swahili.
Thanks, in Christ. Your ministry partner – Ron
Ron
I put a pause on all of my 14 trainees and switched them to this detailed study of this book that I am using as an effective discipleship training manual. We are still seeking to memorize or review a key verse and also reading to each other 4 or so pages in each training call. (Men usually don’t read books!!) This is surprisingly working well to teach the essentials to a 2 Timothy 2:2 discipleship training ministry. That verse reads: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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“. This was Paul’s special instructions to his disciple, Timothy. The emphasis is obviously on training others to train others.
Our Biblical Mentoring trainees are learning key definitions of “discipleship” and “disciple”. Section 3 of this book gives them the tools to recruit and train their own trainees from their own network.
This process will take some time but everyone is now expected to train disciple-makers (reproducing disciples) using this resource. NOT just become a strong mature disciple but one who follows Paul’s instructions to train others. It seems fair to assess that most discipleship programs focus on helping participants become more spiritual mature in their faith. Not gain the knowledge and skills to TRAIN others to train others, etc. etc. Spiritual maturity is very important but doesn’t fulfill the great commission that our Master gave to ALL believers to fulfill plans for His Kingdom. Period
Copy of the Original! Paul emphasized that he wanted to begin with a strong image of the original—from Christ to Paul to Timothy and on to others. This standard of reproduction would be beneficial because it started with Christ. Timothy was to find and train faithful men. They might be reliable in just a few small things, like arriving on time, but they are indeed faithful.
Train to Reproduce! Timothy would instill in those with whom he shared the Gospel a need to teach others. When we make disciples, we must do so in a way that trains them to train others.
PERSONAL UPDATE: I have been recently diagnosed with a condition macular degeneration in my left eye. My mother suffered from this condition for several years before passing on in mid-November. Some blood vessels burst thus leaving little vision or double vision in that eye. The reason was age related. Seeing to read and write is a crucial part of my skills as director this ministry called Biblical Mentoring. I need the grace and skills to adjust to this situation and prayers that my good eye doesn’t degenerate any time soon. I am praying to find another God-appointed individual called to become the BM Director at the right time. Thanks.
In Christ, Ron
December 31, 2025
HIM dba Biblical Mentoring (biblicalmentoring.org)
Ron Lively, M.Div., M.A. ▪ HIM ▪ 2750 Hanover Drive, Thompson Station, TN 37179 ▪ 615-238-4035 ▪ ronwlively@gmail.com
Thank you for your financial and prayer support this past year. We are grateful since both are needed to keep moving Biblical Mentoring and our mission of “Training Reproducing Disciples” forward.
BiblicalMentoring.org encourages and equips mentors and mentees (trainers and trainees) who are actively engaged in 30–40-minute weekly phone training sessions which are centered on memorizing a key verse plus reading and interpreting the Bible as we apply its teachings to our daily lives. The Spirit is our teacher, i.e., the trainer, while the participants are students.
You can read some testimonials on our Testimonial webpage. What matters most is what they have to testify of the benefits.
Please go to BiblicalMentoring.org to learn more about our ministry. I have an Updates webpage to help keep intercessors, donors, friends and family keep up-to-date with our progress and needs.
The emphasis of Biblical Mentoring is on training participants for lifelong discipleship thus prioritizing multiplication in addition to developing spiritual growth. The mentorship nurtures individuals responding to Jesus’ call, guiding them to become disciples who reproduce trained disciple-makers as we are instructed to be in Matthew 28. Thus, we revised our mission recently to focus on training and reproduction or the training of others. It is now Training Reproductive Disciples.
We share God’s Truth from the Bible to reconcile others to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within an active and ongoing personal ministry context. This model has worked well for several years. Praying for each other’s personal needs at the end of the phone session proves to be more valuable than we realized as we seek to offer relational support to each other. We are helping with the pandemic of loneliness.
The ultimate goal is to teach, model, and multiply the craft of being a lifelong student who mentors, trains, and coaches disciple-making disciples. With the help of WhatsApp, we can even do this globally.
We have worked with 70 or more participants so far adding a few more each year. Only some of these would be considered trained to train others. About 15 individuals are currently active either weekly or monthly. A few of these are training a trainee whom they recruit. This is obviously the ultimate goal for everyone we mentor. We are adding two or three more trainees each month. My personal goal is to see 100 trained disciple-makers actively reproducing themselves by the time I turn in my badge.
We use the life-to-life model of discipleship training which is simple and effective. There is usually no curriculum other than the Scriptures. We have decided to start each new trainee in the study titled: Training Disciples to Train using Scriptures plus a book titled The Making of a Disciple by Keith Philips written when he was the President of World Impact, Inc.
Two popular sets of memory verses/studies are the Gospel of John and Romans. We now offer twelve completed sets of memory verses as you can see on our Memory Verses webpage and are adding several new sets such as Top Fifty Psalms; Acts; Hebrews; The Prison Epistles and The Cost of Discipleship.
To support our mission, please use @ronlively for Venmo or ron@medicalmobilizers.org for PayPal. Checks payable to HIM or Biblical Mentoring can be mailed to: 2750 Hanover Drive | Thompsons Station, TN, 37179.
Gratefully Yours in Christ,
Ron
Ron Lively, M.Div.; M.A.-M&F
Founder / Director
615-238-4035
