Week 4 check-in
Living as a disciple

Your role

This conversation is both a review and a handoff into ordinary discipleship. Your job is to help them see God’s grace over the past month, make a plan they can sustain, and decide together what your relationship looks like from here. The thirty days end. Following Jesus does not.

Allow a little more time than usual, perhaps an hour and a half.

Before you meet

• Pray for your friend by name. Thank God for specific evidence of grace you have seen in them.
• Read Philippians 3:7-14 and John 21:1-19 yourself. Pressing on, and Jesus restoring Peter after failure, carry the week.
• Look over the next steps page. Day 30 asks them to complete it and discuss it with you.
• Think honestly about what you can offer going forward: monthly coffee, reading a Gospel together, or helping them connect with an ongoing group.

Open the conversation

Start with the booklet’s three things, this time looking back over the whole month:

• One discovery. The most important thing they have learned about Jesus.
• One question. Something they still want to understand.
• One prayer need. Something they want you to pray about as they keep going.

Questions to ask

Choose two or three, then spend the second half of your time on their plan.

• Where were you waiting for obedience to feel easy before starting? What happened when you took the first step? (Day 22)
• What early warning usually comes before a familiar temptation? Who can you contact when it appears? (Day 23)
• If a friend asked why Jesus matters to you, what would you say? Day 27 asked you to write three sentences. Will you share them?
• Has shame kept you away from prayer, Scripture, or other disciples at any point this month? (Day 29)

What to listen for

Temptation plans built on willpower. Day 23 asks for a realistic boundary and a person to call, not a promise to try harder. If their plan is mostly resolve, help them add one practical boundary. If they name you as their contact, agree only if you can actually answer.

Suffering that needs presence, not explanation. Day 26 brings suffering into prayer. If they are carrying something heavy, listen. Do not try to explain why God allowed it. Point to the hope and the love of God in Romans 8:31-39, and offer practical help. If the suffering involves grief, illness, crisis, or danger, involve a pastor or appropriate help.

Witness that feels forced. Day 27 asks them to practice their story. Welcome it, give gentle feedback, and help it sound like them. Encourage honesty over polish and gentleness over pressure (1 Peter 3:15-16).

Money anxiety or guilt. Day 25 is about generosity. Some will feel guilty about what they cannot give. Remind them that giving is a response to grace and that time and help count too. Do not discuss amounts unless they want to.

Unfinished days treated as debt. If they missed days, Day 29 tells them to continue from where they stopped. Make sure they hear that from you as well. Jesus’ restoration of Peter is for them too.

Make the plan together

Walk through the next steps page with them. It covers five areas: Scripture, prayer, church, another disciple, and love for others. Help them make each one small enough to keep. A plan they follow for a year is better than an impressive plan that lasts a week.

Then decide together what happens next between the two of you. Name it clearly: how often you will meet, for how long, and what you will do. It is fine if the answer is a handoff to a group or another mentor. What matters is that they are not left alone.

Pray together

Invite them to pray, then pray over their plan and thank God for specific grace you have seen this month. Ask them how you can pray for them in the weeks ahead, and write it down.

Before you leave

• Put your next meeting on the calendar before you part.
• If you are handing them to a group or another mentor, make the introduction yourself rather than leaving them to do it.
• Thank them. Walking with a new disciple is a gift to you as well.

This week’s readings