Pastor Glenn McDonald: VTPs--Very Trainable People

As summer heat gives way to crisp autumn days, Midwesterners typically throw open their doors and windows. Then as nighttime temperatures become downright chilly, most homeowners will notice some visitors at their front door.

We’re talking about houseflies. Having luxuriated for weeks in the warmth of August, flies who survive until September increasingly have one abiding mission: I’ve got to find a place to hang out during the winter. And your family room definitely looks like a great bed and breakfast. Every time you approach your screen door, there they are. And they’re just dying to get in.

There’s a certain kind of person whom we might describe as a Screen Door Hanger. They belong to the third category of Gordon MacDonald’s five domains of individuals who make an impact on our energy for living.

We’re talking about VTPs, or Very Trainable People. If a Very Resourceful Person (a mentor) raises our energy by +3, and a Very Impactful Person (a friend or ally) stokes the fires of our perseverance by +2, a VTP, according to MacDonald, lifts our energy by +1. That’s not a huge boost, but it’s definitely a positive.

A Very Trainable Person is a potential apprentice-–someone who looks up to you, who wants to learn from you, and who basically wants to be like you when they grow up. That of course would include our children, nieces, nephews and the like. In the eyes of the next generation of your own family, you unquestionably fit the mold of a VRP.

But don’t stop there. It’s highly likely there are other people in your world who admire you. When you talk, they listen. When you lead, they follow. When you teach, they learn. Sometimes these folks are hard to see. That’s because most of us rarely look for them.

But every time you turn around, there they are. It’s as if you shut your front door and they’re hanging on the screen. They’re dying to get in because, when it comes right down to it, they just really want to spend time with you.

We can scratch our heads and wonder why in the world those VTPs keep bugging us. Or we can embrace them as gifts from God. They are, after all, very trainable people, and they’re hoping we will be the ones who will pour into their lives something of our insight, our passion, and our coaching. That sounds like hard work. Often it is.

But Gordon MacDonald wisely assigns a positive energy value to the time we spend with VTPs. That’s because their eagerness and willingness to know us as mentors can feel like a jolt of raw energy when our own spirits are lagging.

According to what we know of Paul, from his letters and the book of Acts, Christianity’s earliest missionary was rigorously committed to training spiritual apprentices--especially a young man named Timothy. The presence of someone like Timothy--someone who is receiving from us the gifts and insights that we have received from God --is the surest evidence that we actually believe Jesus’ “famous last words” about raising up disciples in every nation.

Paul tenderly describes him as “my true child in the faith” (I Timothy 1:2) and “my son” (I Timothy 1:18), and even says to the Philippians, “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (1:20).

Paul confirms he wasn’t the first discipling presence in Timothy’s life: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you” (2 Timothy 1:5). There were already three generations of faith under Timothy’s roof. The VTPs in our lives, in other words, might already be sitting at our dinner table every evening.

In 2 Timothy 2:2, Paul tells Timothy he needs to entrust what he has learned to other people. In Greek the word “entrust” means making a secure run to the bank to deposit a treasure. Here we need to be careful to remember that discipling another person is not doing a “data dump” into a particularly teachable brain. Paul knew Timothy. He loved him. Disciples are not widgets. Every human being is a uniquely crafted bearer of God’s image, and the ways we teach, model, pray, and share life with that person will always include elements of sheer mystery.

The decisive phrase in 2 Timothy 2:2 is the last one: who will be able to teach others also. Effective disciplemaking thus involves four generations. In this verse we see Paul, who’s pouring into Timothy, who’s doing the same thing with a few others--with the key proviso that Timothy must find a way to carry out this mission so that the chain will not be broken--to ensure that the third generation will raise up a fourth.

Our call, in the end, is not to be spiritual cul-de-sacs, or end users of the grace of God. So who is your Timothy? To whom are you entrusting what God has entrusted to you? Why, after all, has God enriched our lives through the love, encouragement, and wisdom of others? His blessings and gifts have come to us because they’re on their way to someone else.


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