Last Sunday I preached from the hard-working farmer metaphor highlighted by Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-10.  Paul directs Timothy to reflect on the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer in order to gain insight for investing his life and ministry in reliable people who will in turn be able to invest their lives in other people who in turn will be able to invest their lives in other people.  Paul envisions the Gospel life and message being passed on through a chain of discipleship.  A few years ago I developed a matrix from these three images for identiying and empowering reliable people for discipleship.  You can download the pdf: matrix-for-identifying-and-empowering-reliable-people-for-discipleship