Ministry Moves at the Speed of Relationship | On the Move Episode 42
We have more information than ever — and one of the most lost generations in history. What’s missing? The answer might be simpler than you think.
What if the thing the church needs most right now isn’t a better program, a slicker curriculum, or a bigger event—but a longer walk to the grocery store with someone who needs Jesus?
That’s the kind of reframing that Andrew Underwood of Nexus International brought to the latest episode of On the Move. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Leanne White, Andrew unpacked what it really means to make disciples, why the Western church’s approach is falling short, and how a biblical image of a tree is helping churches across 65–70 countries rethink everything.
A Youth Pastor Changed Everything
Andrew’s story begins with a relationship. Growing up in a broken family, a youth pastor stepped into his life—not with a program, but with a dinner table, a presence at his sporting events, and early morning meetings before school. That relationship set the trajectory of Andrew’s entire life and gave him a vision for what every young person needs: a godly adult who shows up intentionally.
That conviction carried Andrew through years of camp ministry, where he saw firsthand the power of immersive, relational environments. But he also saw the gap: kids would have a transformative week at camp, return home to their youth groups, and have almost none of that relational investment for the rest of the year. The “mountaintop experience” was powerful—but it wasn’t enough.
That question—why isn’t this happening all year long?—eventually led Andrew to connect with Juan Carlos, an Ecuadorian doing similar work in Latin America. Together, they discovered Nexus International, an organization whose entire mission is helping churches build a year-round culture of relational disciple making, especially with young people. Juan Carlos now leads Nexus’s Latin America region; Andrew works in Asia. Both are based in Johnson City, Tennessee.
When COVID Shut Down Travel, God Opened a Door in Mauritius
One of the episode’s most striking stories came from the COVID era. When global travel shut down, a British worker named Abe reached out to Nexus from the tiny island nation of Mauritius—a country of 1.2 million people in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. (Fun fact: it’s the only place the now-extinct dodo bird ever lived.)
Andrew began meeting with Abe weekly over Zoom—for six to seven months straight. Through that relationship, Abe introduced Andrew to Ashley Jury, a local Mauritian pastor who had planted a church in a predominantly Hindu community. Ashley became a Nexus ambassador—a local leader overseeing the work in his own country.
“I thought nothing was going to happen because we couldn’t be there,” Andrew reflected. But through patient, relational investment—even over Zoom—hundreds of young people in Mauritius are now being impacted through intentional disciple making. Ashley has become one of Andrew’s closest friends, and Andrew is heading to Mauritius again in the coming weeks.
The Tree: A Biblical Framework for the Life Shape of a Disciple
At the heart of Nexus’s philosophy is a deceptively simple image: a tree. Andrew pointed out that trees are the most talked-about living thing in the Bible other than human beings—from Psalm 1 to John 15 to Colossians 2. Nexus uses the three-part structure of a tree to describe what a healthy disciple looks like.
Roots represent our abiding life in Christ—the foundation everything else depends on. Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” A disciple’s first priority is being with Jesus.
The trunk represents community and belonging. Andrew noted that many pastors and leaders he works with are deeply isolated—no real friends, no genuine community. But Jesus’s prayer in John 17 makes clear that our unity with one another is meant to mirror his unity with the Father, and it’s through that unity that the world will know who He is.
The branches represent ministry and mission. Fruit always grows on branches—and a healthy tree reproduces. If a Christian isn’t bearing fruit, something is unhealthy. But the key insight is that branches can’t exist without roots and a trunk. Ministry that skips abiding and community will eventually snap.
Nexus further breaks the branches into four “color zones”: Red (moving toward people who don’t know Jesus—on their turf, on their terms), Orange (actively proclaiming the gospel), Green (growing believers from immature to reproducing faith), and Blue (regular rhythms of retreat and rest—the boundaries that prevent burnout).
The Information Age Isn’t Solving the Discipleship Crisis
Andrew offered a sobering observation: we live in the most information-rich era in human history. A kid in Tibet, a kid in Nepal, a kid in London, and a kid in Charlotte, North Carolina all have unprecedented access to podcasts, videos, books, and teaching. And yet this may be one of the most spiritually lost generations ever.
If information were the answer, the problem would already be solved. What’s missing is relationship.
Andrew cited a study from Australia that tracked young people who either came to faith or walked away from it. In both directions, the deciding factor was the same: a relational connection to the church. Not a program. Not content. Relationship.
He also pointed listeners to The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman, calling it a masterclass in studying how Jesus actually spent his time. Jesus’s priorities were relational and experiential. He was far more concerned with formational learning than informational learning. And Andrew argued that the Western church has largely inverted those priorities—building systems that are great at delivering information but poor at forming people.
“It’s like sitting my kid down and drawing a shoe and explaining the parts,” Andrew said. “And then saying, ‘Now go tie your shoe.’ We don’t practice tying the shoe. But that’s how we make disciples.”
Wilderness as a Tool for Formation
Nexus also incorporates wilderness and adventure ministry into their work—not as a novelty, but as a biblically grounded tool. From Jesus teaching about birds and flowers on a mountainside to God using forty years of wilderness to shape Israel’s identity, creation is woven throughout Scripture as a space for formation. Andrew noted that one of the four relationships fractured in the Fall was our relationship with creation—and excluding it from disciple making leaves discipleship incomplete.
This doesn’t have to mean grand expeditions. In Taiwan, Nexus partners take kids on bike rides and to parks. A weekend backpacking trip gives leaders 72 hours of time with young people—the equivalent of months of weekly youth group meetings compressed into one intentional space.
Your Next Step
Andrew closed with a simple, two-part challenge. First, put your roots down. Cultivate a deep, abiding life with Jesus—not just in the margins, but as the organizing principle of your life. Second, prioritize one relationship. You don’t need a program to start. Invite someone to the grocery store. Have someone over for dinner. Take your kid on a walk and be intentional about what you’re building into them.
“Ministry moves at the speed of relationship,” Andrew said. “It is the primary conduit God has designed us to live in and minister in. If we can get out of the church boardrooms and empower our people to prioritize relationships—within their neighborhood, their school, their work—our churches would never be the same. And neither would our nations.”
On the Move is a podcast of 21C International. To learn more about how you can support the training of pastors in the majority world, visit 21cinternational.org.