When Gordon Allan decided to work on discipleship, emails from eager new Christians landed in his inbox.,,,
We’re doing discipleship better, says Gordon Allan.
We had made a decision … not a bad thing for leaders!
The decision was to create a video library of short teaching sessions and notes for discipleship in church. I was convinced that we needed to come out of lockdown ‘doing discipleship’ better.
Then the question was asked: “But who are we going to disciple?” We set ourselves the task of finding someone to spend time with.
That was the Tuesday night. On the Thursday an email dropped into my inbox: “I am not sure how to pray. Can you help me?”
Within another two weeks: “I have come to faith during lockdown and I want to grow in my relationship with God. Can you help me?”
Around another four weeks later, you guessed it, a further email: “I have been investigating Christianity and I had a spiritual experience in my kitchen. I want to be baptised. Can you help me?”
And so I have begun a journey with my three new friends. Those journeys are around a year old now and all three (and one man’s wife!) have been baptised and are growing in their relationship with God.
What does it look like in practice? I spend 60-75 minutes individually with these men each week. We commit to meeting each week at a set time. We commit to coming prepared, having read whatever Bible passage, chapters of a book or study materials we agree. We commit to ‘scratching where it is itching’, applying the truth of faith to the reality of life. And we commit to drinking coffee!
From Direction Magazine issue 237
