Tag Archives: vision

Lenten Discipline

Here in St Albans Diocese we’re called to Live God’s Love.  This means three things:

  1. Going Deeper into God
  2. Transforming Community
  3. Making New Disciples

“Disciple” is a jargon word.  Most people quickly associate it with “the twelve.”  And dissociate it from themselves.  This is sad.  Jesus told the twelve (or the eleven, actually), to “make disciples,” so it is clear that the role of disciple does not stop with Peter, James and John et al.

A key feature of this disciple-making programme was the teaching of obedience to everything that Jesus had commanded his first disciples to do.  So, if we can get people to understand that they are called to be disciples too, we then have the tricky task of making sure that they also understand discipleship is about disciplined obedience to Jesus!  This is easier said than done, though I reckon the St Albans threefold vision is a pretty helpful summary of what that might look like.

In Jesus’ Little Africa this Lent, we’re looking at five aspects of the Christian life which support our disciplined obedience to Jesus; the Bible, Prayer, good Role Models, Church, and a life and attitude of Service to our King.  It’s my prayer that our investigation will start a fire of interest which will burn far longer than the season of Lent, becoming a veritable furnace in which our people will have the worldly dross burned off them and their faith purified to the glory of God.