Salvation is the free gift of our Sovereign God – discipleship is the responsibility of working that out daily in our lives. I reminded us all last year that we have a continual challenge from God’s Word

Matthew 28 v 19 & 20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Jesus wanted His disciples to be co-workers with Him – friends not just servants.

·        You’ve become a Christian – you are born again and now you want to mature – how do you do it?

·        You are a young Christian trying to grow but what’s around to help you?

·        You’re a mature Christian - how can you avoid getting complacent? What can you offer to younger Christians or to the fellowship?

That’s where the Discipleship Team can help – we can’t do it for you but we can provide opportunities for you. We coordinate a number of different elements within our fellowship.

This last year we have been able to support the fellowship with

·        Bible reading notes to help us to study God’s Word – not just read it or hear it.

·        In depth Bible study. We have an almost unique resource within our fellowship of having a gifted tutor of Old Testament scripture – we would be failing if we did not draw upon that resource and this year more than 20 of us did. We joined in a short series of in depth studies of Ephesians.

·        Fellowship Groups are a popular fortnightly house meeting where we can discuss challenges from God’s Word – and share coffee and chit chat. We also form a basis for extending pastoral care as we get closer to each other.

·        A Library. Not all of us want to buy Christian books but our fairly extensive library offers a range of material free for loan. The range covers material to support our preachers to life stories and even a graphic bible.

·        Masterlife. This course of study has been taken by many people now within our fellowship but this last year we were able to run two groups.

·        Lent reading. Again at least 50 of the fellowship committed themselves to reading CS Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”.

·        Mentoring and Nurturing. Alan mentioned in a sermon and church members meeting in January that God blessed us last year with the most people in memory coming forward for baptism in one year. Most of these were new Christians for whom we were able to offer mentoring from a more experienced Christian.

Once again our success is really a misnomer because it only reflects your willingness to take up the challenges of serious discipleship. We can only facilitate. We are always open to new ideas or others wishing to discuss joining the team.

So the next year like the last is really over to you – thank you for the ideas and thank you for supporting the things we managed to put on - but most of all thanks to the team for giving of their time and enthusiasm for God’s commission.

Don Brennan Deacon with responsibility for Discipleship