Deepened Faith and Empowered Discipleship

I have found it a great blessing to repeat the Fellows Programme both from the perspective of consolidating the teaching and from making new friends. I believe that I am now much better prepared always to have an answer to those who ask me for a reason for my faith, and to do so with conversation which is gracious and also 'seasoned with salt'. My scripture study is a daily practice and prayer life is much more 'real'. Though I found the 40-day prayer challenge rather contrived at first, it has now become an invaluable framework, along with the Lord's Prayer for my personal time with the Lord. Some of the books that I struggled with last time have spoken to me more plainly the second time around. I’ve benefited greatly from Fellows Reflections 2020 and all the Saturday speakers.

What a blessing to be addressed by so many 'giants of the faith'! Last time I was very uncomfortable with the idea of developing a discipleship plan and was again worried at the prospect as I felt that I should work with 'my own house' before expanding to others. But my children are all in Great Britain, making that more difficult until the arrival of Zoom effectively removed the barrier of the Irish Sea. My pastor, when asked for suggestions, felt that, with the lockdown, something using social media might be worth considering. Our youngest son accepted Jesus in 2015, some months after me, but has since had minimal disciplining through local churches. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I invited him to join my wife and me in a weekly Zoom study of John's gospel using a study guide by Douglas Connelly. He readily agreed and this is going well. His fiancée listens in at times, our eldest son has joined us once and our daughter is interested. To date, it has taken us two weeks to work through each chapter. There is so much in those brief words. We are being greatly blessed together and coming to a much deeper appreciation of the Lord's ministry. We are taking it in turn to lead the discussion in this online triad or quad and all are receiving great benefit. Without CSLI we would never have found this pathway to being disciples making disciples.