Have you ever noticed that the most simple things are sometimes the most difficult to explain!? Matt and I have just done our second Inspire taster session at a church in Garstang, North West England. The lead pastor invited us to introduce some of the main themes of Missional Discipleship to the leadership team ahead of a weekend retreat planned in the autumn. One Saturday morning in early June we shared a great 2 hours together with 13 of the church leaders: elected, paid and voluntary. As a group we ate bacon sandwiches, we looked at some of the main issues facing discipleship in the church at the moment and we explored how Missional Discipleship is the solution to these challenges. A balance between deep, personal spirituality and missional living every single day. We shared about the beginnings of the Inspire Movement and its aim to help believers become disciples who make disciples.
It was great to have time set aside by the leadership of the church to investigate these issues as they look to grow discipleship in the life of the church. We felt lifted as we left and prayed that the group we had shared with would be left hungry for more. It turns out God was already on step ahead of us! 2 days later we received a message from the lead pastor asking if we would go again in a few weeks to do the same explorative session with a wider group. We were so encouraged to hear that people were hungry and made plans to return to join in with what God was doing.
This time on an evening in late June we turned up at the church expecting a similar number of people to last time. The bacon sandwiches were replaced with cake and instead of the expected 20 or so people, we had over 50 people show up to explore what it means to be missional disciples. The conversation was free flowing and Spirit-led, as people were soaking up the encouragement to live every day on mission with Jesus, to take their own spirituality seriously and to make sure they don’t do this alone but with other believers to spur them on and keep lifting them to God.
We are planning a weekend retreat to Garstang in early autumn and are currently setting the upper limit for numbers. We are in conversation about a second retreat taking place in the spring if the autumn one is oversubscribed. Safe to say we are blown away! The hunger and genuine passion within this congregation to see God at work is inspiring. God is moving and it is a thrill to be part of it.
Rachel Wright, GB Core Team
