Post-Festival – Beginning Discipleship

Bringing an unbelieving friend to a Christian festival and seeing them respond openly to the Gospel is so exciting isn’t it?! You convinced them to go with you. You were nervous about how they’d react to loud worship and ecstatic behaviour but they’ve ended up joining in! So good, right? However, after the week is over, we need to put an extremely important process into practise. Discipleship.

Discipleship helps us to grow and embrace what Jesus taught. 2 Peter 3:18a says ‘… grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour’. Previously Peter was warning believers of being led astray but the remedy is simply getting to know Jesus! The more we want to know Him, the more we’ll get to know Him, the more we know Him, the more we’ll be like Him. It’s through the Bible we can know Christ and it’s in Christ that we find spiritual stability!

Your friend is a brand new Christian but he/she is vulnerable and needs help in getting grounded in Jesus. This is where you come in. You can aid and help Disciple your mate! You might feel like you haven’t got much to offer, but remember that you probably know Jesus better than your friend does. This makes you more stable and more capable to give a helping hand!  

If this sounds particularly daunting, why not speak to your youth leader or pastor about it? You could even ask for someone that knows Jesus even more than you to Disciple you too! Above all, ensure that your friend doesn’t begin his/her walk with Jesus alone. Make sure you’re available to answer questions, invite your friend to Church and ensure he/she gets surrounded by his/her new Christian family!

Let your friend’s salvation spur you on in yours!

Festival Fever & Loving Your Church

We all get the bug don’t we? Thousands of people cramming into a large tent, getting super excited about Jesus together and wildly expressing His praise. It’s contagious! We treasure these moments over the 6-7 day period only to eventually go home, have a proper shower and sink back into normal life. Should this sound depressing? If so, maybe there’s something wrong!

It’s kind of like having a car that you’re used to, perhaps bored of, and then you get the opportunity to drive a race car and, assuming you’re a bit of an adrenaline junky, you’re suddenly awakened into loving the thrill and the excitement of the ride. After the ride, the memory of it sticks in your mind as you slump back into your normal car feeling even less enthusiastic about it. Your car is your local church and the race car is the festival you attended this summer.

Jesus loves it when the Church comes together but He also loves your local church too – in fact he died for it! He wants you to see your church as He does. Ephesians 5:25 says “Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her”. The aim of these great Christian festivals is to help you love Jesus more and the more you love Jesus, the more you love the things He loves! No matter how seemingly small or lively your church is, Jesus adores it all the same!

So! You’re on your way back home. You’re tired but have some great memories. Let those memories be blessings and not objects of obsession. Take time to reflect on what you’ve learnt but keep your local church in view! Ask Jesus to help you to see the Church as He does and, ultimately, fall in love with it like you have with Him!