Do You Want More Than Dry Prayer Times?
Our prayer times can often feel dry when what is offered in the scriptures is a prayer life that is dynamic and accessible at any time or occasion.
Developing a Habit for Life
How to create your own Habit For Life, often known as a Rhythm of Life. With printable PDF template.
Refreshing Your Heart Through Wonder
Have you ever thought about refreshing your HEART through a Wonder Walk?
Women and Discipleship - Discipling Young Women
The importance of discipleship of young women and the need to help them navigate how to live as a Christian woman in an increasingly secular society.
Be discipled back to church.
Sadly for many of us, we have become discipled out of gathered church and discipled further into consumer church. How do we get back into the swing of things?
LENT WEBINAR / DISCIPLESHIP COACHING
Imagine having your own Discipleship Coach!
How to run the race in a pandemic.
“Run in such a way as to get the prize”. 1 Corinthians 9:24
5 ways to alleviate apathy in your faith.
It’s too easy to settle into a monotonous routine that lacks any passion or joy. So, what can we do to elevate apathy in our faith?
Apprentice To Jesus: 40 days of walking in the way
How to be discipled in lockdown.
Would the church thrive in the absence of leadership or would they ‘drift off’?
If Jesus was Jewish, then why aren't we?
If Jesus was Jewish, then why aren't we?
5 reasons why we love our neighbour and serve
Activating out faith and living it out can be hard and sometimes we need help. This blog post helps us explore why getting our hands dirty is so important.
Activating out faith and living it out can be hard and sometimes we need help. This blog post helps us explore why getting our hands dirty is so important.
Six reasons why you should trust God
In this week’s Making Disciples episode, Cris speaks about why God is trustworthy. There are many ways to answer that statement but Cris gives us a walkthrough…..
THE PODCAST
MAKING DISCIPLES THE PODCAST IS HERE. A weekly 25min podcast to help in your spiritual formation.
A discipleship podcast for beginners, doubters, confused and long term established Christians. In this podcast, we talk about everything related to growing in faith but in a really simple way. We are honest with our struggles, learn from some wise people and hit some brick walls… a little bit like the original disciples.
THE PODCAST
MAKING DISCIPLES THE PODCAST IS HERE. A weekly 25min podcast to help in your spiritual formation.
A discipleship podcast for beginners, doubters, confused and long term established Christians. In this podcast, we talk about everything related to growing in faith but in a really simple way. We are honest with our struggles, learn from some wise people and hit some brick walls… a little bit like the original disciples.
THE BREATHE PRAYER
How to use your breathing as prayer.
What is advent and why do we need it?
If we don’t celebrate advent you will not celebrate the real Christmas. Without advent, Christmas will always become about bigger and better gifts, amounting up debt and eating too much. Without advent, Christmas will struggle to celebrate the Christ child. Let’s have a think about why and how we can celebrate.
PREPARING YOUR KIDS FOR A HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Christmas is such a wonderful time of year that so easily gets swamped with gift-giving and gift-receiving. If we aren’t careful our children grow up with a consumer approach to a season all about the simple Christ child. As society aims to sell more stuff and make Christmas as commercially successful as possible we need to simplify and point to the story of Christmas.
THE PODCAST
MAKING DISCIPLES THE PODCAST IS HERE. A weekly 25min podcast to help in your spiritual formation.
A discipleship podcast for beginners, doubters, confused and long term established Christians. In this podcast we talk about everything related to growing in faith but in a really simple way. We are honest with our struggles, learn from some wise people and hit some brick walls… a little bit like the original disciples. Cris Rogers is a church leader in East London and has been described as a Urban Practical Theologian. wearemakingdisciples.com
THE FATHERS LOVE LETTER
The Bible is this beautiful love letter or sonnet from God to humanity where he whispers on every page “I love you”. In Malachi 1:1-5 it reads, “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?”
Help revitalise your relationship with God.
Four helpful hints to help revitalise your relationship with God:
Making Disciples Interview with Andy Frost
How to raise faith in the family.
Andy Frost heads up Share Jesus International. Working with Care for the family and Katherine Hill, Andy has been apart of creating Raising Faith. In this conversation, we talk about kids and how to disciple your family. We talk about the five helpful hits to disciple your children. 1. Praying with your kids 2. Reading the Bible with them and them seeing you read 3. Being intentional in asking questions about faith 4. Committing to a church family and playing your part 5. Looking to point faith outwards towards others. wearemakingdisciples.com
Lent is for the training of disciples
Lent is more important to your discipleship than you think. Its origins are about 1800 years ago in the Egyptian desert where they would baptise new disciples at Easter. Each disciple would go through 40 days of serious prayer and preparation as they approached their public declaration of faith and their renunciation of any other way other than the way of Jesus.
Lent in a Bag
Pilgrims journeying together…. Throughout the forty days of Lent, we remember the time Jesus spent in the wilderness. Each week, we will be taking time to reflect upon what might sustain us when we find ourselves in a “ wilderness.” Perhaps not literally, but in terms of facing empty, bleak or difficult times in our own lives. Perhaps something that happens at work, school or at home and we know that somehow we will have to get through it. We will have to “ walk through the wilderness”. “ Lent in a Bag” helps us to consider what we need to journey through that wilderness as pilgrims together.
3 creative ways to disciple kids this Christmas.
Christmas is a great season for taking up the opportunity to disciple the kids in your life. Here are 3 creative ways to disciple your kids this Christmas.
Consumerism:
The enemy of Christian discipleship and community
Interview with Rowan Williams
In this episode, we talk with Dr Rowan Williams about Discipleship and the art of watching and waiting to see what Jesus might do next.
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?
Discipleship isn’t about learning more, but following and copying Jesus in the everyday. We aren’t historians we are partners in Jesus’ kingdom movement.
In this series on discipleship, Loretta chats to Rev Cris Rogers about making disciples and together unpack the most frequently asked questions on the subject.
Interview with Mike Gore
WHAT IS TRUE DISCIPLESHIP AND WHY IS PERSECUTION IMPORTANT FOR US.
DISCIPLESHIP IS FOR ALL AND NOT THE FEW
For many with disabilities, seeing where they fit into the big story of the Bible is hard, especially when they can barely see where they fit into the church.
There is a group of people for whom discipleship is difficult to access, or there is nothing for them to access in the first place.
Apprenticeship as Discipleship
Making Disciples interview with John Mark Comer
Cris Rogers interviews John Mark Comer, Author of "God has a name" and pastor of Bridgetown Church Portland on the topic of apprenticeship as discipleship.
Surrendering all to Jesus
Making Disciples Interview with Danielle Strickland.
Cris Rogers interviews Danielle Strickland on what 'real' discipleship is and the importance of surrendering all to Jesus.
FOUR THINGS JESUS NEVER SAID
Weird and wonderful phantom quotes or ideas that people either say or live by without realising they are just not true and really not helpful...
I wonder how often we misquote Jesus without even realising it. Could it be that we think we know what Jesus said but for some reason we have the wrong end of the stick. Someone once said to me, ‘as Jesus said spare the rod, spoil the child’. Wow! Taken aback I made sure they understood that Jesus never said that. I also had to make it clear to another person that Jesus never said, God helps those who help themselves. I quickly made them aware that God helps those who can’t help themselves.
Where’s your garden?
Create gardens, small covered hidden places where you can regularly walk for pleasure with your creator
The bible begins with a regular encounter that took place in a garden, In the opening lines we see that God originally walked with Adam and Eve in a garden. Genesis 3: 8-9 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””
Discipleship as living on purpose
Making Disciples interview with Cathy Madavan
Cris Rogers and Cathy Madavan explore discipleship and how to make a firm commitment leads a holy life.
Your Counting Ability
How we support each other to grow in our discipleship
James tells us to ‘confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed’ (James 5:16). And I think this provides a great model for how we can move forward in this area...
Help, I have a young family...
I am tired, short of time and struggling to grow in my faith.
I love the verse from Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… 'Love your neighbour as yourself.” Or as the disciple-shape tool showed us. Love God with your head, heart and hands. That is the teaching, there's nothing new there. The reality is, there does come a time when this is significantly hard. What do you do when you have a baby, and a toddler, and another on the way. What does it mean then to love God with your head, heart and hands? How do we apply this teaching in this season of life?
HOW TO STOP MOVING
Taking time to be present to Gods presence
Modern life is busy, some of it busy for work, other times busy for family and sometimes a little busy for us and maybe a little for Jesus. Busyness for some of us makes us feel wanted, needed or appreciated. We think that if we are busy we must be proving our existence. But our identity isn't found in how busy we are.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Going back to the old ways of making disciples - apprenticeship is discipleship, discipleship is about apprenticeship.
Our higher education model is having a detrimental effect upon how we do discipleship. So much of how the church does discipleship is modelled on a failing school system. I don’t say that to offend any teachers, but I am trying to shake up the church.
WE GET TO SHAPE WHERE WE LIVE
WHAT KIND OF NEIGHBOURHOOD DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN?
In recent years we have seen gay hate shootings, terrorism, Political leaders murdered and the racist outbursts post the EU referendum. The clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Lusson says that “Fear is a bigoted master compelling us to behaviours and actions we would never choose were we free from its incessant calling.” I liked this; fear is an intolerant master that drives us.
PRESENT TO GODS PRESENCE
Being present in God's presence.
Have you ever been at a party or the pub and suddenly wished you were back home in bed? Then, just as you head for the door to leave, you suddenly spot someone you didn't have a clue was there. Here you are at this party and a good friend is there and you never realised it because you were far too preoccupied with who you are with or your mind was working on an exit strategy.
We Are Making Disciples
Discipleship and our planet
I’ve just come back from preaching at a church that used little plastic disposable cups for communion. Probably about 500 were used which equates to about 26,000 little plastic cups in a year (never mind the throw-away coffee cups it also used).
Three Simple Rules
3 Simple Rules For Building A Healthy Dating Church Culture
I meet lots of people who say dating in their Christian community can be a bit of a nightmare...
Singleness Part 1
What The Bible Actually Says About Singleness
In this two-part article, we will explore two important biblical teachings surrounding singleness.
Singleness Part 2
What The Bible Actually Says About Singleness
In the second of this two-part article, we will continue to explore the biblical teachings surrounding singleness.
Marriage
Discipleship in practise
Most of us remember our wedding day with great clarity...
Committed to Christ, Committed to His Family?
Have you ever had a good read of an internet review?
Dealing with Anger as a Disciple of Jesus
Are you a fighter or a hoarder?
I feel angry about all kinds of things, from people in front of me at the supermarket being ridiculously slow to unfair criticism on a piece of work I’ve done. Indeed, anger is a fact of life for any of us who interact with real people, but how do you deal with anger - Are you a fighter or a hoarder?
DO I NEED TO GO TO CHURCH TO BE A CHRISTIAN.
Three aspects of why church is important….
Church isn’t a prerequisite for being ‘saved,’ but I would argue that to live a radical, empowered discipled life, church has to be an intrinsic part of it; to inspire, equip, and challenge you, and to enable you to grow in your faith. Church isn’t at its core what you get from it, it’s what you give to it. So when you’re not at church you might not feel like you miss out but you can be guaranteed others will miss out from what you have to offer.
Making Disciples Interview with Miriam Swaffield
[PART 1] Cris Rogers interviews Miriam Swaffield about 'real deal discipleship'. A whole life lived for Jesus.
A whole life lived for Jesus.
Making Disciples Interview with Luke Whyte
Cris Rogers speaks with Luke Whyte about discipleship and millennials.
Creating a discipleship culture that is authentic is key.
Making Disciples Interview with Nathan Foster
Cris speaks to Nathan about spiritual disciplines.
Cris Rogers interviews Nathan Foster, writer of Ordinary Saints, about spiritual disciplines.