Discipleship Done Differently
ARISE!
Discipleship from the home Excerpt from The XYZ of Discipleship: Understanding and Reaching Generations Y & Z by Nick & Marjorie Allan (published 2020) available from www.xyzdiscipleship.com and all online retailers
Generation Y (born between c.1981-96) and Generation Z (c.1996-2014) are sometimes called the ‘missing generation’ from the UK Church, yet they are thriving and expanding their influence within the rest of society. Can we bridge the gap? Can we understand the cultural landscape they inhabit and work out how best to reach them with the gospel, helping them to become disciples, that is, followers of Jesus? In these days of Covid restrictions, life in the home has become our focal point. It also presents a fantastic opportunity for discipleship from the home or even the kitchen table. The younger generations may apparently be connected to hundreds of people and may have 24/7 contact with others in this digital age and yet be the loneliest generation to date because of the lack of
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contexts in which they have meaningful relationships. Since Covid and lockdowns, loneliness and a raft of mental health issues are undoubtedly worse. Today’s culture is the most information-connected, yet the least relationallyconnected ever to be formed. In today’s urban culture it is possible to spend an entire day surrounded by people – and speak to nobody. This is because connection and community are two totally different realities. You can be connected to hundreds of people and still have no meaningful relationships. There is a big difference between friendship and authentic community. Only fifty years ago in Britain we benefited from a richness of community life that has virtually disappeared. It has supposedly become virtual, but it has, in fact, become a
thing of the past. This is where the Church has such an opportunity! We are part of something beyond ourselves. It is not an organisation, it is an organism, a movement, circulating the planet over the last 2,000 years. Movements attract people. The worldwide Church is a community of people with a cause beyond themselves. And it is permanently open to newcomers. Within any average local church community there are tremendously powerful connections. Connections more real than our
