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“Discipleship” is one of those Christianese words that is losing meaning as it covers everything; some hipster Christians are moving away from the word to call the spiritual growth process “apprenticing.” I am a nerd, so I’ll spend the next few years watching how we talk about discipleship and what really happens in the processes people use.

More importantly, though, I’ll be making every effort to grow closer to Jesus myself while I encourage everyone around me to do the same. That’s the heart behind discipleship. There’s some life on life stuff in there, and there’s intentionality, and there’s something to do with accountability and trajectory. In a conversation this week, Matt brought up how that was the key thing I was hired for – my passion and ability to help young people purposefully grow closer to Jesus.

I consider it a real privilege to be on the journey with a lot of my former students, and I had a few really beautiful touch points this past week across a range of TCKs. The first one was with a young adult who had a call with me at 4:30am his time while he was awake praying through the night for a Mormon missionary who had come to his house. I also had a couple calls this week with one of his classmates who is on a journey of substance abuse recovery right now. Another kid in their class messaged me about progress in breaking free from a years long addiction. I woke up to a hello from another kid in their class who hasn’t had a conversation with me in a while, but what a joy to see her name on my phone.

I also had another message from a former student who only graduated a year ago, but he hadn’t previously contacted me. It was just a note to say thanks for being a positive influence. What an absolute privilege. He was one of the kids who came to my house for lunch once a week the last year I was in Kandern to share our “allergy lunches.” I still really miss my picnic table, and I wrote in the past few weeks about how I think sharing food is so important in making space for young people to have safe and important spiritual conversations. My Macca’s substitute table was a great start, but I loved last night even more as my friend Hannah invited a few recent graduates she purposefully disciples to come have dessert at my house.

Hannah brought games as a pretence, but as soon as the pudding was served, she pounced with, “So how do each of you need to be challenged in your walk with God right now?”

With no hesitation, these three young women identified where they are being stretched spiritually, and Hannah pretended to be shocked that they chose to go deep instead of playing games. Two of them said baptism was among their next steps, and that got me super excited. Baptism happens to be one of my favourite things in the church because it’s a celebration that has a physical marker in the life of a believer. It’s generally at starting point in a faith walk, but sometimes it happens a few years in. One of my youth leaders got baptised this morning, and as I was saying goodbye to her after the service and telling her how cool it was for me to get to share that moment with her, I mentioned that we’d be seeing her small group girls in the pool next. She responded enthusiastically as I know her heart is to see these year 10 girls take purposeful steps forward in their journey with Jesus.

The great commission in Matthew tells all Jesus followers to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” What an absolute privilege to be doing that labour in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2024. There is something awesome happening across this city, and I got to be a part of it on Friday night when Matt shared the Gospel with our youth group and asked the young people to respond in whatever was the appropriate next step in their life. Seven young people made a decision to put Jesus as a priority in their life in a new way – some of those a first time decision to follow Jesus. Ten of them wanted to know more about baptism as a next step in their life. Twenty declared they were going to purposefully share their faith with someone outside the room.

Nearly 40 young people decided they weren’t just going to sit where they were after hearing that Jesus died and rose again for them. Nearly 40 teenagers thought about how they could live in right relationship with Jesus and what that might look like in their own life. My life certainly will look different after that message too. I am so excited to watch this city catch fire as the Holy Spirit moves among the youth of New Zealand, and I’m looking forward to how God will continue to use me to be a part of it.