It started in a coffee shop with my daughter and grand-daughter. I was sharing how meeting with church family once or twice a week wasn’t enough. How far we seem to be from the ‘encourage one another daily’ lifestyle of Hebrews 3:13.

I grew up in a Christian home and from my early teens I believed that Jesus died for my sins, and I wanted a relationship with God. However, I made a lot of excuses for not engaging in typical Christian practices like attending church, reading my Bible and regularly praying.

I met the Navigators in 1966 and ‘spiritual generations’ was often mentioned, but it wasn’t until the summer of ’68 that the Lord got my attention through words which have become my life verses.

I used to think I was only useful to God when I had spiritual conversations with people or when they came to church with me. What a reductionist view I had about how to love people and how to let God be God!

I have often thought of the disciple-making vision as a vision of love. Love in our culture is a vague concept: a feeling, an emotional high or goodwill towards humanity.

Inside Out 2 is billed as the ‘feel everything’ movie of 2024. Sitting next to my pre-teen son in the cinema, we prepared ourselves for an emotional rollercoaster of a film, and it did not disappoint.

Before moving to Scotland to do Connect (the Navigators internship programme), I didn’t have much experience doing discipleship intentionally. I had taught people things and shared my life with friends. I just hadn’t met with someone with the intention of making disciples.

The concept was introduced to me roughly 4 years ago now and has influenced most of my life decisions ever since… Let’s rewind to early 2020 (pre-pandemic). I was 6 months into my Midwifery degree and about to become the small group co-ordinator for my university’s Christian Union.

Our culture is experiencing an authenticity crisis. There is a deep hunger for genuine relationships, a thirst to be truly oneself. But ‘authentic’ has become marketing speak, wielded by influencers, brands and apps desperate to gain the trust of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Coming alongside people over the past 10 years or so, I have often felt frustrated, confused and overwhelmed as I encounter the brokenness of the world, of people and of myself. Sometimes things can feel too big for me, too complicated, too messy.

My first experience of one-to-one discipleship was organised for me. The person I was paired with was passionate about living by the word of God, but our personalities clashed.