Sunday, April 16, 2017

My doctoral studies on Council Estate Discipleship

For the last few years (maybe since 2011?) I've been doing a Doctor of Ministry at Westminster Theological Seminary, focusing on Urban Mission.

This has led to me looking at what does the Bible say about discipleship, and how should it then be done on Council Estates.

Most of my work is relevant to discipleship in any culture. Some of it is particularly relevant to Council Estate culture.

Here's some bullet points of some of my findings
  1. God uses us as image bearers to make disciples
  2. The better we reflect God's image, the better we disciple
  3. The image of God involves
    1. Representation
    2. Relationship
    3. Assessment / Evaluation
    4. Speech/Voice
    5. Power and Authority
    6. Enjoyment
  4. We need to be discipled in all these traits of the image.
  5. As we grow in these traits, we become more effective at discipleship
  6. This process needs to include the following:
    1. Hearing the truth
    2. Focusing on Christ
    3. Putting off the old
    4. Putting on the new
    5. Speaking the truth to others
    6. Teaching all that Christ commanded
As a result of my studies I've written the Urban Catechism, and am now producing the Image Bearer's discipleship course.

and here's me trying to work on this: