Urban Discipleship Articles

Practical, field-tested thinking and experience on discipleship, mission, and what it means to partner with God in the city. Written by practitioners from across the global learning community focussed on the unique challenges of the urban harvest field.



What Can Happen When You Stay With One Person (even when you keep leaving)

We sometimes assume more ground covered means more fruit. But what if the pattern — the biblical pattern — is the opposite?

This is the story of one week in one village, one couple, and what grew from staying rather than moving on. Not a method. Not a programme. Just presence, Word, and Spirit — and then getting out of the way.

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The Urban Challenge Marko Pretorius The Urban Challenge Marko Pretorius

How to See What God Is Doing in Your City

You move into a city carrying a burden for the harvest — and almost immediately the scale overwhelms you. Where do you start?

Ecosystem mapping is one team's answer: a practice of drawing an honest circle around the relationships, spaces, and rhythms where God has currently given you influence, and asking what He is doing there.

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Discipleship & Outreach Marko Pretorius Discipleship & Outreach Marko Pretorius

The Fields Are Dead Because We Stopped Planting

A young man stranded in Kabul told the missionary who'd spent weeks with him: "I really like your Jesus, but I can't stand you."

That line has stayed with Marko for years — and it gets at a potentially uncomfortable reality. The lack of harvest in our cities may not be from a lack of care or vision. It may be because we never stopped to ask what we needed to become.

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The Urban Challenge Ryan C. The Urban Challenge Ryan C.

What is Water? Breaking the Spirit of Divisiveness for City-Wide Impact

The water we swim in shapes us in ways we rarely notice. For those of us in Western Protestant traditions, that water is often individualism — and it runs deep enough to blind us to the New Testament's relentless emphasis on unity. What does it cost the cities we serve when the movements and churches within them remain scattered and competitive? And what becomes possible when they don't?

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