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.
Letting Go So Others Can Lead
What happens when a leader formed by a hierarchical, top-down culture begins to sense God calling him toward something new?
Kumar reflects honestly on unlearning old patterns while still standing inside the structure that shaped him, and on what it means to clear the road for others.
Tables, Not Stages: Reaching a City Through the Few
A city of five million will never be reached by one leader being everywhere, however large or healthy his church becomes.
Bruce did the math and made an uncomfortable decision: give most of his time to twelve people nobody has heard of.
What if the way to reach the many is to become more deeply present to the few?
Praying and Mobilising Prayer for Your City — from Event to Posture
Mobilising prayer for a city can quietly become its own kind of performance — bigger gatherings, longer sessions — and still feel lifeless underneath.
This article shares four keys this team has found uncovered that keep prayer grounded and life-giving.
Fractals and Faith: Why Your Leadership DNA Matters
Humans build hierarchically — different rules for the street sweeper, the middle manager, the executive. But that's not how movements grow.
In nature and in the kingdom, the pattern repeats at every scale: the same rhythms of life for the newest disciple and the most seasoned leader. So which are we nurturing — a hierarchy, or a fractal?
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.
Even Introverts Have A Harvest Field
The thought of evangelism makes some people freeze. What’s the answer? Change your personality? Just be more courageous, or learn the right technique?
One leader shares what she learned as an introverted couple in her group got clarity on their passion and focus.
Five Rhythms of Fractal Leadership: Living the Pattern Together
A question every disciplemaking team eventually has to face: are we living what we ask others to live?
One team surfaced five rhythms — patterns that keep resurfacing across Scripture — and put them to the test over time.
The Low-Hanging Goal: Cultivating a Culture of Mutual Blessing
Everyone loves the idea of unity, but the devil is often in the details.
Ryan suggests some ‘low hanging’ ways to move toward existing churches and harvest movements as teammates, each carrying a different part of the same assignment in our cities.
Perhaps living out unity can be simple.
Living the Pattern: The Power of Embodied Leadership
“If you want to know how to live, watch me.” Many of us might flinch at such a bold statement!
Do we need to be perfect enough to be copied, or do we need to be willing to live visibly and transparently as we follow Jesus?
From Destination to Journey: Rediscovering the Gospel as a Way of Life
Most of us were invited to a destination. But the earliest followers of Jesus were called people of the Way.
What does it mean to recover a gospel that is less transaction and more way of life — and what does that demand of those of us asking others to follow?
Repenting on the Pavement: Finding a Mature Voice in Urban Mission
Can strong conviction become an obstacle to disciple-making movements? Might our tone and posture shut doors before relationships ever get a chance to open?
A practitioner reflects on his experiences in the urbanised west.
Losing The Fig Leaves - Leaning In To Relational Authenticity
Relational authenticity isn’t a performance. When leaders drop the fig leaves, something opens in community.
A practitioner reflects on what genuine honesty between generations actually builds.
Evaluate It
What else is left to do?
In the final article of this current series, David shares a critical step that sets up his team to keep learning and growing in effectiveness.
Coaching Keys to Developing Urban Leaders & Disciple-Makers
In the last blog we talked about adopting a coaching posture to empower urban mission. In this article we’ll dive into some practical ways our team is learning to do this.
Catch It. Live It.
As we wrestle with the complexity of cities, what insights can we gain from the early Christians? What about other significant movements throughout church history?
Multiply Disciples by Serving in their Love Language
The idea of ‘love languages” could apply to those whom we serve.
See how we can imitate Jesus who spoke to unique groups of people and individuals about God’s kingdom in a way that they understood.
A Simple Way to Lead So that Everyone Grows
“Why don’t people grow up?”
As pastor of a church, David often found himself asking this question in frustration. His congregation members seemed unmotivated and apathetic.
Who Is Qualified? An Ordinary Person's Guide To Kingdom Impact
God has an army. The army is not made up of pastors, professors or theologians, but it is filled with ordinary people … like every single one of us.