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Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.

Matthew 9:37-38

At St John’s, we are committed to training and discipling Christians to trust and follow Jesus, live godly lives, and sending them out into the mission field, whether it’s their workplace, school, their community, or other parts of the world. Our goal is to glorify God by making disciples of all nations as Jesus is made known and with our lives as we imitate Christ and become more like him. And that is why at St John’s we train and send out.

What does the Bible say about training and discipleship?

The word discipleship is not in the Bible, it’s from the word disciple from the New Testament which means a follower of Christ. The word disciple disappears after Acts 28 and in the rest of the New Testament the words live/walk and complete/mature are related to being a disciple. It is an all of life experience living in a manner worthy of God, fully assured, and walking in love and in good works.

Similarly, the word train/training from the New Testament is related to being instructed and trained up in God’s word and God’s way of living - being disciplined in it and being ready for service - to bring honour to God.

So how do we train and disciple at church?

We train and disciple Christians through the teaching and proclamation of God’s word and prayer and they are fundamental to who we are and what we do at St John’s. We believe that God’s word is powerful to save and to transform us and through prayer, we call on God to teach and work in us through his Holy Spirit.

Can you name the ministries of word and prayer that we have as a church?

I can think of so many! From Explore to Growth Groups. From one-to-one bible reading to serving alongside each other in love in our music teams or SRE or CityFest.

We believe that Jesus is our only Saviour and people need to hear the good news to be saved so there is an urgency to make Jesus known before the coming judgement, but the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few.

So, another word and prayer ministry we have at St John’s is the 2-year MTS program where we intentionally train and test the character, conviction, and competency of Christians and equip them for a lifetime of ministry of the word and prayer. The goal is to train and send them out into full time (or part-time) vocational ministry for the sake of the gospel going out and for God’s church to be built up and his people standing firm.

What a wonderful privilege it is to be proclaiming the greatness of our God and to make Jesus known to the ends of the earth, with our words and lives, all for his glory.

How will you be involved in the ministry of word and prayer?

  • Let’s pray earnestly together to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest.
  • Let’s pray that we would be devoted to God’s word and prayer in all that we do.
  • Let’s pray that in our words and all areas of our lives we would honour and glorify Christ as we wait for him to return.

Carmen Lau
Children’s Minister