Diane Grano leads Lightwave church in Red Lodge, an area of rural new housing in Suffolk. The church plant is growing new disciples and working with surrounding rural villages to revitalise their mission and discipleship. For Diane, recognising where discipleship begins is vital.
By Diane GranoJune 2025
Discipleship starts both in our community, as we reach out with an invitation to those who are totally unchurched, and in our church family, so we can disciple others. Our experience here at Lightwave has shown that relationships and forming trust are key to both in our context. And we pray, of course, asking for the Lord’s guidance and opportunity.
How do we know who to disciple? Often it’s whoever God puts before you – perhaps someone in the street who stops to chat – you may not know why or what but it will be for a reason.
The great commission invites us to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’. But the other part is to ‘teach them (and disciple them) to love the Lord.’ We’ve found that when we begin to respond to both, we become the light and life of our communities; we see God’s kingdom come and we see the church grow, with people becoming confident and feeling valued. Discipleship isn’t just for the leaders of the church or for Christians who have been around for a long time. Discipleship is for everyone.
This year we’re integrating with local parishes to encourage them in mission and engage them in discipleship. Sometimes it’s difficult for smaller parishes, but we’re trying to model discipleship to congregations in our area.
At Red Lodge we are blessed with families and children who are full of energy, but often villages don’t have this. The older folk are steadfast and faithful and have a passion for Jesus, but the world now looks very different from when they were really active in mission so we encourage them that they still have a big role to play. In one village we’re asking some of the church members to get involved in a new toddler group – all we need is for them to be present so we can continue to invite and disciple parents who come along.
In each of our settings, I’ve learned to always invite and never to make assumptions. A mum brought her children to Messy Church for four years and it seemed she had faith. But when she joined Alpha, we realised she didn’t know Jesus, or even have a Bible. When she told us she’d tried praying for the first time, I was blown away, blessed to hear that but challenged because we missed it. Let’s not assume that Christians who come every Sunday are fully mature in Christ – because none of us have arrived, have we. There’s always something else…
When people join a small group, for example, think ahead to the next step on their journey, which could be helping with or leading. Recognise and nurture their gifting and support them so they are always growing in their faith. This may be taking them to a point when they think, yes, that’s possible – I could do that.
A lady started coming as a volunteer in church. She was then baptised and joined a Bible study group. After a while I could see she was very capable and asked her to co-lead, but she was very uncomfortable with the idea at first. We didn’t give up though, and today she leads youth Alpha with me – she has an incredible gift with the young people.
When we disciple, we learn and grow too. This has been true for me, seeing her flourish is so refreshing. I would encourage everyone to disciple others!
