Deeper in our Discipleship

Estimated Reading time: 8 minutes · Written by Tim chilvers

As Riverside Church comes to the close of this three-week series, I’ve found myself reflecting deeply on the atmosphere changes we long to see by 2028. We began with riskier faith. Then we moved to braver evangelism. And now, we arrive at the third: becoming deeper in our discipleship. If I imagine myself in 2028 looking back, I wonder–will my life have gone deeper in following Jesus, or will I have stayed much the same?

Depth

In the first week we thought about what it means to take risks in faith–stepping out when comfort beckons us to play it safe. In the second, we challenged ourselves to be braver in evangelism, not hoarding the good news but sharing it. Along the way, we’ve heard powerful stories. Sue, a long‑time Christian, told us how she realised she had to “get over herself” and start sharing openly about Jesus. She joined a mission organisation, travelled to Argentina, prayed with strangers in Perry Barr, and saw people come to faith. In six months she’d seen more fruit than in the rest of her life combined, all because she made a decision to step out.

That testimony stirred our community group. We wrote down our own stories of coming to faith and shared them in three minutes each. There were tears, honesty, laughter–and a fresh sense of the redemptive story God is writing in all our lives. Small steps, yet significant. All of this has brought us to the final challenge: depth. What does it mean to grow deeper as disciples of Jesus?

The World Would Be a Better Place If…

To begin, I asked a simple question: The world would be a better place if Christians… Fill in the blank. We could talk for hours about that. But then comes the harder question: The world would be a better place if I… That stings a little, doesn’t it? It’s easier to critique others than ourselves.

I recall Gandhi’s famous line when asked about Christianity in the so‑called Christian West: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” The first time I heard that, I thought, “Quite right, Gandhi, you tell them!” But over time I realised how easily I distance myself from the critique. What if he was talking about me? What if the gap between Jesus and my own life is more obvious to others than I like to admit?

Remaining in the Vine

In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the image of a vine and branches: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”

The key word is remain, or abide, stay, settle in. Like moving into a new house, unpacking your bags, and saying, “This is home.” That’s what Jesus invites us to do in him. Not a quick visit, not a casual glance, but a deep settling into his love.

From this image, five lessons emerge about deeper discipleship.

1. Health Comes from Connection, Not from Trying Harder

We so often treat discipleship like an exam: if only we revised more, performed better, tried harder. But Jesus doesn’t say, “Be a better branch.” He says, “Stay connected.” A branch flourishes not by willpower but by drawing life from the vine.

Eugene Peterson put it beautifully: “My feelings are important for many things…but they tell me next to nothing about God or my relation to God.” Whether we feel fruitful or not, the reality is that we are loved–as loved as the Father loves the Son. That love does not waver with our performance. It is constant, secure, unearned.

2. Expect Pruning

Jesus also speaks of pruning. Branches that bear fruit are pruned to become more fruitful. I’ll confess, I’m no gardener. Our garden could best be described as “post‑industrial.” But even I know that cutting back can bring greater health.

Dallas Willard once wrote: “Your work is not God’s work. You are God’s work. God’s calling, shaping, creating a people. Your work is simply the context through which you pursue discipleship.”

That perspective changes everything. An argument with a spouse or colleague becomes not just about winning but about how God might be shaping me in patience, humility, or grace. Life’s difficulties are not all sent by God–but in all of them, God is at work forming us into who we are meant to be.

3. The Fruit Matches the Vine

Even my limited science tells me that a grapevine produces grapes, not pears. Likewise, a branch connected to Jesus will produce the kind of fruit he produces. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness–these aren’t manufactured by us; they grow because his life flows through us.

This is why at Riverside we’ve launched Abide: A Year of Discipleship. Over three terms we’ll explore practices that help us remain in the vine: habits that shape us, deeper engagement with the Bible, and learning to pray. Whether through a connect group or as individuals, we want to root ourselves so deeply in Jesus that fruit flows naturally.

4. Disconnection Is the Greatest Danger

A branch cut off from the vine withers. Jesus warns, “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.”

For me, one area of potential disconnection is my phone. We live in a world where tragedy, outrage, and distraction are streamed into our hands 24/7. A pastor I follow recently warned his church: “Our addiction to outrage and distraction works against the slow, deep work of the Spirit. It doesn’t shape Christ in us.”

C.S. Lewis, writing decades before smartphones, noted the same danger: “It’s one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning…I doubt if it’s the duty of every private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help.” His counsel was simple: don’t neglect joy, friendships, jokes, birdsong, frosty sunrises. Without them, constant exposure to global grief will deform rather than deepen us.

So I’ve started asking myself: Does what I consume online make me more or less fearful? More or less compassionate? More or less joyful? Those questions are pruning shears of a kind, keeping me attentive to whether I’m rooted in Christ or drifting into despair.

5. The Heart of Discipleship Is Joy

Finally, Jesus says: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Joy is at the centre of discipleship. Too often we think deep Christians are intense, severe, perpetually serious. But the essence of the gospel is joy.

Frederick Buechner wrote: “At its heart, Christianity is joy, laughter and freedom and the reaching out of arms.” Pete Greig adds: “God loves us too much to leave us staring in the mirror. He’ll do anything, and I mean anything, to attract us away from life’s distractions…so that we at last focus solely on the source of all joy.”

This is not to dismiss the struggles many face–health issues, grief, mental strain. Rather, it’s to say that joy is not a surface emotion but a deep reality anchored in God’s love. When we forget this, we end up quick to judge, quick to despair, quick to burden ourselves or others. But when we remember it, humility and hope flow again.

Living It Out

As part of our response at Riverside, Nick shared a simple practice: giving away pocket‑sized Gospels. Not with pressure, but with prayer, trusting God to open doors. He told us how, within a day, he’d given one to a mechanic who gratefully promised to read it. Small, ordinary acts. Yet through them, God’s Word spreads.

This is what deeper discipleship looks like: not an abstract ideal but concrete practices, rooted in Jesus, bearing fruit in everyday life.

So, as I stand here in 2025, imagining 2028, I ask myself: will I be deeper in Jesus? Will I remain in the vine, allowing his life to flow through me? Will I accept pruning, resist disconnection, and choose joy? Or will I wither, distracted and exhausted, mistaking activity for fruit?

I want to choose depth. To abide. To settle in. Because the world doesn’t need better branches–it needs branches connected to the true vine, bearing fruit that tastes of Christ himself.

The original teaching has been edited for clarity and brevity; This is not a transcript.