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URC Discipleship Development Fund
Please contact your Development Support Officer to discuss your discipleship development in advance of an application to this fund.
Small Grants of up to £200 are available for individuals.
To encourage and support individuals within the United Reformed Church engage with a journey of deepening personal discipleship.
Individuals can apply for help with the cost of attending approved discipleship course, activities or retreats offered by others.
Congregations can apply for help with the cost of buying in a speaker or other resources to facilitate in-house schemes.
Discipleship Development Fund
DDF – small grants publicity flier
DDF – small grants application form
Large Grants from the Discipleship Development Fund
Aim: ‘Supporting people as they put faith into action, learn about God, deepen their faith, and explore their calling.’
DDF – large grants application form
DDF – large grants check list
Discipleship – a Study Resource for Churches
In 2020, just as we all went into Lockdown, a small group of people at United Church Winchester began to put together a booklet entitled ‘Discipleship: Know it. Nourish it. Live it.’ In the following year the church engaged with this in 3 parts, with preaching and in small groups. This is what Tim Clifford has written for us:-
“United Church Winchester adopted the topic of Discipleship as a theme for 2021, with twelve services and six study groups using the material from the booklet. Services took place every other week during Lent/ Easter, May/ June, and September/ October, with study groups meeting in the week after the relevant sermon in church.
The feedback from the congregation and study groups was very positive – the topics were interesting, the subjects engaging, and together the reflection on our discipleship journey was very challenging! People especially enjoyed the audio introductions to each of the sessions (link in the booklet), the ‘real life’ video clips shown, and the opportunity based on additional material for further reflection privately between sessions. There was also a very popular online session called ‘Going Deeper’ (run by Revd Tim Searle) which provided a less structured open discussion about issues and questions concerning the relevant sermon.
The booklet and a similar approach is now also being used in other churches in Winchester, Eastleigh, and Romsey Circuit, and other Methodist Circuits during 2022. Meanwhile at United we continue to challenge ourselves on how we build true discipleship in our community”.
You would not need to follow the same pattern in your churches, but the booklet may be a very good resource.