Published on: 23/06/2026
If you’re reading this, chances are that you hold some sort of responsibility or leadership role in your church. I wonder what a typical week looks like for you? Many Lay leaders I speak to describe a mix of paid or voluntary work, ministry duties and family responsibilities. Hopefully there is some time for rest and leisure too.
Those of us involved in ministry are often deeply concerned with the development of others’ spirituality and discipleship. Whether it’s a leading small group, running a youth club or preparing a sermon, our responsibilities in our church role can leave little time for the deepening of our own faith.
My role in the Diocese is to resource churches and their communities for discipleship – to provide ideas, materials and support to help people to move forward in their journey of following Jesus. Recently, I was leading a workshop on developing a Personal Rule of Life, and it occurred to me that it has been a long time since I’ve thought carefully about my own discipleship – my own patterns and rhythms of everyday faith.
I had noticed this problem in another area of my life too. I realised that since becoming a mother almost two years ago, I have been so preoccupied with introducing faith to my daughter that I have neglected to nurture my own. I have been so concerned with reading the ‘right’ kind of Bible story books and saying the ‘correct’ type of bedtime prayers that I haven’t adjusted my own discipleship habits to fit with this new season of life. Despite spending most of my work time telling other people about the benefits of regular prayer, my own prayer life had stagnated.
Perhaps this is a common experience for those of us who serve in the Church – being so preoccupied with encouraging others in their discipleship that we forget to attend to our own. But Jesus says ‘Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me’ (John 15:4). In order to be fruitful in our ministry, we have to abide with Jesus: to spend time with him in prayer and worship, and order our lives around his teachings. You might have heard the phrase ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’. To translate this into our diocesan Lights for Christ language, you need to first receive Christ’s light before you can walk in it and reflect it to others. I’d like to invite you to join me in practising what you preach; to make sure to nurture your own faith at the same time as nurturing that of others. How are you receiving Christ’s light on a regular basis in this season of your ministry?
This week’s blog post has been written by Hannah Sandoval, Lights for Christ Enabler