Faith Facts

• Many small group discipleship efforts fail to produce lasting personal change despite good intentions and solid teaching.
• Simplifying and slowing down the process led to greater transformation at Life Church Eccles.
• Community support and shared accountability were vital to sustained spiritual growth.

After years of programs that inspired but rarely changed habits, one church discovered a better way to foster real discipleship.

By focusing on one spiritual practice at a time and meeting in community, they found transformation grew naturally and deeply.

“People were talking about obedience, failure, progress, and desire. The real ingredients of discipleship. There was confession without shame, accountability without pressure, and joy in the struggle.”

Instead of information-heavy approaches, they committed to shared rhythms—practicing faith together for weeks, encouraging one another through struggle and success.

It became clear that lasting change happens best when hearts are engaged alongside others, with grace and perseverance, in pursuit of Christ.

This model echoes ancient, biblical principles: the Christian walk thrives in honest community, supporting each other through both trials and triumphs, always pressing on toward Jesus.

May our own faith communities embrace patient, communal discipleship as we grow in faith, family, and freedom together.

Read the full story at Premier Christianity

Faith Facts

• A federal court in Pakistan gave custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a Muslim man who kidnapped and forcibly converted her to Islam.
• The court dismissed official documents proving her age and ignored previous judicial findings declaring the marriage illegal.
• Legal advocates and the girl’s family denounced the decision as a threat to the protection of Christian minors.

A Christian family in Pakistan is mourning a court ruling that handed their 13-year-old daughter to her abductor, undermining official records and disregarding the sanctity of childhood.

Despite clear evidence and appeals from her parents, judicial authorities ignored the girl’s legal birth documents and failed to provide protection for her vulnerable status.

“The judges should have taken into account that she was likely to give a statement in the accused’s favor under duress,” said Safdar Chaudhry, chairperson of Raah-e-Nijaat Ministry.

Christian families in Pakistan continue to face great risk as forced conversions and child marriages target their daughters, often leaving parents helpless before the law.

Even law enforcement agencies showed concerning reluctance in safeguarding Maria Shahbaz, as police inaction and investigative failures were highlighted by legal advocates.

While new laws have raised the national marriage age for Christians and the capital city to 18, provincial delays and Sharia law loopholes leave many Christian girls unprotected.

“If superior courts refuse to recognize official birth documents, there is little hope for protecting minor girls,” Chaudhry warned.

Cases like Maria’s reveal urgent needs for justice and protections rooted in Biblical principles: upholding truth, defending the vulnerable, and protecting faith and families.

Let us pray for Maria and advocate for Christian families under persecution, standing firm for biblical justice and the moral protection of children.

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Faith Facts

• Many members of Gen Z are drawn to spiritual disciplines but often grow spiritually weary.
• Christian tradition emphasizes devotion, not rigid discipline, as the key to a lasting relationship with God.
• Medieval saints like Bernard of Clairvaux and Margery Kempe prioritized love and longing over performance.

Throughout today’s culture, young Christians feel pressure to live up to ideas of perfection, pursuing productivity and checklists in their faith lives. Many become spiritually exhausted, confusing the quest for discipline with God’s call for loving devotion.

Faithful living isn’t about monitoring habits, but about deepening our relationship with Christ.

“Where have You hidden Yourself, and abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?” says the soul in a poem by St John of the Cross.

Devotion goes beyond rituals, inviting us to embrace grace on our journey and rest in God’s enduring love. It is in heartfelt longing for the Lord, not self-driven striving, that we find true spiritual renewal.

“Love suffices in itself; it pleases in itself and for its own sake. It is its own merit and reward. Love does not need any cause beyond itself, nor any fruit – its fruit is its use. I love because I love, I love so that I may love.”

Faith isn’t about endless performance, but about a loving relationship with our Savior. Return to devotion, and experience the freedom Christ offers.

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