At its heart are starting spiritual conversations, teaching others to form disciples
When we relaunched Lifeline College & Young Adults Ministry at the church of St Francis Xavier in Petaling Jaya, I dare say we did our best to love each person God sent our way. For an English-speaking parish, encountering Sabahans and Sarawakians was novel but we welcomed them.
We were inclusive of the Mandarin-speaking folks. We patiently befriended those who had mental health issues. Every week, after Mass and the gathering, we went for lunch, sports or movie and even dinner.
So when one of the leaders described discipleship as hanging out with each other, it was understandable. But to me who knew discipleship was so much more, it was horrifying.
As Catholics, we were never raised in a disciple-making culture. Maybe I wouldn’t have been such a screw-up if someone had discipled me. So, I was extremely grateful to a college mate who had been with Campus Crusade for Christ for introducing the book, Personal Disciple-making, by Christopher Adsit.
I had never experienced intentionally discipling another person previously, so the dense biblical insights and practical ideas in the book completely overwhelmed me. I am still unpacking it today.
The book introduced me to two critical ideas.
First, I learnt to do discipleship outside of a formal context. As I “did life” with my student leaders, I learnt to broach into spiritual conversations. This is so important, especially when ministering to millennials who wouldn’t come for formal youth gatherings but are willing to chat over dinner.
If I disciple others to disciple others, the ministry grows exponentially as more trained workers are released into the harvest field.
Second, I started to see the vision for spiritual multiplication. No matter how effective I am, if everything only depends on me, every new person I‘m discipling is only a spiritual addition. But if I disciple others to disciple others, the ministry grows exponentially as more trained workers are released into the harvest field.
The next stage in my formation as a disciple-maker was when I encountered the Fellowship of Catholic University Students in the United States (FOCUS) and Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) in Canada. At last, I was able to see and hear from living witnesses what the discipleship model looked like, especially in a Catholic context.
CCO demonstrated urgency in their bible studies. We only had a few years with the students so we had to be intentional in teaching what they really need to know and practise as Catholics.
FOCUS introduced a one-page Discipleship Road Map that made it clear it starts with calling for a commitment through a kerygmatic presentation of the Gospel. It “ends” when disciples are themselves making disciples.
The Road Map is invaluable as it helps us identify which stage we are at so as to know the next step forward. FOCUS also divided their formations into four areas: human, intellectual, spiritual and apostolic, which really helped me shape the conversations I am having with the people I am discipling. This includes a guideline to talk to men about the awkward topic of chastity.
The larger Catholic Church has entered the conversation on disciple-making primarily through Sherry Weddell’s book, Forming Intentional Disciples.
As more and more church leaders discover that our ad hoc formations and traditional youth and campus ministries aren’t forming missionary disciples who make missionary disciples, more focus has shifted to the discipleship model.
Though I have spent my last 25 years growing as a disciple-maker, I am humbled that there is always so much more to learn.
Where are you on your journey as a disciple-maker? How are you effectively fulfilling Jesus’ last command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19)?
