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Book Review: Forming Intentional Disciples
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November 9, 2021Evangelization is the Ordinariates’ mission, as Monsignor Timothy Perkins has written in The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion, and this mission is much broader than bringing Anglicans into the Catholic Church. It includes evangelizing anyone outside the Catholic Church, including lapsed Catholics.
In her book Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, Sherry Weddell presents a practical framework for carrying out our evangelizing mission. Ms Weddell is the co-founder, along with Fr Michael Sweeney, of the Catherine of Siena Institute whose mission is to prepare Catholics to evangelize the world. The framework she presents is based on nearly 30 years of research and practical experience. It is, in other words, based not on theory but rather on what works in real life.
The central idea of the book is this: the goal of evangelization is to lead people to become intentional disciples. An intentional disciple is someone who has chosen to follow Jesus in the practical reality of their everyday lives. Like Jesus’ first followers, they have dropped their nets to follow the Lord.A Framework for Evangelization
Evangelization always involves at least two people: an evangelizer, and the one being evangelized.
The Evangelizer: Called and Gifted. Ideally, the evangelizer is already a disciple. Weddell emphasizes that every disciple has received one or more charisms (gifts) to contribute to the evangelizing mission. Not every disciple has the same gifts: some may be musically talented, others may be good administrators, while still others are strong leaders or effective teachers. All the gifts are needed and used in different ways to serve the overall mission.
The Evangelized: Five Thresholds of Conversion. Just as every disciple has their own special gifts, every person being evangelized has their own needs. Yet, even though no two people are the same, Weddell and her team have found an emergent pattern in which most people progress through five stages of conversion. She calls these stages “thresholds”: Trust, Curiosity, Openness, Seeking, and finally Discipleship.- Trust: If I try to evangelize someone who doesn’t trust me, I am likely to fail. Why should they listen to me? Trust, as Weddell says, is the bridge without which evangelization is impossible.
- Curiosity: A person may become curious about Jesus or something they have seen in the lives of their Christian friends whom they trust. They will want to know more, but at this point they are nowhere near thinking about becoming a Christian.
- Openness: A person advances to the Openness stage when they begin to consider the possibility of becoming a Christian (or a Catholic if they are already a Christian). While they are now open to the possibility, they have not moved to the point of genuinely seeking to know Jesus.
- Seeking: The person has moved from being passive to actively seeking to know more about Jesus. Weddell likens this threshold to “dating with a purpose.” The Seeker is engaged in a spiritual quest asking, “Are you the right One? Should I give myself to You?”
- Discipleship: A person crosses the Discipleship threshold when they decide to “drop their nets” and follow Jesus Christ as the Lord of their life.
Evangelizing Our Communities. As we read Weddell’s deep dive into the five thresholds, we may find ourselves asking “Where am I in this model? Am I truly a disciple?” But this is not the question Weddell wants us to ask. The question she poses for us is this: “When I am seeking to evangelize someone, what is the best way to approach that person given where they are in the model?” Because the way we should approach each individual depends not only on the unique context of their life but also on which threshold that person has crossed.
How do we approach someone with whom we have not yet established trust? How do we break that awkward silence with someone we just met? When is the right time to tell them the story of what Jesus has done for us personally, and what Jesus can do for them? When and how should we encourage them to encounter Jesus in person for themselves? What practical actions can we take to transform our parishes into centers of evangelism that are bringing people to Christ and into the Church? These are the big questions Weddell explores in the last four chapters of the book.Evangelizing the Postmodern World
It is difficult to summarize a book like Forming Intentional Disciples that is so densely packed with information and practical insights. What I have presented in this review merely scratches the surface of what Weddell has offered to us. For example, throughout the book, she shows how the Framework can guide us as we encounter the Postmodern world of our day.
Postmodern people present a challenge to Christians, and especially Catholics, because they don’t believe in knowable objective truths or personal sin. They see religion, science, and politics as mere creations of whoever happens to be in power at the time, and they believe it is their mission to deconstruct these creations in order to build a better world. How do we reach people who see the world that way?
In Chapter 10, “Do Tell: The Great Story of Jesus,” Weddell suggests that one place to start with Postmoderns may be with Jesus’ proclamation of the coming Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that is going to fix what is wrong with the world. This proclamation of the Kingdom appeals to many Postmoderns because they believe there is a lot wrong with the world and are struggling to find a solution.A Final Thought
When Ordinariate Catholics discuss evangelization, we often say that it is our reverent liturgy, beautiful music, majestic architecture, and orthodox theology that will bring people in and keep them coming back for more. In Weddell’s framework, while these things are indeed part of the overall solution, they are not the whole solution. She identifies many other ministries parishes should include in their evangelization toolkits. Nor should we see these ministries as operating in silos or competing with one another. Instead, we should see everything we do in our Ordinariate parishes as working together toward a common purpose, to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
Martin Fracker is a Catholic of the Anglican tradition and involved with the Ordinariate Members & Friends of Austin, Texas. The author's views are his own.
More posts by this author:
Four Keys to Evangelization with Six Proven Ways to Grow Your Parish
Parish Movable Feasts: How Meal Fellowship Can Build Up the Kingdom of God
The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion: The Gift of the Ordinariates (Book Review)
