Topic 4.
Discipleship in the
21 st Century
Characteristics and Dynamics of
Discipleship for all
Ages &
Generations in a
21 st Century World

Romans 12:1-2, 9-18, 20-21
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God —what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2, 9-18, 20-21
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Romans 12:1-2, 9-18, 20-21
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Romans 12:1-2, 9-18, 20-21
…if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 Think of your congregation’s faith formation (programs, activities). What is the understanding and practice of discipleship that is communicated through faith formation?
 Summarize the actual understanding and practice.

Discipleship for 21 st Century
 What do you think are the characteristics or themes of 21 st century discipleship and Christian faith?

Discipleship for 21 st Century
 Acceptance of all
 Relationships with God, others + I need you so that I can be me
 Everyone is a disciple – we’re all ministers
 Faith in daily life; learn to be real with each other – admit struggle/failure, don’t have all answers, live a community where I can be real and experience reconciliation

Discipleship for 21 st Century
 Practices: internalized – who we are and what we do
 Not just for us – for others
 Service (Micah)
 Being the hands and feet of Christ
 Faith being given to all; discipleship intentional response to faith

Discipleship for 21 st Century
 “Doubting Thomas” – not about certainty, about being open to each other
 Each person personalizes their faith
 Foundational, relational, incarnational
 Blessing and burden
 Being with…
 Horizontal web of connection

Discipleship for 21 st Century
 Community: authentic, organic, engaging, relevant
(different kinds of communities)
 Spreading the awareness of the need for God’s work in our lives
 What God’s up to and how we can be a part of that
 Reclaim the word disciple / discipleship
 More freedom in what discipleship looks like; we don’t all learn and experience God in the same way; multiple senses to experience God (“Soul Types”)

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice
What does it mean to love God? We all know that both the Hebrew Bible and Jesus commend and command us “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your life force, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
”
Indeed, it is the “greatest commandment.” But what does it mean to do this? In a word, it means
“practice.” Loving God means paying attention to
God and to what God loves. The way we do this is through “practice.
(Marcus Borg, Heart of Christianity)

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice
Christianity is a “way,” a path, a way of life.
Practice is about the living of the Christian way. And “practice” really should be thought of as plural: practice is about practices, the means by which we live the Christian life.

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice





By practice I mean all the things that Christians do together and individually as a way of paying attention to God .
 being part of a Christian community & taking part in its life together as community worship
Christian formation collective deeds of hospitality & compassion devotional disciplines (prayer, Bible reading) loving what God loves through the practice of compassion and justice in the world

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice
 Practice is paying attention to (our relationship with) God .
 Practice is about the formation of Christian identity – the transformation from an identity given by the “world” to an identity in God, in
Christ. Christian identity formation’s purpose is not only to confer an identity shaped by
God’s acceptance of us, but to internalize an identity increasingly shaped by the Christian tradition.

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice


Practice is about the formation of Christian character. The internalization of a deeper
Christian identity shapes character. Christian formation involves transformation of character.
Practice is about nourishment – worship, devotion, prayer, Bible reading. Practice is a sacrament of the sacred.
 Practice is about compassion and justice .

Discipleship as Way of Life -
Practice
Practice is about living “the way.” The aim and purpose of practice is the two-fold transformation at the center of the Christian life: 1) being born again, opening the heart, dying to an old identity and being born into a new identity; and 2) becoming passionate about God’s passion, the life of compassion and justice in the world.
Practice is about paying attention to God and living the Christian path.

Faith as a Way of Life
“The central challenge for pastoral ministry today concerns the most important mark of good ministry: the ability effectively to mediate faith as an integral way of life to persons, communities, and cultures .”
(Miroslav Volf)

Faith as a Way of Life
“…the faith that people embrace is, arguably, shaping their lives less and less. For the most part, the faith seems not so much an integral way of life as an energizing and consoling aura added to the business of a life shaped by factors other than faith.”
(Miroslav Volf)

Faith as a Way of Life
“The smorgasbord culture is a challenge for communities of faith. But the main problem may be that communities of faith have not found effective ways to offer a compelling vision of an integral way of life that is worth living. Many people are seeking precisely that.”
(Miroslav Volf)

Handing on the Faith




Contemporary people do not derive their identity from one community or tradition.
We are formed by and participate in a diversity of communities.
We are inundated by information, images, and messages.
We are compelled to negotiate our identities.
(Terrence Tilley)
(“Communication in Handing on the Faith”)

Handing on the Faith
 What this means is that the Christian narrative that carries and is carried by the
Christian community is not merely in external competition with other narratives, but also within the hearts of those who practice Christianity.
 We live in multiple traditions and live out multiple stories. The conflicts between them may not become evident until triggered by circumstances.

Handing on the Faith
 When this happens, the authority of multiple stories for us is at stake.
 We cannot simply appeal to one of them as authoritative.
 No story has automatic authority. We are forced to decide which story is our primary story, that is, in and by which story we shall live.

Handing on the Faith
“To communicate a tradition is more to
“train” someone “how” to believe than to
“indoctrinate” someone in “what” to believe.
Communicating doctrinal propositions is not communicating a faith tradition. One needs to communicate how to engage in the practices that give sense to those doctrines.
To communicate a faith is to teach someone how to live in and live out a tradition. The doctrines can make sense only in the context of practicing the faith.”

Handing on the Faith
“Faith can be understood as a set of practices, even a complex virtue, Faith is not something we first believe, then practice. Rather, we practice the faith and in so doing come to understand it. God’s gracious initiative makes this possible.”

Handing on the Faith
“Communicating the faith is the complex practice of empowering people, disciples, to engage in the practices that constitute the faith tradition, including practices of participating in the sacraments and worship life of the church, and in distinctively Christian social and moral practices that fit the local community in which we live, and of believing .”

Handing on the Faith
“One has to learn how to be a Christian…
If we are to pass on the faith as a practice, then, we need to have people who are interested in pursuing the practice of living in and living out the tradition, and we need to coach, not teach, the faith.
If faith is a set of practices, then portraying and communicating the faith is shown in performance more than said in dogma, doctrine, or rules.

Handing on the Faith
“We communicate the faith by who we are and in what we do. Whatever our faith, whatever story or stories structure our lives we show what it is by our being and doing. Our practices give sense to our claims. You will see what we mean by God when you see how we deal with God .”

Handing on the Faith
“If we want to attract people to become interested in learning how to live as a Christian, we must practice the faith together well.
”
 Our liturgies must be joyous.
 Our moral lives visibly satisfying.
 Our communities must be places of love, justice, and service.
 Our gathering must be the gathering of a community whose discipleship is radiant.
 Our constant work must be that of reconciliation.
 Our tradition can then be a school for recovering sinners

Handing on the Faith
“What we need to do, then, is to be a community that attracts people who then want to reach the goals we strive for. That is the only way that “coaching in the faith” becomes possible. The members of a community coach each other in how to live out the faith. Faith is communicated in this (dialectical, not sequential) two step process of desire (to live out the faith) and training (in living out the faith) .“

Christian Practices
”Christian practices are not activities we do to make something spiritual happen in our lives.
Nor are they duties we undertake to be obedient to God. Rather, they are patterns of communal action that create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy, and presence of
God may be made known to us. They are places where the power of God is experienced. In the end, these are not ultimately our practices but forms of participation in the practice of God.”
Craig Dykstra

Christian Practices
“In my view, an essential task of education in faith is to teach all the basic practices of the
Christian faith. The fundamental aim of Christian education in all its forms, varieties, and settings should be that individuals —and indeed whole communities —learn these practices, be drawn into participation in them, learn to do them with increasingly deepened understanding and skill, learn to extend them more broadly and fully in their own lives and into their world, and learn to correct them, strengthen them, and improve them.”
(Craig Dykstra)

Christian Practices
 The Christian community gathers around
Jesus, whose way of life embodies the loving, challenging life of God. Through his presence and example, a way to live comes into focus.
 The community, with Jesus at its heart, experiences this model of living whenever we celebrate the blessings of life, serve the poor and vulnerable, offer our lives in prayer, forgive others, keep the Sabbath holy, discern
God’s will for us, or make an effort to transform the world.

Christian Practices
 Taken together Christian practices, are part of a way of life that participates in the active Life of God for creation, for our neighbors, and for ourselves
To Have an Abundant Way of Life
Jesus tells us that he has come in order that we “might have life—life in all its fullness”
(John 10:10)

Christian Practices
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Honoring the Body
Hospitality
Household
Economics
Saying Yes and
Saying No
Keeping Sabbath
Testimony
7.
8.
9.
Discernment
Shaping
Communities
Forgiveness
10.
Healing
11.
Dying Well
12.
Singing Our Lives

Living Well: Christian Practices for
Everyday Life
4)
5)
6)
7)
1)
2)
3)
Caring for the Body
Celebrating Life
Discernment
Dying Well
Eating Well
Forgiving
Keeping Sabbath
8)
9)
Managing Household
Life
Participating in
Community
10) Praying
11) Reading the Bible
12) Transforming the
World

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices



Are Christian practices being intentionally taught in your faith formation curriculum and programming?
How well does your church prepare children, youth, adults, and families to live
Christian practices at home, in the world, and within the church community?
Are children, youth, adults, and families engaged in the church’s practices as an integral element of your faith formation curriculum and programs?

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Make a Christian practice the focus for a season of the year through all education programs, worship, preaching, service/action, etc.
 Lenten Season:
 Forgiving
 Discernment
 Praying
 Transforming the World

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Make a Christian practice a focus for the whole year through all education programs, worship, preaching, service/action, etc.
 Example: Reading the Bible through the
Year


Example: Praying
Example: Hospitality
 Example Transforming the World

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices


STRATEGY: Focus on a Christian practice each month for a whole year or more in familyintergenerational programming, aligned with
Sunday worship and preaching, action projects, etc.
Focus: Ritual-Celebration-Worship
1.
2.
Celebrating Life
Eating Well
3.
4.
5.
Keeping Sabbath
Praying
Reading the Bible

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices



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How Shall We Live? – A Year of Living
Well
How to Care for Your Body
How to Celebrate Life
How to Make Tough Choices (Discernment)
How to Eat Well
How to Forgive Yourself and Others


How to Keep a Sabbath Day of Rest
How to Manage Household Life


How to Pray Well
How to Read the Bible and Enjoy It!
 How to Serve Others

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Re-structure the existing curriculum learning to incorporate a session on Christian practices (family or intergenerational) and a direct experience of that practice in the life of the church community, followed by reflection.
 Curriculum Theme: Sacraments
1.
2.
3.
Christian practices session: Eating Well,
Keeping Sabbath, Forgiving, Dying Well
Experience in the church community
Reflection

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 Curriculum Theme: Justice & Service
1.
2.
3.
Christian practices session:
Transforming the World
Action Project: with the church, in the community, or in the world
Reflection

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
STRATEGY: Incorporate Christian Practices in the
RCIA as part of catechumenal formation or mystagogy with sessions on:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
8)
9)
Managing Household
Life
Participating in
Community
10) Praying
11) Reading the Bible
12) Transforming the World
7)
Caring for the Body
Celebrating Life
Discernment
Dying Well
Eating Well
Forgiving
Keeping Sabbath

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Incorporate education for
Christian practices in sacramental preparation, connecting a practice with the
“content” of the sacrament. For example:
 Marriage: Managing Household Life
 Baptism:
Life
Caring for the Body, Celebrating
 Eucharist: Keeping Sabbath, Eating Well


Reconciliation:
Confirmation:
Discernment
Forgiving
Transforming the World,

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices





STRATEGY: Connect the Sunday lectionary readings (and preaching) to Christian practices and offer educational programs on Christian practices to prepare for or follow-upon the particular Sunday. (Fall 2009)
 23 rd (B): Mark 7:31-37 Healing, Caring for Body
24 th (B): Mark 8:27-35 Testimony
28 th (B): Mark 10:17-30 Discernment
29 th (B): Mark 10:35-45 Transforming the World
30 th (B): Mark 8:27-35 Healing, Caring for Body

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Create specific programs, projects, activities, field trips, etc. that teach the practice.


Transforming the World : Action Projects
Service to the poor and vulnerable
 Action for justice to ensure the rights of all
 Working for peace
 Caring for creation



Prayer : retreats, field trip to a monastery
Hospitality : Sunday worship, immigrants
Reading the Bible
Bible study
: lectionary faith sharing groups,

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 Small group study on the Christian practices
 Vacation Bible School on Christian practices
 Christian practices film festival
 Round table discussions on the Sunday readings and Christian practices (after Mass)

Faith Formation in Christian
Practices
 STRATEGY: Christian practice apprenticeships.


Identify “Practice Teachers” in the congregation and structure learning programs around these teachers in individualized and small group settings.
Utilize “Practice Teachers” in learning programs.
 Apprentice people with “practice” mentors in the church community and develop apprenticeships around Christian practices in the church.

Teaching Christian Practices
4.
Creative &
Authentic
Performance
1.
Connect
With the
Learner
3.
Skill &
Fluency
Development
2.
Information
Delivery

1.
2.
YEARNING taps into our hunger for living well by addressing a basic area of human need through the real-life stories of people who seek meaning and purpose for their lives through a particular practice.
REFLECTING gives people an opportunity to become aware of how they experience the basic human need and hunger for the Christian practice in their own lives, and how they may already be living this practice.

3.
4.
5.
EXPLORING presents the biblical teaching on the practice, how the practice address our basic need and hungers, and why the practice is important for living a Christian life.
LIVING provides people of all ages with a variety activities, ideas, and strategies they can use to integrate Christian practices into daily life.
PRAYING offers God thanks and praise, and asking for God’s help to faithfully live Christian practices in everyday life.

Teaching Christian Practices
4. Performing:
Living the
Practice
1. Yearning
&
Reflecting
3. Practicing:
Ways to Live
2. Exploring the Christian
Practice

Teaching Christian Practices
 Q1. Connect with the Learner
 Part 1. Yearning for the Practice
 Part 2. Reflecting on the Hunger
 Q 2. Information Delivery
 Part 3. Exploring the Christian Practice: Bible, People,
Communities
 Q 3. Skill & Fluency Development
 Part 4. Ways to Live the Christian Practice in Daily Life;
Demonstrating How to Live the Practice
 Q 4. Creative & Authentic Performance
 Part 4. Living the Christian Practice in Daily Life

Eating Well Session
 Q1. Yearning for the Practice
 Experiencing a Meal Together
(Demonstrate faith practices at the meal)
 During the Meal…
 Yearning: Stories of the Challenge of Eating
Well Today
 Yearning: Family Meal Yesterday
 Reflecting: Eating Well Today + The Power of Family Meals

Eating Well Session
 Q 2. Exploring the Christian Practice


Introduction to the Christian Practice of Eating
Well
Biblical Teaching: Eating Well Involves…


Giving Thanks for God for the Gift of Food
Storytelling



Sharing Food and Serving Others
Celebrating
Listening to God’s Word
 Method :
 Read and Report / Rewrite / Dramatize a Bible Story


Create Application Ideas for Living Well
Table Discussion and/or Creating an Ad for Eating Well

Eating Well Session
 Q 3. Practicing: Ways to Live the Christian
Practice in Daily Life
 Witness: “Practice Stories” of Eating Well
(from people in the parish)
 Demonstration: Ways to Enrich the Family
Meal
 Developing the Practice: Strategies & Ideas
 Getting Ready Strategies
 Enriching the Meal Strategies

Eating Well Session
 Q 4. Performing: Living the Christian Practice in
Daily Life
 Practice Plan for Living the Practice of Eating
Well
 Closing Prayer Experience
Alternative Setting
Stage this session as if it were a “live cooking show” similar to the Food Network shows.

Forgiving Session
 Q1. Yearning for the Practice
 Yearning: Stories of the Challenge of Forgiving
 Yearning: Telling a Story of Forgiveness
 Reflecting: “Forgiveness Quiz”—8 Reasons to
Forgive + Continuum Activity
 Q 2. Exploring the Christian Practice
 Video Presentation: Challenge of Forgiving
 Nooma Video (Rob Bell): Luggage or Lump
 Discussion
 Biblical Teaching: Forgiving Involves …

Forgiving Session
 Q 2. Exploring the Christian Practice
 Biblical Teaching: Forgiving Involves …
 Courage (Story of Joseph)




Mercy (Unforgiving Servant)
Faith and Love (Pardon of the Sinful Woman)
Restoring Relationships (Prodigal Son)
Way of Forgiveness (Matthew 5)
 Methods:
 Read and Report



Rewrite a Bible Story
Dramatize the Story
Create a Forgiveness Advertisement

Forgiving Session
 Q 3. Practicing: Ways to Live the Christian
Practice in Daily Life
 Film: Power of Forgiveness (Segments: “The Amish” and “Paths to Forgiveness)
 Developing the Practice: Strategies & Ideas
 “Ten Ways to Forgive”


Role Plays
Demonstration of Forgiveness
 Costs and Benefits of Forgiving

Forgiving Session
 Q 4. Performing: Living the Christian Practice in
Daily Life
 Practice Plan for Living the Practice of Forgive Daily
 Writing a Letter to Someone You Are Struggling to
Forgive
 Closing Prayer Experience