A short introduction to key ideas from Sherry Weddell's "Forming Intentional Disciples" in the context of discipleship in the Catholic faith. More resources available at: http://practicalevangelization.wordpress.com/tag/resources-for-intentional-discipleship/

1. discipleship
an introduction to Sherry Weddell’s
Forming Intentional Disciples
Created Feb 2014
Feel free to re-use any slide, but please attribute. 
naming
discipleship
Forming
Intentional
Disciples
Colleen Vermeulen, M.Div.
Twitter: @EvangelToolbox
Website: http://practicalevangelization.wordpress.com/

2. what is discipleship?

3. Image: The Saint John’s Bible Seeing the Word Blog
disciple.
(noun)learner, student
-ship.
condition of being,
implying a skill

4. discipleship
in the Catholic Tradition

5. using the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
• Pray ( 2601, 2612)
• Abide in the Word ( 2466)
• Witness to Christ and work using
the gifts received from God, in
ecclesial and temporal affairs
( 1319, 2427)
• Imitate Jesus ( 2347, 2470)
disciples:
• Profess, spread, and live the faith
of the Church ( 1816)
• Establish habits befitting a
disciple of Christ ( 1494)
• Are initiated and nourished by
the Eucharist ( 1275)
• Respond to Jesus’ invitation to
enter His kingdom ( 546)

6. discipleship as transmitted by the Church is:
• an active response
• for everyone
• personal (yet in community)

7. our challenge
discipleship in
the Catholic faith
experiences of
Catholics in our time
not to scale ;-)

8. the
majorityof Catholics in the United States
are sacramentalized but notevangelized
They do
not know that an explicit, personal attachment to Christ—
personal discipleship—is normativeCatholicism as
taught by the apostles and reiterated time and time again by the
popes, councils, and saints of the Church.
-- Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 46

9. The proclamation of the Gospel kerygma leads a person to, one
day be “overwhelmed and brought to the
decision to
entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith”
-- Blessed John Paul II, CatechesiTradendae, 25
.
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or
a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a
person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive
direction.
-- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est 1
For me, faith is born from the encounter with Jesus. A
personal encounter, which has touched my heart
and given direction and new meaning to my existence.
-- Pope Francis, Letter to La Republica

10. only
48%
of Catholics
were absolutely certain that the God they believed in was
a God with whom they could have a personal relationship
Forming Intentional Disciples, Chapter 1

11. assessing the state of discipleship
without vilifying
Image: “Paul Preaching to the Athenians,” Leonard Porter Studio, 2009

12. naming
discipleship
the book
Forming
Intentional
Disciples
FID + ministry
formation = ?

13. Chapter One:
God Has No Grandchildren
Image: Military Council of Catholic Women Fiat, “Book Club,” www.mccwfiat.wordpress.com

14. in review: there were lots of statistics

15. The spiritual winds blow
both ways in our postmodern world:
into andoutof the Church.
Our spiritual climate provides us with real opportunities
…and very definite threats
if we do not adjust our evangelizing, catechetical, and pastoral
practice to the unique challenges
of the times in which
we live.
-- Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 18

16. 1
key
point
the origin of intentional discipleship

17. All we meant…was “intentional” as in Peter
and his brother, on the sea of Galilee, they
dropped their nets, and they followed him.
You don’t do that accidentally, you don’t do it in your sleep,
and neither can any of us be disciples in our sleep!
--Sherry Weddell, onlineinterview with Bishop Sheridan (Colorado Springs)
Image: CC license, flappingwings via Flickr

18. of course, “unintentional discipleship” is impossible,
but using explicit language like “intentional discipleship”
seemed to break the mysterious spell
that makes it difficult for many Catholics to think and speak of
discipleship in meaningful, real-life ways
-- Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 65

19. 2
key
point
characterizing intentional discipleship

20. intentional discipleship is characterized by:
• a “drop the net” decision
• primary motivation from within, a “Holy Spiritgiven hunger and thirst for righteousness”
• worship and love of the Blessed Trinity with
one’s whole heart, soul, mind, and
strength, and love of neighbor as one’s self as
source and end of all things
Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 65-66

21. sharing the
faith with
one’s family
seeking to
know and
live God’s will
attend to
issues of
justice
passionate
prayer
taking risks
for the
Kingdom of
God
some
fruitsof
intentional
discipleship
Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 80-81
desire to
worship
love for
the Church
hunger to
learn more
about their
faith
sharing
the really
Good News
joyful
service
generous
giving
vocational
discernment
loving
care for
the poor

22. 3
key
point
intentional discipleship is ecclesial

23. three spiritual journeys
1
2 3
1. The personal interior journey of a
lived relationship with Christ
resultingin intentional discipleship.
2. The ecclesial journey into the Church
through reception of the sacraments
of initiation.
3. The journey of active practice –
receivingthe sacraments, attending
Mass, and participating in the life and
mission of the Christian community.
2
1
3
+ many more variations…
Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 54

24. 4
key
point
discipleship matters for everyone

25. As we listened to Catholics talk about their spiritual journey, we began to
realize that many
assumed there were two basic spiritual “tracks”:
“ordinary Catholic” and “saint.”
We discovered that many Catholics, including some pastoral leaders…have
no imaginative category for one who is an intentional follower
of
Jesus“on the way” yet not a saint.
There is a strong tendency to account for those who try to live as
disciples by labeling them “extraordinary,” either positively, as called to
priestly or religious life, or negatively, as pretenders to sanctity.
-- Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 63

26. “We must be convinced that all the baptized – unless they
die early or are incapable of making such a decision – will
eventually be called to make a personal choice to live as a
disciple of Jesus Christ in the midst of his Church”
--Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 70
Image: CNS, Catholic Review, Tom McCarthy Jr., 2012

27. 5
key
point
seek stories, not labels

28. baptized
liberal
practicing Catholic
progressive
left
evangelical
active
pro-life
right
laity
atheist
confirmed
clergy
convert
married in the Church
conservative
fallen away Catholic

29. 6
key
point
offering a framework for the
[often overlooked] Spiritual Journey #1

30. a framework for
spiritual journey #1
intentional
discipleship
seeking
openness
curiosity
the
trust
5
thresholds
of conversion

31. not the only framework

32. 7
key
point
expect charisms (spiritual gifts) and grace

33. You and I have no right to judge another’s internal disposition,
nor can we see justification happen in an individuals’ soul.
But this does
not mean that nofruits of personal faith are
observable from the outside.
And it certainly does
not mean that a dramatic and
widespread absence of these fruits in the community
overall cannot be recognized and addressed.
-- Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples, 122

34. The book has made a splash.
• in the Amazon Top 5000 nearly continuously since publication
• still breaking into the hourly Amazon Top 20 “Catholicism” best sellers
at least
91dioceses in the U.S. are deliberately engaging with the ideas in
Forming Intentional Disciples:
Arlington • Baltimore • Boise • Boston • Charleston, SC • Chicago • Cleveland • Colorado
Springs • Denver •Detroit • Fargo • Fort Worth, TX •Fort Wayne – South Bend • Green Bay
•Dubuque, IA • Joliet, IL • Knoxville • La Crosse, WI • Lansing, MI •Lexington, KY • Los
Angeles • Madison, WI • Manchester, H • Milwaukee •New York • Newark • Oakland, CA •
Ogdensburgh, NY • Oklahoma City • Omaha • Orange, CA • Richmond • San Antonio • San
Francisco • San Jose, CA• Scranton, PA• Seattle • Springfield, IL
[+ dioceses in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and 4 other countries]
since 1997, over 65,000 lay, religious, and ordained Catholics have
participated in the Catherine of Siena Institute programs that inspired the book

35. what next?
Study the book.
Talk about it in your parish or ministry
setting.
naming
discipleship
Forming
Intentional
Disciples
Reflect on:
 if/how your parish or ministry deliberately
allows space for spiritual journey #1
 ways to be sensitive to and discern the
many thresholds and complex conversion
processes of those who are not yet disciples
Check out additional resources at:
http://practicalevangelization.wordpress.com/tag/r
esources-for-intentional-discipleship/
?