Practical Steps for Making Disciples

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'”
-Matthew 28:18-20

The most basic task of any church is to make disciples. This goes back to The Great Commission and continues until our Lord returns. But while making church-goers is tough enough, the work of assisting someone from attending worship to following Christ in a meaningful way is a step churches can miss if there is no intentional means of making the transition.

A proven means to assist in this transition to meaningful discipleship is through teaching and modeling spiritual disciplines. One basic example is daily scripture reading on a pattern to read through the Bible, which is central to our identity as Episcopalians. Normative for us is the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer, which is to be practiced by all clergy and remains the norm for laity. Typically our churches have copies of Forward Day by Day, which offers reflections for each day to fit the same readings as found in the office. Teaching this practice as a discipline to be followed no matter whether one feels like it or not is the most straightforward way to help parishioners make room for the Holy Spirit to break in day by day.

Bishop Benhase gave me a copy of the book he referenced in Friday’s eCrozier, Michelle Heyne’s In Your Holy Spirit: Traditional Spiritual Practices in Today’s Christian Life (Ascension Press, 2011).  Having read the book cover to cover, I can recommend it highly as a source for individual and group study which will ground those who read and reflect on it in spiritual practices with a particularly Episcopal way of looking at the life of faith. Heyne is a layperson whose perspective I think would resonate well with lay people who want to take their faith in Christ seriously, but who also juggle many demands in trying to do so. She addresses the five traditional spiritual practices: Weekly Eucharist, Daily Prayer, Reflection, Community and Service. In the book, Heyne describes her own journey from scoffing at her father’s teaching “There’s no such thing as Christianity separate from the Christian community” to learn how deeply right he was in that observation.

She goes on to give an excellent introduction to the spiritual practices with some very thoughtful, specific suggestions. Included are self assessment tools and reflection questions all which which serve to take the reader further in forging a Rule of Life that will both nurture and stretch one’s faith.

With seven main sections, that take the five core areas above and provide an introduction and a final integrating chapter on a Rule of Life, the book is well suited to a Lenten study. But there is no need to confine the idea of spiritual discipline to Lent and, in fact, there is probably more to be gained by using this book in the fall or at some other time so that it can guide participants in a group through reflection on not just Lent, but one’s whole life in Christ.

Whether Heyne’s book and the accompanying one by Bob Gallagher on Shaping the Parish through Spiritual Practice are used or the sermon or whatever other means, making disciples means helping move the people in the pews beyond casual practices of their faith to spiritual discipline. For that discipline is what prepares one for the storms of life and makes a more deeply rooted Christian faith possible.