What is Discipleship?

One of the first things we ask in many of our workshop presentations, especially to parish and school leaders is, "What is discipleship?" Over time we have heard dozens and dozens of answers to this question and the variation makes one thing clear. A lot of people aren't really sure what discipleship is. In one particularly memborable evening, we went around a table of a dozen parish leaders and asked how they lived discipleship in their daily lives. No one mentioned Jesus and prayer was only referenced once. A similar question to a group of college students resulted in a list of human to-do's and efforts. Discipleship is not first a foremost a verb (action word). A quick web-search reveals a variety of answers but it is often described as a process or reworded as a person (disciple). All nouns. This is consistent (while the details vary) across the many books purporting to describe how to create, form, and develop disciples. In our system, the definition of discipleship matters a lot. If we are designed for it, what is it? In teaching how to nurture discipleship in other people, we felt it necessary to establish a definition that was both teachable, easy to remember, practical, and deeply rooted in a Catholic understanding of discipleship. While others have written entire books on the meaning and depths of discipleship, in the Designed for Discipleship System of Evangelical Catechesis, we use the following simplified definition: Discipleship is friendship with Jesus, lived through prayer, sacraments, and service.

We can't really claim any particular ownership of this definition because it is pieced together from so many places, but its formation was intentionally worded to reflect that relationship with Jesus is the key source of those human actions it results in. As individual catechetical leaders, the definition helps us make sure that we are putting the emphasis on our relationship with Jesus first. It also allows a tool of self-reflection for areas that we could grow in our life of faith (prayer, sacraments, and service). It helps us in the same way as we invite and encourage others into a life of discipleship. It has to start with Jesus but it also has to actively flow back into the community. Prayer, sacraments, and service give us learning experiences to center formation around and growth to observe in our students (regardless of age). This is a dynamic relationship and a dynamic definition. We do not seek or demand mastery of any individual aspect (particularly at the expense of the other dimensions) but we can recognize (and celebrate) movement and growth in specific ways. To add a layer of depth, credibility, and possibly further study, this definition is also very closely tied to the four pillars of the catechism:

• Our relationship with Jesus is a result of what we believe and what he has done for us (Part 1),

• Service is one way we live our life with Christ* (Part 2),

• Sacraments are how we celebrate this mysterious dynamic (Part 3), and

• Prayer is well...how we pray! (Part 4).

Does this definition cover all of the facets of friendship with Jesus? Absolutely not! It does, however, give us a solid starting point of shared language for discussion of such an important concept in evangelical catechesis. It allows us to think systematically about the balance between each key idea and to make connections between each activity of discipleship, while maintaining that discipleship is not the activity itself- that remains with the relationship.

*An astute reader of this article will note that the life of virtue was not mentioned. Stay tuned for future discussion(s) on how we believe virtue education fits into discipleship-driven catechesis! For now, trust me when I say it is essential, and if you are just getting started makes a wonderful organizing structure for the four key topics above especially in schools and families where many opportunities for spontaneous learning exist.