Missional Formation for Transforming Discipleship

Mission – in the larger sense, beyond the mission of the institutional church – in the 21st century is an urgent and decisive issue. We need to prepare for a transforming mission with transforming discipleship. Together towards Life, along with Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si', offer paradigm shifts to consider as we envision mission formation with other parameters – with a different theological and ministerial education. Participation in the world is necessary for any true transformative mission: it is there that we learn and practise the true challenges to abundant life for everyone and for all. Practice alone is not enough: we must always question our own praxis, reviewing it in the light of the gospel.     

Transforming Discipleship: Missiological Reflections

Although not explicitly tied, the terms “transforming” and “discipleship” relate directly to and fruitfully qualify each other in the most important recent documents in contemporary missiology. Together they frame a profoundly rooted and deeply relevant notion of discipleship that ties the personal commitment of Christians to the larger Christian communion, work for justice, and the very fabric of our evolving universe.     

Missional Formation for Transforming Discipleship: A Response

As I approached teaching my first missiology course in the seminary of a Dominican partner church a few years ago, I had to ask myself, “How do we possibly talk about and engage in ‘mission’ in this hemisphere, where the first ‘mission’ ended in genocide?” In this article, I explore the context for mission, which I believe is sometimes given insufficient attention as we seek to form and equip our church leaders and members for mission. The contexts are both local and global, with much intersection between the two. I will also focus on methodology that may be useful for the formation of disciples for mission as part of the need for a different type of theological and ministerial education within the new mission paradigm that Míguez proposes.     

Discipleship Transforming the World: A Coptic Orthodox Perspective

Discipleship is the core of Christianity, based on the work of the Holy Spirit, in fulfilment of the Lord's command. True discipleship is capable of transforming the world, so that in the end all kingdoms and reign shall be to the Lord and his Christ. Therefore, discipleship is linked with evangelism, missionary, teaching, and social work. With the emerging hostile trends all over the world, faith is endangered. So it is important to remind ourselves of the aim of Christianity for humanity, for which so great a price was paid by our Lord (his precious blood) to bring the world into the knowledge of the truth. We have the privilege and honour to bear the precious name and to declare it to the whole world, even if we suffer for that. Even though this means that we have to bear his cross, to face the challenges, and to resist the powers of evil in the world. The church is aware of its mission, to reveal to the world Christ the lover of humanity, and for this end to serve them – to warn, teach, and guide them – through our behaviour, our acts, and our words. Copts are keen on serving their communities and everywhere they go, are always ready to teach others about the cause of our hope, that they also may enjoy the fruit and the deserts of the blood of Christ. This article honestly records the experience of the Coptic Orthodox Church regarding discipleship in practice throughout its history up to the present day.     

Together towards Life,Missional Formation,and Transforming Discipleship

Adoption of Together towards Life as a new mission statement of the World Council of Churches was a moment pregnant with possibility. Will this ground‐breaking document have a transformative impact on individual lives, on community life, on national life, on international life? The answer, to a great extent, will depend on how far it comes to be used as a resource in education and formation. For it to be used in a relevant and effective way, it will need to be considered contextually. A project has been under way to create a pedagogical guidebook to support the deployment of Together towards Life in missional education and formation. This will promote academic rigour, but will also go further to engage the spiritual level and the challenge of discipleship.     

Missional Discipleship

Most communities of the world, and particularly in the continent of Africa, are multi‐faith and multicultural. Christianity is a major religion in the continent that has succeeded in persuading adherents of African traditional religions to switch off from their indigenous belief and switch on to Christian belief. 1 Christianity is not the only religious faith in Africa. It has other sibling monotheistic religions and other religious expressions. Christianity, being a mission‐oriented religious faith, has a mandate to bring about transformation as reflected in its sacred text, the Bible. This article will explore how the transformation is stimulated and sustained. Meanwhile, it is necessary to state that African people were religious people even before the advent of Christianity and Islam. As a result, religion plays a critical role in their public engagements. Nevertheless, what may be investigated further would be whether religion, and Christian faith in particular, influences the people to be good citizens/disciples as they engage in the socio‐political and economic life of the society. The article seeks to use the notion of missional discipleship as a compelling stimulus for inclusive transformation in African societies.     

Evangelism as Discipleship

This article gives attention to the challenges that the missional and conversational relationship of the church poses in the intercourse between evangelism, discipleship, theological education and leadership formation in its ministry and mission. This multi‐faceted and complex process brings together competing interests with different agendas that, in a number of contexts, have resulted in mis‐evangelization. This has called into question issues about human dignity and respect and the need for reciprocity to inform all missional response of the churches. The article argues that an appropriate model of theological education is needed to equip leaders for effective witness to the gospel. This necessitates the recruitment and mentoring of emerging leaders who have had a life‐changing encounter with the life‐giving Spirit of Jesus that controls their identity, vocation and witness. Some experiences of formal and informal theological education and formation within the Anglo‐Caribbean context were identified that disconnected and disorientated leaders from the Church's missional task of bearing effective witness to the gospel. This article calls for an overhaul of seminary‐ and university‐based theological education careerism, because they serve as an encumbrance to nurturing effective contextual witness of churches. The article argues that if Jesus calls and makes us into his disciples, then faithfulness in discipleship necessitates that (1) authentic evangelism must be grounded in humility and respect for all, (2) leadership formation must be infectiously relational, and (3) the gospel must be communicated through genuine interpersonal and community‐affirming relationships. The article ends with an invitation to all churches to embrace a missional model of witnessing that invests in living with, learning from and sharing with people in communities depending on the Spirit of God in Christ to lead and bear fruit in God's time.     

The Meaning of Discipleship

This article is an attempt to use academic tools to bring out the meaning of discipleship from the practitioners' perspective. The mandate of the Great Commission, making people disciples, is the process of making someone become like Christ. This contribution shows that as individuals learn from him and follow the pattern of Jesus' life, there will be marks of discipleship, such as commitment and being like him in deeds. The primary purpose of Jesus' coming to the world was to establish the kingdom of God through his death. The study demonstrates that the kingdom becomes evident in form and practice as people surrender to God's progressive rule. The strength and influence of the church is shown to be wholly dependent upon its commitment to authentic discipleship; that is, producing transformed lives and seeing those lives reproduced in others. The paper concludes that the transformed disciples must together take a journey of transforming communities into the kingdom of God.     

Systemic Evil and Christian Discipleship

Although the churches have focused much of their attention on the individual's encounter with evil, it is urgent and essential that this focus be expanded to consider communal systemic evil. Rediscovering this emphasis in ancient sources – biblical and Indigenous – we begin to see that engagement with systemic evils like racism and colonialism is a central aspect of Christian discipleship. There is a preliminary and important anticipation and realization of this rediscovery in The Arusha Call to Discipleship document of the World Council of Churches. In an age that is beset by the deadly intersection of multiple forms of systemic evil, it is urgent that discipleship confront the principalities and powers that corrupt and destroy life.     

Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship: Reflections from the Vantage Points of the Marginalized People

“Mission from the margins” is neither a mere perspectival approach nor an option but an inevitable way of being church in God's mission. Likewise, the marginalized people are neither a broad category of people on the fringes of the society nor mere objects of charity and victims of circumstances. They are prophets and pathfinders indicting the world for its injustice through their lives of suffering and striving for its transformation through their struggles. As signs of hope testifying to the movement of the Spirit amidst despair and death, they help us to see God's mission not as a mere religious activity but as a spirituality of resistance and transformation for the sake of life and God's world. Reclaiming discipleship from the vantage of the marginalized, therefore, offers an opportunity for the churches to rediscover themselves afresh from being mere communities of believers and power structures to networks of partners for God's justice, participating in the larger struggles for the transformation of the world. As the gospels tell us, Jesus did not commission his disciples to call people to a belief system but to a covenantal relationship through a vocation of striving for the realization of God's reign. Such a sense of vocation is possible only when there is a radical change in Christian self‐understanding. It involves, first, interrogating and reimagining the ways in which churches affirm and practise their faith; second, leaving aside their captivity to certain belief systems and turning toward Jesus of Nazareth to teach the way – to be active partners with God rather than being passive believers; third, appropriating discipleship beyond the language and sphere of transformation of persons; and fourth, learning from and being enriched by the visions and resources of the marginalized in living out the call to be one in God's mission of transformation of the world.     

Discipleship Training Of Children and Youth

Today, we all face an infinite number of faith choices, especially youth. This makes confirmation ministry as discipleship training most important in our churches. This article explores the confirmation ministry of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Depew, NY, and critically analyzes the methodology—4 turnings, 6 disciplines, and 19 assets—behind the ministry. This methodology has been developed from researchers such as Jean Piaget, James Fowler, Duffy Robins, and researchers at the Search Institute.     

Discipleship and Spirituality from a Christian Perspective

Spirituality is an important aspect of being a human. One may approach this topic from a purely psychological or religious perspective. In this paper, it is argued that spirituality as defined from a purely psychological perspective is inadequate to capture the depth of this human experience because it misses the core of spirituality—discipleship. Following Foster’s (1998) Streams of Living Water, it will be argued that discipleship is the core of Christian spirituality, and each of these streams provides an important context for fostering one’s relationship to the transcendent.     

Discipleship with the Marginalized at the Centre

Evangelization increasingly references marginalization. But how are we to think about it? This article draws on a theological understanding of marginality in relation to discipleship and then on interviews with Christian leaders who have worked with the marginalized to underscore the crucial yet elusive character of marginality for personal and ecclesial discipleship.     

Creation,Theological Imagination and Questions about Discipleship

Science yields factual data about the unfolding nature of the universe that challenges us profoundly and with urgency. This data verifies we are living in a dynamic world within a dynamic universe that is still in the process of creation. This process is wrought with risk and is also defined by relationships that emerge from the most basic elements of life. These times require a new cosmology. Haught reminds us that the adventurous narrative of love and liberation at work beneath the surface available to science is the work space of theologians. The patterns of relationships in all life forms evoke the image of the Trinity as a communion of relations. Discovering a new way of seeing requires doing theology in new ways and Delio notes this means a search for the newness of God evident in the New Testament. Ultimately, new ways of seeing require examining discipleship. Contemplation through the ages permits us to grasp that this Trinity of Love is our God who dwells with us. Our insight into God continually unfolds in history through the continuity of the Paschal Mystery of Christ in his incarnation, death and resurrection. Profound suffering, disaster and tragedy mark the age in which we live. Yet God is not absent. The call to discipleship with the One who has realized God's presence among us in the Paschal Mystery is a realization of a humility that is far removed from power, control and domination. We discover a humble God in the place of the poor because this is how God has become incarnate among us.     

Brexit,Trump, and Christ's Call to Discipleship

In March 2018 the World Council of Churches will convene a Conference on World Mission and Evangelism at Arusha in Tanzania to address the theme “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.” The verbs in the title give an important clue as to its meaning. It suggests an understanding of faith that is dynamic and relevant, provoking challenge and engendering change. This article seeks to sketch salient aspects of the contemporary global context that invite such transformative engagement. We are living through a time of rapid change in the “Overton window” – the acceptable range of beliefs and values in a culture at any particular time. This is illustrated by examining populist politics; fake news, post‐truth and alternative facts; the new age of xenophobia and racism; inequality and justice; and the earth at stake. Behind the forces driving the change in values are powerful vested interests that will not take kindly to being challenged. Discipleship is going to be costly. Deep personal transformation will shape agents of change who bring hope to a deeply troubled world. Disciples are called to carry their cross, yet at the same time, and no less fundamentally, they discover the source of infinite joy.     

Marriage as Discipleship: Luther's Praise of Married Life

Abstract : This article reviews the Luther's evangelical understanding of sexuality and marriage and its theological roots. Marriage is a demanding vocation. But while Luther speaks honestly about the perilous and painful challenges of marriage, he is also sensitive to the delights of love and courtship, giving beautiful expression to the joys of marriage.