Leonardo da Vinci is sometimes credited with being the first to say, “Everything is connected to everything else.” Whoever said it, it has become something of a cliché, but clichés become so because often they are true! And if God is the Creator of all things, then we should not be surprised. Of course, everything is connected.
Because of this, when I find words floating around in the church world with no obvious connection to anything else, I am always curious to see what the connections might be. So, how about these three: discipleship, formation, and catechesis: do they relate? And if so, how? Here’s my theory.
Discipleship means apprenticeship to Jesus Christ, learning from him the ways of God’s Kingdom, and growing like him as we do so. The word formation reminds us that this is primarily God’s work: it is God the Holy Spirit who forms us. Jeremiah uses the image of God as the potter and us as the clay being formed into a beautiful pot: discipleship is our choice to cooperate with the potter’s hands. And catechism is learning to use our minds to understand this whole process, to “love God with all of our mind.”
Our problem is often bringing these things together. For example, I remember my own catechism when I was around thirteen, being prepared for confirmation. The rector simply took us through the catechism in the old Prayer Book (by “old” I mean 1662, not the Johnny-come-lately of 1962), and explained it point by point. Not a lot of help with my formation in discipleship.
But I have come across some places where discipleship, formation, and catechesis came together—and the results were, well, impressive. See what you think.
Act Five
Back in the spring, I attended an unusual graduation night. Act Five is a Christian gap year for up to a dozen young people between high school and university. (The phrase “Act Five” is shorthand for learning the Christian way in today’s world). I have been involved in this program since its beginning, some five years ago, and have grown to have a huge appreciation for it.
What I especially like about this program is its emphasis on Christian discipleship as a thing which affects not only our “spiritual” lives in the narrow sense, but our social, moral, physical, and intellectual selves, our relationships and our life-choices.
The program has a holistic range of components: living in a community in a house in downtown Hamilton, where they pray, work, study, and play together. They provide hospitality for their neighbours on the street and for the wider church community in Hamilton. They intern with local ministries in Hamilton, where they learn to participate and serve and learn, and go on a week-long trip to Central America, to “serve and observe.” And they are taught the faith—catechism! The program is bookended by a canoe trip at the beginning and end of the program.
One young woman from our church’s youth group (well, to be honest, last year she was our youth group) did the program last year, and it was transformative.
Leaders in Training
When Deborah and I came to Canada in 1977 to do student ministry, our summer placement was at a Christian camp in Muskoka. If you know us, you will not be surprised to learn that we are not by nature “camp people,” but we finally found our niche in the Leader in Training program—and stayed there for seventeen summers.
Looking back, I realize this, too, was an exercise in the formation of disciples by various means, of which catechism was one. Here, too, the young people lived in a close community for six weeks. They received instruction in the faith—there’s the catechism piece. Part of my contribution was to teach eight sessions on a Christian worldview. Each teenager met regularly with a mentor. And they learned servant leadership: teaching camp skills and leading games for children, engaging in service projects around the camp, and organizing their own worship. Here, too, a canoe trip was an important part of the formation.
Again, many found it life-changing. It was not unknown for some from church families to look back and say, “I think that’s when I really made my faith my own.”
Campus fellowships
As I thought about these things, my mind went back to my own time at university, and the formation in discipleship that went on there. Deborah and I belonged to a large campus ministry of 300 or so students, studying everything from engineering to sociology and medicine. This was a less intense experience than either of the above, but over three or four years, it became pretty deep.
The components were similar to the other programs. Regular high-quality teaching in scripture, theology, and the Christian life, combined with prayer and outreach, helped us integrate our faith into our daily lives as students, whether in study or social life or recreation.
What about us?
But I hear you cry, these are all unique situations, very far from the daily lives of most of us. They all involve young people and long programs in unfamiliar situations. Most of us will never experience such things. Most of us certainly couldn’t manage a canoe trip!
Nevertheless, there are principles that we can incorporate into our lives. Indeed, what happens in these programs is really no more than normal spiritual disciplines compressed into concentrated form—prayer, catechism, service, and working with others in the Body of Christ.
So how are we doing in these different areas? How can we encourage them, in ourselves and in our congregations? They are the tools of the Divine Potter, shaping us into the image of Christ, if we are willing.
Formation and Discipleship for the Whole Person
Leonardo da Vinci is sometimes credited with being the first to say, “Everything is connected to everything else.” Whoever said it, it has become something of a cliché, but clichés become so because often they are true! And if God is the Creator of all things, then we should not be surprised. Of course, everything is connected.
Because of this, when I find words floating around in the church world with no obvious connection to anything else, I am always curious to see what the connections might be. So, how about these three: discipleship, formation, and catechesis: do they relate? And if so, how? Here’s my theory.
Discipleship means apprenticeship to Jesus Christ, learning from him the ways of God’s Kingdom, and growing like him as we do so. The word formation reminds us that this is primarily God’s work: it is God the Holy Spirit who forms us. Jeremiah uses the image of God as the potter and us as the clay being formed into a beautiful pot: discipleship is our choice to cooperate with the potter’s hands. And catechism is learning to use our minds to understand this whole process, to “love God with all of our mind.”
Our problem is often bringing these things together. For example, I remember my own catechism when I was around thirteen, being prepared for confirmation. The rector simply took us through the catechism in the old Prayer Book (by “old” I mean 1662, not the Johnny-come-lately of 1962), and explained it point by point. Not a lot of help with my formation in discipleship.
But I have come across some places where discipleship, formation, and catechesis came together—and the results were, well, impressive. See what you think.
Act Five
Back in the spring, I attended an unusual graduation night. Act Five is a Christian gap year for up to a dozen young people between high school and university. (The phrase “Act Five” is shorthand for learning the Christian way in today’s world). I have been involved in this program since its beginning, some five years ago, and have grown to have a huge appreciation for it.
What I especially like about this program is its emphasis on Christian discipleship as a thing which affects not only our “spiritual” lives in the narrow sense, but our social, moral, physical, and intellectual selves, our relationships and our life-choices.
The program has a holistic range of components: living in a community in a house in downtown Hamilton, where they pray, work, study, and play together. They provide hospitality for their neighbours on the street and for the wider church community in Hamilton. They intern with local ministries in Hamilton, where they learn to participate and serve and learn, and go on a week-long trip to Central America, to “serve and observe.” And they are taught the faith—catechism! The program is bookended by a canoe trip at the beginning and end of the program.
One young woman from our church’s youth group (well, to be honest, last year she was our youth group) did the program last year, and it was transformative.
Leaders in Training
When Deborah and I came to Canada in 1977 to do student ministry, our summer placement was at a Christian camp in Muskoka. If you know us, you will not be surprised to learn that we are not by nature “camp people,” but we finally found our niche in the Leader in Training program—and stayed there for seventeen summers.
Looking back, I realize this, too, was an exercise in the formation of disciples by various means, of which catechism was one. Here, too, the young people lived in a close community for six weeks. They received instruction in the faith—there’s the catechism piece. Part of my contribution was to teach eight sessions on a Christian worldview. Each teenager met regularly with a mentor. And they learned servant leadership: teaching camp skills and leading games for children, engaging in service projects around the camp, and organizing their own worship. Here, too, a canoe trip was an important part of the formation.
Again, many found it life-changing. It was not unknown for some from church families to look back and say, “I think that’s when I really made my faith my own.”
Campus fellowships
As I thought about these things, my mind went back to my own time at university, and the formation in discipleship that went on there. Deborah and I belonged to a large campus ministry of 300 or so students, studying everything from engineering to sociology and medicine. This was a less intense experience than either of the above, but over three or four years, it became pretty deep.
The components were similar to the other programs. Regular high-quality teaching in scripture, theology, and the Christian life, combined with prayer and outreach, helped us integrate our faith into our daily lives as students, whether in study or social life or recreation.
What about us?
But I hear you cry, these are all unique situations, very far from the daily lives of most of us. They all involve young people and long programs in unfamiliar situations. Most of us will never experience such things. Most of us certainly couldn’t manage a canoe trip!
Nevertheless, there are principles that we can incorporate into our lives. Indeed, what happens in these programs is really no more than normal spiritual disciplines compressed into concentrated form—prayer, catechism, service, and working with others in the Body of Christ.
So how are we doing in these different areas? How can we encourage them, in ourselves and in our congregations? They are the tools of the Divine Potter, shaping us into the image of Christ, if we are willing.
John Bowen is Professor Emeritus of Evangelism at Wycliffe College in Toronto, where he was also the Director of the Institute of Evangelism. Before that, he worked a campus evangelist for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. For over thirty years, John has been a popular speaker, teacher, and preacher, on university campuses, in churches and in classrooms, and at conferences, across Canada and the USA. His most recent book is The Unfolding Gospel: How the Good News Makes Sense of Discipleship, Church, Mission, and Everything Else (Fortress 2021).
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