Discipleship Pathway

Our church’s mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Our Annual Conference, the connection of United Methodist congregations in Iowa, has set the goal of every church developing a process for intentionally forming disciples of Jesus by 2020.
At Salem we began this process with our Healthy Church Initiative consultation back in September 2013. We were given a prescription to develop a discipleship pathway for all ages. Therefore in 2014 we created and implemented a path for people to follow in order to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, to become like Jesus.
As an aside, John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement, defined a disciple as having a heart habitually filled with love of God and neighbor, and having the mind of Christ and walking as Jesus walked.
At Salem we imagined our discipleship pathway as a meal, offering just a bite, a more filling portion, the entrée, and dessert. Each part of the meal has it’s place. So we created a menu of opportunities to be nourished by Jesus, the Bread of Life, throughout the year.
We also created a central path within the path. It begins with a greeting at the beginning of worship and an invitation for newcomers to fill out the Connection Card and attend Connecting Point, a once a month gathering with the pastor and other leaders. This leads to the next step, Connect, which is a four-week small group introduction to Salem and how we follow Jesus.
This has been an excellent beginning, however, with some years of experience along with some new learning, we’re ready to revise and grow our discipleship pathway, the method for becoming like Jesus. For instance, in his book, Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World, Jorge Acevedo identifies four key steps in growing disciples of Jesus Christ: reach, connect, form, and send.
Reach — the intentional action to get to those outside the church. This is not attractional, waiting for people to come, but rather going as a missionary to them.
Connect — the intentional action to bring together, leading others to commit their lives to God though baptism and profession of faith. At Salem we want to revise our pathway to make sure Connecting Point and Connect does this, leading newcomers to not only connect with the people of the congregation but to also commit to following Jesus through baptism or profession, opening the door to a whole new life and experience.
Form — the intentional action to shape and nurture the people of the church, especially with the Means of Grace, to grow in our faith, to become like Jesus. Our small groups, classes, and opportunities to develop and practice the spiritual disciplines are essential for our formation and growth as disciples.
Send — the intentional action to go outside the church again, bringing the process full circle back to Reach. In doing so, however, we practice what John Wesley called the Works of Mercy to do good, make a difference, and transform the world.
Interestingly, this entire process is laid out in our 2016 Book of Discipline in ¶122 The Process for Carrying Out Our Mission. It says we make disciples as we:
—proclaim the gospel, seek, welcome and gather persons into the body of Christ;
—lead persons to commit their lives to God through baptism by water and the spirit and profession of faith in Jesus Christ;
—nurture persons in Christian living through worship, the sacraments, spiritual disciplines, and other means of grace, such as Wesley’s Christian conferencing;
—send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, being and becoming a compassionate, caring presence, and working to develop social structures that are consistent with the gospel; and 
—continue the mission of seeking, welcoming and gathering persons into the community of the body of Christ.
Our Leadership Board is working towards aligning our staff to accomplish our mission. This includes among others a new staff position, Director of Discipleship, to oversee this pathway and more.
The question for you to consider is, Where are you on this discipleship journey? Have you connected through baptism and profession of faith? Are you being formed like Jesus and continuing to grow through discipleship practices (worship, holy communion, prayer, scripture, fasting, small group conferencing)? Are you continually going into the world to do good and make a difference? Where are you on the discipleship pathway?

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