Becoming a Missionary Disciple

As I look back on my faith journey, one of the greatest tools that helped me grow in my faith was being surrounded by a supportive community and having accountability partners. This is one of the many reasons I am incredibly humbled and excited for the opportunity to serve in this new position with SOLT as the Becoming Missionary Disciples’ Coordinator. I am serving with a great team of people to help bring this program to more parishes and groups where they too are given tools to grow in their faith and establish community and accountability.

Becoming Missionary Disciples is an evangelization program that has been developed by SOLT. Its goal is to help people deepen their relationship and love for the Lord and to encourage them to live that out in their daily lives as missionary disciples. It consists of 3 components: REVIVE: Encountering God’s Love, DISCIPLE: Formed in Holiness, and MISSION: It’s Your Life. Each of these offers a unique opportunity to grow spiritually, to experience God’s love in a new and deeper way, and to recognize the call to live as missionary disciples daily.

REVIVE aims to awaken the participant to the importance of a relationship with Christ and the Church and encourages them to commit to becoming intentional disciples of Jesus Christ.

Through DISCIPLE, we hope and pray that participants will grow in their relationship with the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity by living their baptismal call and to live as beloved children of the Father. In addition, we anticipate that they will conform their lives to Christ through the transformative power of an encounter with the Holy Spirit. We will invoke the intercession and study the beautiful example of our Blessed Mother Mary, who is the model and perfect disciple.

In and through MISSION we invite participants to meet in small groups of 2 to 6 people each week for Liturgy Prep. The group prays and reflects on the Sunday readings and applies a mission goal for their week as each person strives to conform their life to Christ by living the liturgy more fully in their daily lives. These Discipleship Groups are meant to support, encourage, pray for, affirm, and help hold members accountable in an effort to grow closer to Our Lord and to live the liturgy daily. In addition to the weekly meetings, we hope to offer additional resources, and gatherings to go deeper in the faith, and other support for those in MISSION. These will help participants continue to grow in their relationship with the Lord as we all strive to live our call to be on mission and bring Christ to those around us.

This fall, we are excited to be offering the DISCIPLE program at St. Anthony’s in Robstown, TX and REVIVE in Spanish in San Pedro, Belize and we look forward to more opportunities to bring the Becoming Missionary Disciple program to you. It is my prayer that this program may be a great tool for Catholics to grow deeper in their faith and find the community and accountability they need on their spiritual journey. If you would like more information about this program and how we might be able to help you to bring it to your parish or group, please check out our website at becomingmissionarydisciples.net and contact me at [email protected].

John McFarland is originally from San Diego, California. He has an MA in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and taught high school religion for ten years. John and his wife Caroline live in Corpus Christi, Texas with their four children.