Sherry A. Weddell - Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus

The Path to Knowing
and Following Jesus

Sherry A. Weddell

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division

Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

Huntington, Indiana 46750

The Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright 1965, 1966, and 2006 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America copyright 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Quotations from Second Vatican Council documents, papal, and other Vatican documents are copyrighted 2012 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly.

Copyright 2012 by Sherry A. Weddell. Published 2012.

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All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440; bookpermissions@osv.com.

ISBN: 978-1-61278-590-5 (Inventory No. T1286)

eISBN: 978-1-61278-228-7

LCCN: 2012937407

Cover design: Lindsey Riesen

Cover art: iStockphoto

Interior design: Dianne Nelson

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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Writing this book would have been impossible without a host of men and women who have inspired, challenged, encouraged, and vetted me. Many thanks to:

• The tens of thousands of Catholics around the world who have generously shared their experiences of being used by God in the course of the Called & Gifted discernment process. You have opened an incredible window on the world of living Catholicism and given us a tantalizing glimpse of the river of Gods redeeming grace that flows ceaselessly into our world through the assent and cooperation of ordinary Catholics.
• The 1,600 parish and diocesan leaders who have shared both their struggles and hard-won wisdom during various versions of our Making Disciples evangelization training over the past eight years.
• Our Catherine of Siena Institute staff, teachers, donors, collaborators, and champions who made the adventure of writing a book in five months while spending two of those months on the road possible!
• The wonderful disciples and apostles who agreed to be interviewed or shared their evangelical wisdom with me in other ways, including:

Nancy Arkin, Rod Bennett, Dennis Branconier, Nina Butorac, Father Chas Canoy, Father James Conlon, Katherine Coolidge, David Curp, Bobbi Dominick, Barbara Elliott, Deacon Dan Foley, Father Ed Fride, Francisco Paco Gavrilides, Lisa Hills, Father Dennis Howard, Father Gregory Jensen, Corinne Lopez, Father John Maduri, Dr. Ralph Martin, Carol McGee, Daniel Moore, Scott Moyer, Father Edward Pelrine, Tom Peterson, Ellen Piper, Craig Pohl, Sara Silberger, Gaurav Shroff, Keith Strohm, Tina Terrant, Jane Twilliger, and Dr. Peter Williamson.

• Dr. Carole Brown, who let me read her insightful dissertation on evangelization in the thought of Blessed John Paul II.
• Mark Gray, at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), for clarifying some of CARAs figures for me.
• Roz Dieterich, who offered warm hospitality and her considerable organizational gifts to a near stranger, and who, with her husband, Henry, shared their experience of life at Christ the King Parish.
• The input and prayers of my band of Facebook friends, especially Tim Ferguson, who originally suggested the title, and Woodeene Koenig-Bricker for her editorial insight and support.
• The members of the San Fernando Region Evangelization Committee, who, under the leadership of Bishop Gerald Wilkerson, have been a catalyst of a remarkable evangelization vision in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Edward Arno, Katie Dawson, Ben Decenario, Yvonne Garcia, Frank Luciano, Sally Meyers, and Bobby Vidal.
• Sherry, who listened and prayed me through it all, and Jim, whose computer mastery triumphs over my technology anti-charism every time.
• My wonderful Evangelization Brain-Trust and other honored collaborators who ensured that this book would be rich in reality-based evangelical wisdom. God bless you. You know who you are!
• My dear friend Mark Shea, who shared so much of his extensive writing and editorial wisdom with me. You have thanked me in print in the past for helping you with a few of your books. I still owe you one.
• Cindy Cavnar, my patient editor, who managed the task of walking a first-time editee through a rather daunting process with grace and good humor.
• Father Michael Fones, O.P., who was not only my co-Director but my closest collaborator during the voyage of discovery that has been our work in parish-centered evangelization. God bless you, Father Mike, for your own discipleship; your spiritual openness, energy, and incredible work ethic; your sense of adventure and humor; and your great generosity and kindness to all of us at the Institute and to me personally. You kept me on my toes. I never knew what you might do next when we were teaching, but none of this would have been possible without you.

In 1997, Father Michael Sweeney, O.P., and I founded the Catherine of Siena Institute, a ministry of the Western Dominican Province. Our mission is to equip parishes to form lay apostles. Our working assumption at that time was that most Catholics just needed solid apostolic formation in order to discern and answer Gods call. We used the Called & Gifted discernment process I had developed as a way to introduce Catholics to the idea that they were apostles with a mission by virtue of their baptism. Over 65,000 Catholics priests, seminarians, religious, and lay have gone through the Called & Gifted process to date, in hundreds of parishes in 105 dioceses on 5 continents.

In many ways, however, this book began to take shape in 1993, when, as a volunteer, I taught the very first Called & Gifted Workshop to twenty handpicked people in Seattle. From the beginning, I offered what I call gifts interviews: private, one-hour, one-on-one sessions that help individuals recognize consistent patterns of giftedness. I would listen as Catholics told their stories of being used by God for others. In the early days, I did a considerable amount of nodding and making encouraging sounds, since I had very little idea of what I was supposed to be listening for. But I learned through experience and have since trained thousands of pastoral leaders to conduct these gifts discernment interviews.

One of these gifts interviews was remarkable for the fact that it drew the Institute into direct involvement with evangelization. In 2004, Dominican Father Mike Fones and I were teaching in a large Canadian city, where a pastor had asked us to interview a few of his leaders. I subsequently found myself listening to a woman who was president of the local Catholic womens group, but I wasnt getting anywhere. Her stories were so vague that I wasnt hearing any evidence of how God might be using her. Since charisms do not manifest until ones faith becomes personal, I reasoned that if she could tell me about a spiritual turning point in her life, I would be able to focus on the years since that turning point. So I asked her a question that I had never asked before: