Making Disciples: Share the Vision
- Tanner Kalina
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
Part Seven: After hearing the Kerygma, the saving news of the Gospel, and making a decision to follow Christ, the person being accompanied needs to hear what it means to follow Jesus.
Editor's Note: This column is part of a yearlong series on evangelization, breaking down what often feels like a tall order into real, practical, actionable steps towards intentional accompaniment.
Ok! You were bold. You shared the Gospel with the person you’re intentionally accompanying. You asked them for their response, and they said “yes” to committing their life to Christ. LET’S GO!
…but go where?
This is where the meat of intentional accompaniment happens.
Once you’ve shared the Gospel with someone and they’ve responded with a desire to grow closer to Jesus, it’s time to be more direct and intentional in your accompaniment. A few things should happen next:
You should let the person you’re intentionally accompanying know that you’d like to help them grow as a disciple of Christ. You can say something like “I want us to help each other grow as disciples of Christ’ or “I want us to walk together in our discipleship with Christ.” Put it however you want to put it, but use the word “disciple” or “discipleship.” The person you’re accompanying needs to know that you’re not there to help them simply become a better Christian. You’re there to help them become a disciple of Christ. They need the vision and focus that word offers.
You should make plans to meet with that person on a regular basis. Remember, disciples were constantly with their rabbis. They went wherever their rabbi went. They walked in such close proximity to their rabbi that they were “covered in their rabbi’s dust.” This means that disciples were constantly with other disciples. They accompanied one another as they followed their rabbi. We’re called to do the same. Make plans to get together at least once every other week.
You should cast vision for what intentional accompaniment entails. The person you’re accompanying needs to clearly know what you’re working toward. There’s a big difference between trying to do something and training to do something. Trying to be a disciple of Christ offers a lack of direction. Training to be a disciple of Christ offers a clear goal and the clear steps to achieve it.
Vision is crucial when we launch into this phase of intentional accompaniment. As King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 29:18, “Without vision, the people perish.”
When someone accepts the Gospel and desires to grow closer to Jesus, they need to know what they're signing up for. Jesus’ disciples didn’t meander into discipleship with him. Because of how prevalent the Jewish discipleship system was in their culture, they knew what discipleship entailed, even if they didn't yet know the specifics of their rabbi’s teaching.
The goal of intentional accompaniment is to make disciples and, as I mentioned in an earlier column, a disciple is someone who intentionally embarks upon a life of conversion and, through that ongoing conversion, makes other disciples. That’s the vision we’re sharing.
And notice: your intentional accompaniment is not only for the person you’re accompanying. It’s for you, too. It aids your ongoing conversion. As they say, the best way to learn is to teach. One of the best ways to become a disciple of Christ is by helping make other disciples. Our faith is designed so that we receive when we give away.
Also notice: a disciple makes other disciples. This should be communicated from the get-go with the person you’re accompanying. They should know that following Christ entails obeying his command to help build his Kingdom.
In my time accompanying young men, I’ve found that communicating this early on leads to tangible results later. When evangelization is set as an expectation, it prevents confusion and resistance when they’re eventually encouraged to go evangelize.
When Jesus calls Peter and Andrew to become his disciples, he tells them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). From the moment they became disciples, Peter and Andrew knew that they’d be called to become “fishers of men.” They knew that they’d be called to evangelize.
Jesus gave them vision from the very beginning. As his little replicas, we’re called to do the same.
This is how we fulfill the Great Commission. This is how we not only go and make disciples, but also how we go and make disciples of all nations. This is how we “spiritually multiply.”
As we intentionally accompany someone, we’re trying to get through them to the person they will intentionally accompany. We have to keep this at the forefront of both our attention and theirs.
In baseball, the longest throw on the field is from the right field foul line to third base. (This is why the guy with the strongest arm usually plays right field.) The throw is so long that the shortstop will run out halfway as a “cut-off man” to cut off the right fielder’s throw and then complete the relay by throwing to third base.
But right fielders are taught to throw through the cut-off man, not to him. They don’t want their throw to simply make it halfway, to the shortstop. They want their throw to be able to get to third base without the cut-off man’s help.
We need to view our intentional accompaniment like a right fielder views their throw to third base. We don’t want to simply make a disciple out of the person we’re accompanying; we want to make a disciple out of the person they will accompany in the future.
Once we’ve cast vision, the nitty-gritty of making a disciple begins. More on that in my next column!
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Making Disciples is an ambitious, yearlong series of columns meant to equip readers with the formation, both theological and practical, to go and make disciples as Jesus himself commanded in Matthew 28. Through these columns, we hope Denver Catholic readers will join us in preaching the Gospel, so that in Jesus Christ all might be rescued and have abundant life, for the glory of the Father.
