By Dcn. Ralph Poyo

At the feast of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, three thousand people began to believe
in Jesus Christ. Jesus, having ascended to Heaven, left the Apostles in the capable
hands of the Holy Spirit who would lead them into the future. Imagine being one of
the twelve and witnessing all those people coming to you and asking, “what do we do
now?”

How do you take three thousand people and

form them into disciples of Jesus Christ?

I believe that when we evaluate our parishes, it is true to say that we are more
dependent on programs to form the church than on the Holy Spirit. This disordered
dependency has led us to a place where our disciples do not know how to discern
the will of the Spirit, let alone function properly as a Disciple of Christ.

Jesus modeled the Apostles how to walk with new disciples.

He he gave them the Holy Spirit to form them.

We must move to a new paradigm of local church formation that seeks to equip each
person not only with the knowledge of the Church, but a working relationship with
the Holy Spirit who leads them into action. Listed below are some critical elements
that I believe are absolutely essential for making our discipleship training effective.

1.  They must be evangelized first. A vast majority of parishes still operate under the assumption that those Baptized have gotten all they need.

2.   Their new identity as Disciples of Jesus must be ever present in their new life in Christ. We have settled for Church membership rather than  active disciples.

3. They must be equipped to learn how to discern the voice and will of the Holy Spirit.  It is quite clear that we have done little to no catechetical work in this area.

4. They must be grounded in the fundamental disciplines of a disciple. – These disciplines, with proper guidance, help them learn how to discern the Spirit.

5. Focusing on their newfound love and hunger for the Lord, they must be equipped with an ongoing, lifelong process of learning the riches of the Church.

6. They must be trained in the processes of evangelization and training new disciples.

When a new believer is given these essentials, they are not just “told to be Catholic”, but also actually equipped with the vision, process, and tools needed to function as a disciple should.