At Iglesia Menonita Garífuna de Manhattan (Manhattan Garifuna Mennonite Church) about 15 people decided to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus.
They knew it would take a lot of time and effort, but they wanted to go beyond what they were used to and delve into what it means to be a Christian. They did this with the help of the Missional Discipleship Initiative.
Danny* visited the congregation on the day that Marvin Lorenzana introduced the practices of relational discipleship groups to the congregation; he knew he wanted to participate.
Lorenzana is the coordinator of the Missional Discipleship Initiative with Mennonite Mission Network. He was in the church introducing the Initiative in its pilot year among five Racial/Ethnic churches. Lorenzana challenges congregations to deepen their faith and become engaged with the mission of the church. He offers churches the tools from the Initiative as a structured approach for people to strengthen their faith and learn how to live faithfully.
“The goal is for each person to become more like Jesus every day,” said Lorenzana.
“I had recently converted to Christianity, and [the discipleship groups] made me grow in my faith,” said Danny. “I now see God’s purpose in my life and I learned not only how to be discipled, but also how to disciple others.”
The Initiative provides participants with the tools and skills they need to develop. The first phase focuses on the basics of discipleship, and encourages people to form regular spiritual disciplines with others. The second phase focuses on leadership development and mission through a group mentorship.
“Anyone who cares for the church should be involved in disciple-making because it’s the only way for the church to accomplish its purpose of transforming the world,” said Lorenzana. “There is a difference between disciples and believers. A believer goes to church, consumes the message, and then goes back home and life moves forward. A disciple is always looking for the next missional frontier and looking for their next assignment from God.”
Omar Guzmán, the pastor of Iglesia Menonita Garífuna de Manhattan, noticed how the discipleship group helped Danny.
“After 10 months in the process, [Danny] has grown in commitment to the local congregation as he has also matured in his allegiance to God’s kingdom and to the lordship of Jesus over his life,” said Guzmán. “As Danny continues to grow and develop, the clear expectation for him is that at the end of the one-year discipleship cycle, he will be able to launch his own discipleship group with two other people.”
Spiritual maturity for mission
Guzmán first got interested in discipleship ministry because Lorenzana helped him see what he could do to improve his church-planting efforts.
“He asked me if I considered myself a church planter, and I said, ‘Yes.’ Then he asked me, ‘How do you plant churches if you don’t develop disciples?’” said Guzmán.
The Manhattan congregation was already planting churches and going on mission trips, both locally and internationally.
“We were focused on missions, where the opportunities were opened to us, but this gave us trouble,” said Guzmán. “[In retrospect], we realize that the people we sent weren’t disciples; they were energetic people who wanted to work for God.”
By the time Lorenzana finished introducing Iglesia Menonita Garífuna de Manhattan to relational discipleship groups, the congregation was inspired by how much Lorenzana believed that the groups could transform the church. They were so inspired that many who had not originally signed up to participate in a discipleship group, wanted to be part of the program.
Shared journey
Small groups of two or three people are valuable because they motivate each other to meet regularly to discuss Scripture, share their week’s faith journey, and encourage each other to keep up with spiritual practices, said Lorenzana. The weekly meetings strengthen a person’s faith because they’re participating in frequent Bible readings and faith discussion.
Lorenzana practices what he preaches and encourages discipleship at the church he is pastor of.
One of the three discipleship groups he meets with includes his teenage son and his son’s friend. As the more experienced one in the group, Lorenzana can answer their faith questions, but he shares just as vulnerably as the young men do when it comes to the faith accountability aspect of the groups.
For example, during discipleship meetings, group members are expected to share about God’s work in their lives, and part of that is to confess any sins since the last meeting. So both the young adults and Lorenzana would share about how they’ve fallen short recently.
The process of cultivating discipleship is not easy. Some weeks, people aren’t interested in putting in the time and effort it takes to read from the Bible or meet with the group.
Lorenzana assists the groups with tips on how to disciple effectively, but each individual needs to make space in their life to grow their relationship with Jesus.
The vision is for the missional discipleship process to take two years of guided learning with a trainer. This includes the materials Lorenzana offers for the huddles, or small groups, and a regular meeting with the leaders who are implementing the discipleship initiative.
“I use the huddling model to guide the process, feed minds, and equip them missionally,” said Lorenzana. The huddles help leaders learn from each other.
The second year of the project has begun, and it’s open to churches throughout the country. Three regional groups of congregations are already working with Lorenzana. Some of the churches from last year’s cohort are also participating in the huddles with Lorenzana.
“For me, this [past year] has been a new season for spiritual formation, to think about how Christ did mission and how he worked with the disciples,” said Guzmán. “[These tools have] taken our church to a rich spiritual maturity. I see stronger relationships between people in the congregation, and they have a deeper commitment to God’s work, with each other, and overall with God.”
