Forming Intentional Disciples

The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus

By: Sherry A. Weddell

Narrated by: Nan McNamara

How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church.

Consider these statistics for the United States:

• Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing
• Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics
• The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010
• Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God

If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized - in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a guide designed to help Church leaders, parish staff, and all Catholics transform parish life from within.

Drawing upon her 15 years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads listeners through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world.

Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion; how to open a conversation about faith and belief; how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the great story of Jesus; how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship; and much more. And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.

©2012 Sherry A. Weddell (P)2018 Sherry A. Weddell

Outstanding!

An excellent book with many tangible ideas for Parish use. I plan to dig out my hard copy so I can make more notes and share them with our pastor.

The missing piece

Well written. Great ideas and steps to focus on others and to lead others to Christ. It’s not all about us, but reaching out and bringing others to the faith.

Practical, implementable advice for the Catholic church today

Unique perspective on the problem of discipleship today. Well read (except for the small problem of the pronunciation of the word “apostolate.” Kept driving me nuts whenever she would say it! Ha.). Challenging, convicting and important to hear.

Valuable resource, required reading

This book diagnoses a lot of the problems going on in the church today in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. It makes it clear what kinds of changes need to be made for a parish (and individual) to thrive. Personally, this was really helpful in understanding the process of evangelization in order to better understand how my approach has been wrong. It explains what steps (thresholds) must be met before you will be able to effectively pass to the next step in the conversion process.

Every Catholic needs to read this book!

sad to realize how bad off things are and yet great to see how doing things right can yield wonderful results.

Excellent Food for Thought

The content of the book set forth some inspiring motivation for all us to implement in our parishes. Be the change that you want to see in the world and this is a change that we desperately need. While the narrator had a quite pleasant voice, I just couldn't get past the large number of words that she mispronounced.

Important & worthwhile!

I found this both practical and inspirational.
I was especially moved by the stories and real life examples peppered throughout the book. Thank you and God bless you Sherry!

Learning about my Catholic faith.

This book has helped to guide my journey back to the Catholic Church and triggered my interests in participating more directly toward helping others find Jesus Christ through Catholicism.

Good information, needs update and better narration

Good information. The book seems to repeat itself many times, it could be shorten.

It needs to be updated for post post COVID.

Narration is monotoned and makes the book very hard to listen. It also makes you feel as though you are being talked down to.

Review

From all the positive reviews, and being recommended by Mark Shea from Catholic Answers, I expected to enjoy this book and learn from it. I was disappointed. If you are a Catholic who is enjoying the Springtime of Renewal of V2, this book might find a special place in your heart. My criticism is fairly simple: I believe that a firm catechesis in tradition is better than passionate, subjective enthusiasm. Author Weddell thinks Evangelicals have it right: it's necessary for Catholics to explore and articulate their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and for self-appointed laity to help them do that. I am sure there are many things in this book fellow Catholics will find helpful. There is some strategic advice that evangelicals can use to lure in new members. But as my agenda is not to form "intentional disciples" but to become the best Catholic I can be, this book is not for me.