Stanley Hauerwas once wrote, “Discipleship is quite simply extended training in being dispossessed.” That is to say, a disciple gives her whole life over to the radical, self-emptying way of Jesus. The call to discipleship means moving beyond simple religious affiliation into intentional, disciplined, and ongoing lived commitment to God’s mission of reconciliation in the world. It means moving beyond self-possession and losing one’s identity as a self-willed and self-serving agent; and, it means finding a new identity formed and informed by the cross and resurrection.
Growing up I recall feeling like there was a significant disconnect between pew-sitting-Bible-studying-youth-group-attending Christianity, and the radical discipleship I heard described in the gospels. I wanted to bridge that divide. So, almost five years ago, my wife and I decided to become missionaries to Taiwan with the Episcopal Church’s Young Adult Service Corps (YASC). We joined with many young adults from across our country and from every corner of our church who, like us, sought (and continue to seek) to make their faith real, to move beyond the theoretical into authentic lived experience. And, like these others, in seeking to be disciples, to join God’s mission out in the world, we too were transformed, given tools for leadership, and felt confirmed to continue following God’s call on our lives. For my wife, that has meant pursuing a master’s degree in public and non-profit administration, and for me it has meant seminary and ultimately ordination.
Valuing how I was formed by my mission experience, in the years following it I have tried to advocate for, learn more about, and work with groups and programs, like YASC, that are seeking to provide young adults with opportunities for discipleship in the Episcopal Church. Two years ago I was invited to participate in Trinity Wall Street’s annual Spiritual Formation Consultation where I met directors and leaders of young adult programs from around the US. A year later I started working for the Grants Program at Trinity Wall Street, and was able through that role to organize and implement that same conference on the topic of domestic young adult internship programs in 2009 and to work on granting to new programs in this field.
These programs offer incredibly formative experiences for young adults and provide the Episcopal Church with one of its most powerful tools for social transformation. Programs like the Relational Evangelists and the Micah Project in Boston, the Episcopal Urban Internship Program in LA, the Trinity Volunteers in Washington, DC, Resurrection House in Omaha, and others like them all over the US have been engaging young adults for years in the “extended training in dispossession” that Hauerwas speaks of. The various ingredients they provide including intentional Christian community, space for spiritual formation and vocational discernment in that community, and opportunities for service and witness out in the world combine to create a potent catalyst propelling their participants further down the path of discipleship.
At General Convention in Anaheim, the reoccurring theme emphasized in sermons and meetings, was that of mission. Our Presiding Bishop tells us that this is the direction of the Episcopal Church, deeper into the mission of God. If we read the gospels, we will find a clear connection between discipleship and mission. It was the disciples that Jesus first sent out on mission, and it is disciples that the Episcopal Church needs to meet God’s mission today. Young adult internship programs like the ones I’ve been working with, I am convinced, are raising up leaders in the church, both lay and ordained, who will be those disciples.
Learn more about the Episcopal Service Corps.
The Reverend Jered Weber-Johnson just completed a year of consulting with the Grants Program at Trinity Wall Street in New York City. Jered is Assistant Rector at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church and Episcopal Chaplain to American University. |
