As a young boy all I wanted to do was be a priest in the Catholic Church. I would practice doing mass, listening to confession, and serving communion to my very young congregation of brothers and sisters. As an altar boy there was no greater privilege than talking with a priest before and after mass. These servants of God were always kind, understanding, patient, and very human, i.e., tired, over-worked, and stressed out. As I began to grow in my faith and understanding of the Church I began to have questions. As one author said, I was pregnant with faith but there was no one to deliver it. My questions were not deep in nature but important to me, why would God create beautiful women then say you cannot marry them and be a priest, how could a man in Rome be closer to God than I decided I wanted to be, how could I be perfect enough to serve God? As I have gotten older I am better equipped to answer my own questions. Today, I serve God while being married to a beautiful woman, my relationship with God is my responsibility, and love and grace are the words that cover my imperfections.
During my life I have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit and felt His leading without really knowing who it was nudging me. Even when I was out in the world I experienced the voice of the Holy Spirit saying that I was to be in His house leading His people. Finally, after much nudging and prayer I finally responded to the promptings of God and went from being a believer in Jesus Christ to becoming a follower of Jesus. Each time I have responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit another transition has taken place. My goal is to become a disciple that gets so close to Jesus that the dust of His feet gets on me as I seek to follow Him.
Like me, there are many others in the church, Protestant and Catholic, feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit and like me they do not know how to respond. The church has been great at winning souls but we have not done a very good job of making disciples, yet, making disciples is the command of Jesus. If we had been effective at making disciples our communities would be transformed, poverty would be eliminated, the family would remain intact, the church would not be in turmoil, and the kingdom of God would be expanding. True disciples would rather serve than be served, they would love their neighbors and not condemn them, they would be doing all that Jesus commanded and finally they would be making disciples through relationships.
Our challenge today is no different than what the original disciples faced. The way to develop disciples is by developing relationships investing our time, resources, and gifts in new believers. There are many teachers in the world but few fathers. Let us become mothers and fathers to a generation of new believers helping them to respond to the nudging of the Holy Spirit.
