The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
During Advent, we often hear the Gospel stories of John the Baptist, the one preparing people to meet Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, when the crowds showed up in the wilderness to hear him, they asked a question that lies at the heart of this season:
“What should we do?” (Luke 3:10)
They wanted to be ready. They wanted to respond. And John did not give them a complicated plan.
“Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. Whoever has food should do likewise.”
Before Jesus ever preached a parable or healed a blind man, John was already teaching people how to live with open hands and open hearts. Advent still asks for the same posture.
Not frantic activity. Not spiritual performance.
A steady, generous readiness.
Advent is not a season of waiting around. It is a season of preparing the heart and the hands for Jesus.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
If your family’s Thanksgiving prayer sounds more like a comedy sketch than a quiet moment of gratitude, you’re in good company. The dog’s barking, someone’s burning the rolls, and just as you bow your head, someone yells, “Who’s saying grace?” Stillness rarely finds a seat at the table.
In our family, I usually get the “voluntary” assignment to pray. (Apparently working in ministry means you’re forever it. It’s practically a job hazard.) Some years it’s sacred; other years it’s like being handed a microphone you didn’t ask for. Either way, it’s real life – loud, messy, and exactly where Jesus likes to show up.
Not long ago, a woman at one of our accompaniment sessions shared a story I haven’t been able to shake. She and her brother hadn’t spoken in years. Politics, religion, and hurt feelings had built a wall neither knew how to climb. Then, out of nowhere, he called. He wanted to see her. They planned dinner at her house.
She brought it up during the session and asked quietly, “When is it okay for me to talk about faith again?”
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- Written by: Cathy Lins
When someone has been hurt—especially by the Church or those in authority—trust isn’t automatic. Missionary disciples who want to walk with the wounded must learn how to accompany at the speed of trust.
Missionary discipleship often assumes that when we extend an invitation, people will accept. But for the wounded, that’s not how trust works.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
Do I speak up now, or just listen? Am I supposed to invite them deeper, or just keep walking alongside for now? Should I encourage them to take a step closer to Jesus, or just let God work quietly in the space between us?
These questions capture the heart of accompaniment-based evangelization. It’s a tension every missionary disciple knows: holding both a pastor’s heart that wants to care tenderly for the person in front of us and a missionary’s urgency that longs to see them take the next step toward Christ.
Holding that tension is not easy. It’s messy. It feels like fumbling in the dark. And yet – it’s exactly where God asks us to live. Both proclamation and patience. Both urgency and gentleness. Both moving and staying.
