Summary of Fruitful Discipleship: Living the Mission of Jesus in the Church and the World by Sherry Weddell

Where’s the fruit?

Fruit-bearing is the primary indicator that everything that Christ accomplished for us is actually reaching us, penetrating, and changing us. Bearing fruit is the sign that salvation has come to our house and is actually occurring in our lives. 40

Based on our experience to date working with 140,000 Catholics in over 500 parishes in 150 dioceses in 12 countries, I estimate that perhaps 3 percent of all the individual charisms and individual vocations that we have been given by God are being manifested and lived. 24

Being active in your parish is not a guarantee either. You and I can be very active in our parish as catechists, musicians, members of the RCIA team, or the finance council. We can run capital campaigns, serve as ushers, and help with parish festivals. But all that activity is not necessarily fruit just because it takes place in a religious setting. Fruit-bearing always emerges out of a growing relationship with God. Bearing spiritual fruit occurs when we act because we are seeking, however haltingly, to say “yes” to God’s love, grace, inspiration, or command. 43

For every one of us, the fruit we bear has a profound impact on our personal maturation and holiness as disciples in Christ. But your fruit also increases the evangelical capacity of the whole Church: her love and ability to bear witness to Christ. The mission and compassion of the whole Church is fueled by your fruit. Today’s “nones” and “former Catholics” are seldom interested in our insider debates but are really intrigued and moved by the fruit that Christians bear. The fruit we bear “reveals” the presence and the love of God. 47

But it is also true that the fruit that we were anointed by the Holy Spirit to bear but do not bear is a profound loss to both the Church and the world…. There is someone out there right now who is waiting for what you have been given to give, and their life, their spiritual and personal destiny, hangs in the balance. You may not have met them yet. They may not even have been born yet, but in God’s providence, you are the one. It matters that you say “yes.” 48

What are the consequences of our failure to make disciples, and to help those disciples grow to fruit-bearing maturity? What hangs in the balance?

• The eternal happiness in God — the salvation — of every human being on the planet.
• Lavish, life-changing, and culture-changing fruitfulness, pouring out into the world through the lives of the faithful.
• The emergence of the next generations of Catholic leaders, saints, and apostles: priestly, religious, and secular. And through them …
• The fulfillment of the Church’s mission and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in history.

Obstacles to Fruit-Bearing:

Dogmatic theologian Ludwig Ott summed up the interior dynamic of fruit-bearing this way: “the subjective disposition of the recipient is … the indispensable pre-condition of the communication of grace.” Infants cannot put obstacles in the way of receiving grace, but older children, teens, and adults certainly can. The obstacles that can block the ultimate fruitfulness of valid sacraments include:

• Lack of personal faith.
• Lack of understanding.
• Lack of a desire to live a new life.
• Lack of repentance.

Fruit-farmers, not just seed scatterers…

All Catholic leaders — ordained or not — are, in a real way, called to be fruit-farmers, not just spiritual seed-scatterers. Everything we do is for the sake of producing an abundant harvest. Sustained, intentional evangelization changes everything by enriching the spiritual soil of individuals, families, and whole parish communities. Making disciples creates the conditions that will enable our sacramental seeds, which are filled with the life of God, to germinate, grow, and bear a rich harvest of fruit that will nourish the Church and bring Christ to the world. 49

We stand at a stunning crossroads: millions are jettisoning their Catholic identity but simultaneously nearly half the adult population of the United States feels some serious connection to the Catholic Church. Every one of those connections is a potential bridge of trust across which we can walk as evangelizers to invite them to begin the journey to intentional discipleship, either by way of return (for former Catholics) or baptism. What an incredible evangelical opportunity if we have the will to take advantage of it! 57

Charisms

All the charisms are:

1. given by God: not chosen by us. So some charism are long-term, others are short-term. Charism are gifts from an infinitely creative God. Unknown amount.
2. for others: every charism is outward-focused. Individuals are typically given as few as two or as many as five charisms. 109
3. evangelizing in their own way because they make aspects of Jesus’ redemptive work visible and accessible to others. 102
4. healing, because they make the love of God present, and where the love of God is present, healing occurs at some level. 102.
5. super-natural: charisms have an impact and fruitfulness that goes above & beyond our natural abilities, skills, and purely human talents. The single biggest issue for a novice discerner is the critical distinction between charisms and your natural talents and abilities, or skills that you have learned. 106.

“A charism empowers us to be an agent of God’s mercy, love, beauty, truth, provision, and healing for others, bearing the kind of fruit for the Kingdom that is beyond our human abilities” (107).

3 basic types of charisms:

1. Founding: Involves a vision of how God is calling a group of Christians together to commit to a particular focus on the Gospel, a particular kind of Christian spirituality, a communal way of life, and a particular ecclesial mission. Discernment of this charism is an ecclesial reality. What is essential in a founding charism is that the gift calls others to a particular, stable, and communal Christian spirituality, a common life, and a specific mission.
2. Hierarchical: These are gifts that come with the sacrament of Holy Orders, such as the power to forgive sins, to consecrate the Eucharist, the charism of Infallibility,
3. Individual: Individual charisms are supernaturally empowered graces given to apostles who have a mission to bring the presence and love of Jesus Christ to a specific setting or situation. Charisms are whole-life gifts that apostles take with them everywhere they go. We are called to exercise them at work, with family and friends, and in the broader community, as well as in the parish or diocese. 98. Charisms typically begin to manifest within a year or two after a conversion or spiritual awakening. Charisms also tend to manifest for the first time when we meet the person or situation that needs the gift because charisms are always for others. 100.

Pastoral charisms: focus on the nurturing of people, whether as individuals or in community.

• Encouragement: Encouragers flourish in 1-on-1 spiritual direction or counseling.
• Helps: Helpers assist others in carrying out their mission.
• Hospitality: Those with the hospitality charism make others feel welcome & cared for.
• Mercy: Those with the mercy charism show hands-on, practical deeds that relieve suffering & restore dignity, alleviating both physical & spiritual suffering.
• Pastoring: Gift of shepherding groups of people.

Communication charisms: focus on changing lives by communicating truth.

• Evangelism: Evangelizers seek to share the faith with others — baptized or not — in a way that draws them to intentionally follow Jesus as his disciple in the midst of his Church.
• Prophecy: Those with the prophetic gift communicate words of God to others through inspired words & actions.
• Teaching: Enables others to learn info & skills that help them reach their fullest spiritual & personal potential.

Organizational charisms: provide the structure, resources, and vision necessary to sustain a thriving organization or group.

• Administration: Lead groups to achieve complicated tasks through planning, delegation, and coordination. Coordinate a group’s efforts to implement an existing vision.
• Leadership: Present a compelling vision of the future, gather a group for that vision, & then direct the effort of the group to make that vision a reality.
• Giving: Gives money & material goods with an extraordinary generosity so that the needs of others are met & God’s purposes can be achieved.
• Service: Service empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s purposes by recognizing the gaps or unmet needs that prevent good things from happening, and by personally doing whatever it takes to bridge the gap or meet the need. Special gift of recognizing unmet needs & personally motivated to meet those needs.

Lifestyle charisms: fuel a distinctive lifestyle and freedom for unusual ministry.

• Celibacy: A positive call to a particular relational lifestyle that carries with it the freedom to take on unusual vocations or missions.
• Faith: The charism of Extraordinary Faith empowers a Christian to be an effective agent of God’s purposes through a radical trust in the love, power, and provision of God and an extraordinary freedom to act on that trust. Involves risk-taking for God’s purposes.
• Missionary: The charism of Missionary empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s goodness to others by effectively and joyfully using his or her charisms in a second culture.
• Voluntary poverty: Voluntary Poverty empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s loving presence by living a life of cheerful, voluntary simplicity or poverty in order to identify with Jesus and the poor.

Healing charisms channel God’s healing and restoration.

• Healing: The charism of Healing empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s love through whom God cures illness and restores health when healing is unlikely to occur quickly or to happen at all.
• Intercessory prayer: The charism of Intercessory Prayer empowers the sustained, intense prayer of a Christian for others as the means by which God’s love and deliverance reaches those in need. Those who are given a charism of Intercessory Prayer tend to see remarkable — even miraculous — answers to their prayers for others on a regular basis. They have a tremendous confidence that God hears and will answer their prayers. They find praying for others energizing.

Understanding charisms are directed toward understanding the ways of God, humanity, and creation.

• Knowledge: Knowledge empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s truth through diligent, prayerful study and intellectual inquiry that enables us to better understand God, ourselves, and the universe.
• Wisdom: Wisdom empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s goodness through extraordinary insight that enables him or her to come up with original or creative solutions to specific problems and to make good decisions. Wisdom focuses on inspired, creative solutions to practical problems. Wisdom is all about the creative application of knowledge in order to better the lives of human beings and build the Kingdom of God.

Creative charisms are expressed through creative activity that orders and beautifies.

• Craftsmanship: Craftsmanship empowers a Christian to be an effective channel of God’s goodness to others through sacred or secular artistic creativity that beautifies and orders the physical world.
• Music: The charism of Music empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s creative goodness to others through writing or performing music for the delight of others and the praise of God.
• Writing: Writing empowers a Christian to be a channel of God’s creativity by using words to create works of truth or beauty that reflect the fullness of human experience and bring glory to God.

Fostering Charisms

To foster a charism with diligence means that we cannot be passive. We are to be proactive in cooperating with grace by putting time, money, energy, and resources into fostering the discernment of all the baptized, not merely sitting back and waiting for gifted apostles to spontaneously emerge. 186

The only way to discern an individual charism is to take action and see what God does through your obedience.

The Five Steps of Discernment:

1. Explore the Possibilities: Learn about all the charisms. Remember though, taking an inventory is not discernment!
2. Experiment: Choose one possible charism and experiment with it for a minimum of two hours a week over at least six to eight weeks. Exercise it for others.
3. Your Experience: Are you energized using this charism? Do you feel like you’ve “found your place” when using it? Do you feel joyful satisfaction sharing it with others? Do you feel the presence of God while using it, like you are praying? These feelings will not necessarily be present every single time, but they will definitely be characteristic of the experience of exercising a genuine charism over time.
4. Evaluate your effectiveness: Charisms always bear fruit. So, is it effective?
5. Expect & look for feedback from others: What have others said about this charism in your life?

We have been amazed to discover that the distribution of charisms in a given parish is often linked in remarkable ways to the needs of the community into which the parish has been inserted.

Your vocation is your shortest and surest earthly path to your ultimate eternal happiness with God. It is also the way through which you will have the privilege of helping many others reach their ultimate happiness. Your charisms are an important part of identifying that path. Your gifts are both clues to your personal vocation and supernaturally empowered tools that God has given you so that you can fruitfully accomplish your mission. 208

The overarching goal of parish renewal is this: to create a community where it is easier for individuals to become intentional disciples, live as intentional disciples, and make intentional disciples. – Bobby Vidal, 211

Retail Evangelization I once heard a shrewd Dominican pastor observe that because of our numbers, American pastors and parish leaders tend to do religion “wholesale, not retail.” We move hundreds through the sacramental prep and various catechetical and service programs, while telling ourselves that we do not have the luxury of attending to God’s grace at work in individuals. But “retail” — the saving work of God in an individual human heart — is the end for which the parish and the pastoral office exist. It is what gives “wholesale” its purpose and meaning. Our institutional trellises exist to support the fruit-bearing Vine — which is Jesus and his people. Without individual and communal conversion, very little fruit is borne, regardless of the structures you put in place. Parish structures do not bear fruit; they support fruit-bearers. 216