Training to Be a Disciple with Dr. Edward Sri

Adam Wright:

We are so thrilled that we’re now in the month of November because that means we are one month closer to SEEK24, an incredible time for those in our listening area to gather as 17,000 — 20,000, dare I say, college students and more descend upon the St. Louis metro area for one purpose: to give glory and honor to God, who made us, who loves us, who offers us redemption and calls us to be saints. You may be thinking, “Well, Adam, that’s great. That’s just for the college students and I know a few, I wish them well. I hope they go.” But, no, SEEK 24 is for everyone, especially you and I who might be saying, “Alright.” And I’ll let you in on a little Roadmap to Heaven secret. When it’s you and I hear on the video, or I’m on the radio, it’s really easy to talk about our faith. It’s very easy for me to share. When it comes to the parking lot at school pickup and that parent that, you know, I’ve been thinking, “Maybe I should invite them to enter more fully into the life of the church.” Even I have trouble with that sometimes, and SEEK has the answer for us. It’s the “Making Missionary Disciples” track. We’re happy to have with us on the show today Dr. Edward Sri, who needs no introduction, to share with us about why this is so important for you and I. Dr. Sri, it’s so good to have you with us on Roadmap to Heaven today.

Dr. Edward Sri:

Oh, great to be with you and so excited to be coming back to St. Louis for the SEEK conference. You’re hitting it right on the head. It is so moving seeing the future of the church. You know, I think sometimes we get discouraged and go, “Oh, so many problems in the world, so many problems in the church, people are leaving.” And then you come to SEEK, and you see that young people all around the United States, and even overseas are going to be coming, so moved to worship Jesus, to grow in their Catholic faith, to worship Him at Mass and Eucharistic adoration, thousands of them going to confession. It is so moving to see hope, real tangible hope for the future of the church. And if that’s the only reason you came to SEEK, you just need to be uplifted to say God is still here. He’s still with our Catholic church. He’s doing great things. That alone is a great reason.
But, what many people don’t realize is that there are going to be thousands of adults from around the country also joining us. People are flying in from coast to coast. Whether it’s bishops, Diocesan leaders, pastors of parishes, youth ministers, Catholic school teachers, and then ordinary lay Catholics that are involved in their parish. Maybe they help with RCAA or maybe they lead a small group Bible study or they’re part of their men’s group or their women’s group. Or they’re just moms and dads that know that we have a great responsibility to pass on our faith to the next generation, and I want to do that better in my own home. We have thousands of adults that are coming to the conference as well, to participate, and they’ll go to the “Making Missionary Disciples” track as well, which is awesome.

Adam Wright:

Yeah. This is something I love about FOCUS. I mean, for 25-plus years now, it’s been an amazing mission that started on college campuses. But the formula, if we want to call it a formula, or the plan, it transfers not just to college students, it’s applicable in all phases of life. So for those of us who are in those post-collegiate years and then some, there’s still something we can learn about the model that FOCUS has developed that they they use on, I’ve lost track of how many, college campuses. Dr. Sri, I mean, that’s really what I’m coming to. The conversations with my peers are really, in essence, no different than the conversations the FOCUS missionaries are having with peers on the campuses. And to take an even bigger step back, no different than the conversations our Lord was having with the apostles, and then the apostles with the disciples, and those in the areas that they were sent to in the world. I mean, this is not reinventing the wheel, and yet it’s something that we all could spend some time learning a lot more about.

Dr. Edward Sri:

Yeah. So FOCUS serves on close to 200 campuses in the United States and eight more overseas. We also serve priests. So one of the things we’re doing is serving parishes. So priests in 53 parishes, assisting them in the work of evangelization, that’s been an incredible blessing. But let me tell you about the “Making Missionary Disciples” track. So any layperson can come. I know on Wednesday night, especially, is the night for Eucharistic Adoration. And if you can only come one night, you come for that night because it’s so moving to be with all these young people and worship and pray.
But if you can come for the “Making Missionary Disciples” track, what happens is: everybody goes to morning Mass together, whether you’re an adult or you’re a college student. We all go to Mass, and that’s just — you remember. I mean, to be in there in the dome with 19,000 other people. You know, 500 priests and 30 bishops. It’s just really moving to see the whole universal church gathered like this. So we go to our Mass together, and then we get to go to the keynotes as well. So if you love speakers like Father Mike Schmitz, and Sister Miriam James, and Curtis Martin, and many others. Like, you get to hear the keynotes with the college students. Those are great talks for I don’t care if you’re 18 or 80. You’re going to love those talks. They speak to all of us.
But in the daytime hours, after Mass, when all of the young people are going to go to their talks about dating relationships or chastity or whatever. We have the adult session, which is called the “Making Missionary Disciples” track, and it’s really for those that want to pass on the faith. Whether it’s formally in my parish, whether I just volunteer and I lead a small group, or I’m a part of a small group and I want to be better at this, or I just want to pass on the faith to my own children and grandchildren better. I want to learn the skills, the art of evangelization. That’s what we’re going to take a look at, particularly the art of raising up disciples, raising up leaders in our parishes, in our families, in our communities. Not just evangelizing, but how do I equip others to go out and evangelize? So I need to learn that myself and we’ll learn practical skills for our own walk with the Lord, but we’ll also learn how to pass this on to the next generation. So, it’s awesome. You can go to SEEK, to focus.seek.org, and you can go and there’ll be an option to click “Are you a college student?” “Are you an adult?” You go to the adult one, and then you can register for the “Making Missionary Disciples” track, and join us there at the Dome.

Adam Wright:

Yeah. It’s going to be fantastic. I mean, I remember the first Mass last year. We all walked back to the Covenant Network booth on Mission Way, which is going to be a great place to hang out, by the way, again this year. And we were all just in awe of, not only the Mass in and of itself. What more can you say? But then the reverence of everyone. The singing, the praying of the prayers after Mass, the fact that everyone was so deep in prayer, they had to come out and say, “Okay. This is great, but we actually do have to go to our sessions now. So we’re going to come back here and pray in a little bit, but let’s all get up and go to our sessions.” I mean, where else do you encounter that?
Now, I want to ask you about the impact that this can have because I love events, Dr. Sri. I think back to my involvement back in the day with the Steubenville youth conferences and going to those or even retreats with the youth group when I worked in youth ministry. I joked with my pastor the last parish that I worked in. I said, “Father, I missed the part of the ordination rite where they give you the appointment book. I mean, I saw where they give you the chalice, where they anoint your hands with sacred chrism. I missed where they give you this calendar because, I mean, you seem to live your life by that. It’s always full.” Father’s looking for help, and this is an opportunity for us to jump in and work in evangelization in discipleship in our parishes, and to get a little training before we do. And we say, “Oh, okay. Well, sure, I’ll do that, but is it really going to make any difference in the life of the parish? Is it really going to make any difference in anyone’s life?” Sometimes that voice of doubt creeps in, and I wonder if you could speak to that impact that this can have. If someone comes, they might be the only one from their parish, but then they go back and get involved in their parish. What’s the ripple effect like?

Dr. Edward Sri:

Well, I can tell you that we’ve been doing this “Making Missionary Disciples” track started in 2020, in January. So it was before March 2020 happened, and then we went into a blur for two years. But we did it there, and we did it in Saint Louis last year. But I’ll share with you some stories. I know people that have come, they’ve come with their parish, their pastor, and maybe a couple others from their parish, and they want their parish to be on fire. You know, they wanted to be on fire for the Catholic faith. They long for people that really believe and they see things, you know, like, where people are leaving, and it feels like my parish is going backward instead of forward. If you have that desire, you long for your parish to be transformed. You long for conversions, for Catholics that are truly committed to the Catholic faith, to all that Jesus teaches, and they’re so on fire for Jesus they want to share with others. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, if every parish was this great source of life to the rest of the world? But I think many people experience parish life as kind of like maybe we’re just holding steady against the culture, barely. And many people say, “I feel like we’re losing the battle in the culture. We’re losing people.” And they feel discouraged. I think coming to the SEEK conference gives you the encouragement because you see, if you proclaim the gospel and its great joy, people will respond. Young people will respond. Young families will respond. Young parents will respond. It’s beautiful.
But then what we’re going to do in the “Making Missionary Disciples” track is give you the vision and the practical skills to actually build a culture of transformation in your parish life. We’ve seen people who’ve come to this track that have gone back with their pastors and started implementing what we give you, and we accompany you afterward. We’ll do sessions that help you to carry out what you learn at the SEEK conference, but then they start leading small groups of their own. I know parishes that all of a sudden, they didn’t really have a culture of small group. And now all of a sudden, there’s all these little pockets of small groups that have expanded. It’s not just like, oh, the pastor started a bunch of small groups. No. The pastor encouraged the laypeople that came. And those lay people, not only did they start small groups, but they began training others to start small groups of their own. And so you’re seeing it multiply in the parish.
And that’s what we really long for. We really want to see a culture of missionary discipleship in our parish. If we keep doing what we’re doing in parish life. You know, we know that’s not working in most places. Right? And we have to be willing to realize the culture has changed. The people who come to our parishes are different than they were 20 years ago, 10 years ago. I’m blessed to speak with parish leaders around the country. They all tell me this. The questions people have, what their needs are, their brokenness, their hurts. They need a lot of help, and we need laypeople, laypeople that could go out and meet them in places where the priest is never going to be able to reach them. But every layperson knows their neighbor. They know the people in their office. They have families and extended families. They are out there like leaven. And if we can equip them with the right vision – I just want to be really clear – what we’re going to share with you isn’t like the FOCUS thing. It’s not about what FOCUS does. No. No. We’re sharing with you from the heart of the church. What the Catholic church is teaching we need to be doing now to carry out the new evangelization. And we’ve been blessed to work alongside many adults and many pastors and bishops, in the work of evangelization, and we’re just going to share what we’re seeing is working. It’s not rocket science. It comes from scripture, and it comes from the church’s teachings on the art of discipleship and evangelization.

Adam Wright:

I love that you talk about the importance of small groups because we mentioned all these great conferences including SEEK, the retreats we’ve all been to, the events we’ve been to, they’re great. I like to think that in between the lines, somewhere in the gospel, right after the transfiguration, at some point, Peter just turned to the other two and goes, “Okay. But now what?” Right? You know? And those moments, I don’t know about you, but they give me a little bit of gas in the tank to say, “Alright. All the hard work we’re going to do now out in the mission field, that’s going to sustain me.” It’s a wonderful thing, and the grace that God pours out in these events, it’s incredible. But those small groups, I think back to the gospel, Dr. Sri, that’s the model. The road to Emmaus, the original small group right there. I mean, so much witnessing can happen. So much sharing can happen. I also think of that passage in John 9 where the man born blind is healed, and they’re asking him all these questions. “Well, who did this? How did he do this? What gives him the power to do this? What happened here? What’s going on?” And he says, “Look, I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. What I know is that I was blind, and Jesus did this, and now I can see.”

Dr. Edward Sri:

I see.

Adam Wright:

And that’s an amazing little small group in and of itself.

Dr. Edward Sri:

Yeah. And I know some of the people listening right now are going, “Oh, I don’t know if I could lead a small group. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know enough theology. I don’t know enough about the Bible.” I want to be really clear. Like you said, that person didn’t have a lot of experience. The woman at the well is one of the first evangelists in the gospel of John, and she goes and converts so many people in that town of Samaria. She didn’t have any training. It’s not like she stopped at that diocesan workshop for evangelization. If we really encounter Christ, we can be an instrument. If we really believe Jesus makes a difference in my life, I’m living in relationship with Him, I can be an instrument that God uses. Now, we’re going to give you some practical skills to help you be more effective, help you have more confidence, really. That’s what this is all about and, again, it’s to share the “I want to be more confident sharing my faith with my 26-year-old that is no longer practicing the faith.” If you’re in that situation, we want to help you. If you have grandchildren that aren’t practicing the faith and you want to learn how can you be a better witness to them, come to the “Making Missionary Disciples” track.
If you long for your parish to be going through a renewal, come to the “Making Missionary Disciples” track at SEEK because we’re going to give you the skills to do that. Not only are we going to give you practical skills, that can be just talks. We’re going to give you hands-on experience where you can practice and get feedback from others. So it’s one of those things that you’re going to actually come away, not just go, “Oh, I got some good ideas.” But you’ll come up with some hands-on experiences, especially if you’re a part of those small groups in the “Making Missionary Disciples” track. But even more than that, I want to tell you one other thing we’re going to do. So each year after SEEK, Curtis and I lead an online Bible study. We’ll get a couple thousand people around the country that are watching, participating. But the reason we have a couple thousand people is it’s a core of a few hundred that are leading small groups.
So here’s my question. You may not know a lot about the Bible. You may not know Hebrew and Greek. You may not have a PhD in theology. That’s okay. Can you press play? Can you click on a link? Do you love people to invite them to this? Do you love them enough to invite them to a small group, to encounter the word of God, to encounter the person of Jesus Christ, and the great story of salvation? Because if you have love, and you can make an invitation, and you can press play, you can press click on a link, you can lead the small group. It’s going to be really easy because Curtis and I will be the ones — we’ll handle the content.
And then what happens is we’ll teach for about 30 minutes, then you break, and then we’re going to give you small group questions. So maybe the fourth criteria — Okay, this is a really tall order here. Can you read? Can you open an email and read it? We’re going to give you small group questions. All you have to do is ask the questions, and then you let the word of God and the Holy Spirit do the work. So you don’t have to be an expert. There are many people who have very little experience in pastoral ministry that are doing amazing work of evangelization because they love Jesus, and they love people, and they can facilitate a small group. So we’re going to equip you, make it really easy.
And, again, these are things you can lead in your own home. You can lead them digitally. You can lead them in your parish. But they’re great ways to bring souls to take that next step in their journey with the Lord. Their next step as a disciple. That’s what we want to do, that’s what evangelization is. It’s not complicated. Can you invite this person, concretely, to take the next step in prayer, the next step in their faith formation, the next step in encountering Jesus in the sacraments? Can you do that? That’s evangelization. I believe every listener, if you’re listening to the show, you can do this. Come to the SEEK conference. Go check it out at seek.focus.org and you can register now for the “Making Missionary Disciples” track.

Adam Wright:

Yeah. It’s really great. And, you know, here’s the thing. How often do you get to say, you want to come to this Bible study I’m leading with the help of Edward Sri and Curtis Martin? You know, how often do you get to say that? Right? Now granted, humility, knowing your place, and occupying it, I am great at hitting the play button. I am not a scripture scholar. I’m happy to go to the MMD track because I don’t have my MA in theology, and that’s okay because I can share the story of this is what Jesus has been doing in my life. This is what the Holy Spirit’s been doing in my life.
Dr. Sri, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to be with us to promote this. We are so looking forward to you and everyone else dropping into St. Louis to grace us for five days, and more so to what God’s going to be doing in that time through you and the team. It’s going to be incredible. You heard it here, seek.focus.org, and especially for the “Making Missionary Disciples” track, seek.focus.org/mmd. I was just on the site earlier today. If you click register, you’ll see, “I’m a college student”, if the answer is yes, you click that. “I am not a college student”, you click the other one. It’ll take you exactly to where you need to go. Don’t forget when you come down to SEEK, to come check out Covenant Network on Mission Way, we’re going to be having a lot of fun. You can play our catequiz game live, and that’s all I’m going to say for now because we’re going to be talking about SEEK even more in the coming weeks. But Dr. Sri, once again, thanks for being with us on Roadmap to Heaven today.

Dr. Edward Sri:

Thanks for having me. See you in St. Louis.