By David Kilby| Correspondent

Sherry Weddell would like to introduce Catholics to someone: Jesus Christ.

On March 28, some 150 people came from as far as Scranton, Pa., Bridgeport, Conn., and from across the four-county Diocese of Trenton, to hear her speak in St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, Freehold, for her day-long workshop “Forming Intentional Disciples.”

Sponsored by the diocesan Ministry of Catechesis and Evangelization, the workshop encouraged Catholics to break the “culture of silence” and talk more about relationships with Jesus.

Weddell is the co-founder and co-director of the Catherine of the Siena Institute, Colorado Springs, which is best-known for its Called and Gifted Discernment Process workshops. The institute has helped 85,000 lay, religious and ordained Catholics from more than  100 dioceses worldwide to grow in the art of evangelizing, in gifts and vocational discernment, and in understanding the theology and mission of the laity. She is author of the bestseller, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus.

In the two years since she submitted her book manuscript to Our Sunday Visitor, Weddell has learned a great deal seeing people become the intentional disciples she invites them to become through her book and workshops.

Having grown up as a “fighting fundamentalist from Mississippi,” Weddell’s conversion story is a lesson in itself.

“I converted as a young adult in Seattle,” she shared, admitting she was thrilled about being Catholic, and reflecting, as a young adult, on the questions, “What does God want from me?’ ‘What am I going to do?’”

“Young adults,” explained Weddell, “are motivated by an experience that says God is real and living.”

She shared that some Catholics don’t realize they can have a personal relationship with God because their church leaders simply don’t talk about such things. “Catholics who switch to evangelical churches say they never heard about Jesus in the Catholic Church,” she said.

Such a culture of silence implies that the journey of discipleship hasn’t begun, Weddell added.

“Discipleship changes everything,” she said. “It’s the engine, the core of everything else we want to see happen,” such as stewardship, vocations and deeper parish involvement.

Weddell challenged the audience to set out to double the number of intentional disciples in their parish in five years.

To help do that, she gave a four-step plan to leading people to Christ – break the silence, use the name of Jesus, ask others about their lived relationship with God, and tell your personal story, as well as the great story of Jesus.

“Tools don’t make disciples. Disciples make disciples .... They need to know that Jesus changes us. They need to see change in us,” she said.

The core of her workshop, like her book, focused on five “thresholds” on the journey to intentional discipleship: spiritual trust, spiritual curiosity, spiritual openness, spiritual seeking and intentional discipleship.

She said a good portion of evangelizing requires building a bridge of trust, adding that Pope Francis is the master bridge builder in this regard. “Guess who gets to walk across those bridges? You and I,” she added.

When speaking of the threshold of “seeking” Weddell said she meant seeking Jesus, not just seeking God in some obscure way. She then invited everyone to go from the meeting hall to the church – where the Blessed Sacrament was being exposed – and contemplate their personal journey through the five thresholds.

Weddell challenged everyone in the audience to have two threshold conversations wherein they ask someone two questions: where they are in their relationship with God, and what question they would ask God if they knew they could get an immediate answer.

At the end of the workshop, Weddell showed a video of a young man named Daniel who told his story about becoming an intentional disciple. The audience had the chance to discuss his journey and mark its thresholds.

“I think her book is so insightful for the Church in the West,” said Matthew Poole, diocesan coordinator of Adult Faith Formation and New Evangelization. “She recognizes the root problem that faith is not [always] centered in Christ. When the starting point is Christ then it becomes an intentional act of faith rather than a passive cultural faith.”

Forming disciples cannot be about any single program, said Terry Ginther, diocesan executive director of Pastoral Life and Mission, after attending the workshop. “It’s that lens through which we need to see things. We can’t just point to 10 people to evangelize. It really requires all of us.”

Helvy Gonzales of Sts. Francis and Clare Parish, Florence Township, said she would like to see “more connection between the parishioners.”

“We try to welcome them, make them feel comfortable, make them feel like they’re in their own homes. The first evangelizer is our pastor – the way he shares the Gospel with us,” said Gonzales, who noted that while their parish is small, they actively encourage new members.

Deacon Vincent Rinaldi of St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, said he will look to implement Weddell’s ideas in his homilies, preaching more on the personal relationship with Christ as opposed to the events and activities taking place, “as well as my own interactions with people, whether I meet them in the church parking lot or the supermarket.”

To learn more about the Catherine of Siena Institute and its offerings visit www.siena.org.