Have you ever noticed how Jesus disproportionately invested in a few close friends when he could have when he could have focused on trying to reach hundreds, if not thousands? That small group of disciples became a nexus for his teaching and training, and learned how to do life from Jesus. They shared an intentional life together and it changed their lives and the lives of those around them.
In a complex, uncertain world where many young people are struggling with or even walking away from their faith, chaplain Josiah Bokma has found a way to help students deepen their discipleship and be prepared to help other grow in their faith.
“Barely hanging onto faith and staying within the four walls of the church is not enough,” Bokma says. “Students long to be called into radical discipleship, where the bar is not lowered but raised.”
When he came to Redeemer, his desire was to directly invest in students’ lives, but he noticed the power gap of the chapel office and auditorium stage. Through his discipleship model, he has been able to disproportionately invest in students who are eager to grow spiritually, and also to watch the cascading effect of how what is learned spills out into the lives of those around them.
Students long to be called into radical discipleship, where the bar is not lowered but raised.
The program, known to students as Huddle, has grown to eight groups. Each individual group contains a leader, a co-leader and six to eight other students. Students typically participate for three semesters, first as a participant, then as a co-leader and then as a leader, helping to grow the number of total groups.
A typical Huddle meeting consists of prayer, a spiritual check-in with group members, Scripture reading and practices and postures of discipleship. Prayer takes the form of a psalm, simple gratitude and praise or silence. Checking in allows time to hear how God is moving and working in group members’ lives. Scripture reading often takes the form of lectio divina (Latin for divine reading), which involves hearing a passage read multiple times with prompts for the listeners to be invited into what God is saying to them. Finally, a practice of discipleship is taught one week, and the next week it is reviewed.
Rieneke Helder, a second-year kinesiology student and Huddle coleader, recounts a practice that was particularly meaningful to her.
“We talked about abiding, how there are different seasons of the Christian faith, and about the consistency of God in the midst of our changing posture towards him,” she says. The seasons of the Christian faith were likened to the four seasons, each one being different, and some more comfortable than others.
“In each season, there’s a posture of abiding that we can take regardless of what it looks like God is doing in our lives. It was so significant for me because I had been frustrated that there wasn’t necessarily fruit from my faith that I wanted to be seeing … We talked about the winter season and how it’s unproductive and uncomfortable.” She remembers the image of a blanket of snow and how much is happening underneath that you can’t see. “It feels like it’s worthless and really long, but it’s so important for all of the other seasons to have seasons of winter. As soon as that language was given to me, I could mark the moment that it clicked … and how much that affected how I saw my faith in the coming months.”
Isaiah Thornback, a fourth-year youth ministry and physical education student and Huddle leader, says he’s been able to have unique faith experiences that have set Huddle apart from his previous experiences.
“It exposes us to so many different ways to interact with the Word and pray in a way that just totally expands our friendship with Jesus,” he says. Thornback has benefitted from learning to listen more to what God is saying and to discern and process things in a group setting.
“There’s space and there’s strength; people need both of those. They need space to bring what’s hard and what’s really going on, and strength to be poured into them in areas that are difficult or where they’re growing weary’.’ He likens the strength found in Huddle to coals that are piled together and how they stay warmer longer than a piece of coal by itself.
It exposes us to so many different ways to interact with the Word and pray in a way that just totally expands our friendship with Jesus.
Before coming to Redeemer, Thornback says he was struggling to see his worth. “Through this experience, I’ve learned that God loves to work through me. It’s hard to see myself as worthy of that … But he’s been pleased to show me: ‘Isaiah, I am working through you to make a difference in people’s lives, to really help them grow and you’re a faithful vessel for me. Don’t undermine that. Don’t undervalue yourself.’ That’s something my heart really needs to hear.”
Thornback is grateful to have had the opportunity to learn and grow from the program. He references a quote by philosopher Dallas Willard that states that Christians shouldn’t just try to follow Jesus, they should train to do so. “Huddle is an awesome place to get the tools to do that.”