Discipleship Requires Practice – And Practice Requires People
The church was never meant to be a place people visit. It was meant to be a people who go. John Wesley understood this deeply. When he instructed pastors about their work with children, he didn’t tell them to wait for families to come to worship. He told them to go to the children, to enter their world, to attend to their faith through relationships, and to shape their lives through shared practice.
Wesley believed that faith is formed the same way character is formed: through habits, imitation, and community. Children learn by watching the people who love them. They grow when adults take time to be present with them. They flourish when the church becomes more than a building – when it becomes a network of relationships that surround them with grace.
Today’s research confirms what Wesley preached centuries ago. Barna’s studies on teens show that young people struggle not because they lack belief, but because they lack places to practice belief. They long for mentors. They long for belonging. They long for adults who will walk with them, not just teach them. They want faith that is lived, not just explained. They want companions for the trail and people who live by example.
This is where the church has an extraordinary opportunity.
If we want children and youth to grow in Christ, we must reach beyond our doors. We must meet them in the spaces where they already gather – schools, sports, community groups, Scouting units, neighborhood programs. These are not competitors to the church. They are extensions of the mission field Wesley expected us to enter.
When a congregation partners with a Cub Pack, a Scout Troop, a youth club, or a community program, it is doing more than offering space. It is offering presence. It is offering relationships. It is offering practice – the daily, ordinary, sacred practice of living faith together.
Discipleship is not formed by curriculum alone. It is formed by shared life.
Wesley knew this. Our children still need this. And the church is uniquely positioned to provide it.
The question is not whether young people will practice something. They already are. The question is whether the church will be close enough, present enough, and open enough to help them practice faith.
Opening our doors is good. Walking through them is better. Because discipleship requires practice – and practice requires us.
