Discipleship Programs Facilitator
Discipleship is one of those words you don’t hear much outside Christian culture. It’s “church speak” for the process of becoming more like Jesus as we follow his teachings and are transformed by his love. Jesus wants to change every dimension of our lives — our words, our actions, our attitudes, and our character. The place we see discipleship lived out is in relationship: is our faith connected to how we live in the world with others?
As Canadian Baptists, we have learned that a vital part of joining God in his mission is about joining the Global Church in partnership — and partnership, at its core, is all about relationships. We build these relationships through generous hospitality, recognizing, exercising, and celebrating our unique spiritual gifts, and, above all, embracing one another in self-giving love. One of the most powerful ways I have witnessed this unfold is through the SENT ministries of CBM.
Relationships are built in these shared moments, where we form understanding and build connection.
A Shared Experience
SENT is an essential way that CBM seeks to foster deeper relationship between our Canadian Baptist family and global partners. How can we experience partnership if we do not know one another? SENT experiences bring together people within the Church to break bread, walk alongside one another, pray, serve, and share the struggles and hopes of life. Relationships are built in these shared moments, where we form understanding and build connection.
Jonathan and Nicole Storr recently returned from a SENT trip serving in El Salvador alongside CBM’s partner ABES. “I was surprised by how quickly a community can form,” says Nicole, reflecting on their experience.
“Just after two weeks,” Jonathan adds, “we wanted more time, because you meet someone, and you just want to keep that relationship going. The people we met in El Salvador and our Canadian team… we didn’t know them well before, but by the end, we felt like family.”
A Face to a Story
Throughout the years that I hosted SENT teams in Kenya, I witnessed people stepping out in faith to join others in a common work, drawing them into a deeper under- standing of being a part of Jesus’ body in the world — just like the Storrs. From hosting women’s groups in the slums of Nairobi to the Kamp Tumaini summer program with children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS, I was blessed to witness God bringing about change in the lives of both the local host community and the Canadian guests who came to serve with them.
As CBM Africa Team Leader, André Sibomana, reflects: “It is our human nature to want to attach a face to a story. We want to connect to one another. We serve people. We serve communities. We desire a continued relationship.” André goes on, “In 2008, a Canadian couple came to volunteer with us in Rwanda. This couple has now returned seven or eight times; they come on their own budget to visit families and people because relationships are important. Since Covid, they call me every week. It is our nature to love and connect to people. To know who we are praying for. The relationship is what is essential.”
Our Common Calling
When you read the letters of the Apostle Paul, the great missionary of the New Testament, it is hard to miss how each letter is ultimately about relationships: repairing broken relationships, encouraging deeper relationships, and centering relationships in the reality of Jesus. He calls out to people by name. He remembers their shared experiences. He reminds them of their common calling to Jesus and the gospel.
“It is our nature to love and connect to people. To know who we are praying for. The relationship is what is essential.”
Every opportunity we have as Canadian Baptists to invest ourselves, our time, and our attention in others is an investment in the Kingdom of God. Relationships take effort, intentionality, and time. And we all know that relationships are fragile. They require trust which is formed through abundant communication, forgiveness, and grace.
We Are Not Strangers
When SENT teams travel to be with our CBM partners, I am thankful for our staff team embedded throughout the world who are there to strengthen our journey of discipleship.
In Africa, Laura Muema is our SENT coordinator. For close to ten years, I had the great joy of working with Laura nearly every day in the CBM projects in Kenya. In reflecting together on the importance of relationship in our CBM partnerships, she shared these words:
“How long we serve, how well we serve, comes down to trust — the trust we build with the partners we are working with. They need to know that we care, that we are not going to market [their] problems. Trust is everything. If you join us on a SENT team, we will walk with you. You are in good hands. And that is true for the partners here — because of years of good relationships and navigating cultural differences we are not strangers.”
I am encouraged to be a part of a movement that understands how partnership is built on genuine relationship and appreciates how the slow and delicate work of building true Christian community is essential for our formation as followers of Jesus. May we continue to take seriously the words of Jesus, “They will know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another” (John 13:35).
