STEUBENVILLE, OH—“Go and make disciples of all nations,” Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew. To assist Catholics in answering this call, the Christian Outreach Office of Franciscan University of Steubenville recently announced the launch of Discipleship Quads, an initiative designed to lead groups of four people through a year-long journey of discipleship.

The groups meet weekly and share in prayer, fellowship, learning, and accountability. The Christian Outreach Office, which organizes Steubenville Conferences, offers the program free of charge.

While the entire Christian Outreach Team participated in the development and testing process, Mark Joseph, executive director of the Christian Outreach Office, spearheaded the project with Kristi Scheerbaum, who worked for the Christian Outreach for nine years. In her current role as consultant, Scheerbaum oversaw the research for the project.

According to Joseph, “The Catholic Church needs disciples who are answering the call. But without true friendships, accountability, and genuine conversations, many Catholics find this difficult.”

Scheerbaum says, “At the end of the year, the goal is that each person would be sent forth to start his or her own Discipleship Quad with three other people, therefore continuing the discipleship chain.

“A disciple is a person who has responded to God’s grace of conversion, is committed to living a life of faith as taught to us by Jesus, and is further committed to sharing their life of faith with others so as to equip them to go and make other disciples.” Scheerbaum researched over 50 organizations to find a model that produced disciples that make other disciples (spiritual multiplication) and that had been working over a long period of time. In her 18 months of research, she found that the micro-group model was most effective.

Dr. Bob Rice, professor of Catechetics and director of the Master of Arts in Catechetics and Evangelization at Franciscan University, wrote the lessons provided in the Discipleship Quad Guidebook. Designed to take about 12 months, the program rotates facilitation among the members so that each person feels confident to go out and form a new group of his or her own.

Based on the research, Discipleship Quads will help people live the lives of disciples, which includes making other disciples. All the program materials, including the starter kit and guidebook, can be downloaded for free at the Discipleship Quad homepage.