Intentional Accompaniment

Accompaniment means to intentionally walk alongside others on their journey of conversion. In this we seek the Lord’s direction through prophetic listening and remaining alongside them after conversion as they begin the lifelong journey of missionary discipleship.

Intentional Accompaniment is one of our main methods of working and has been greatly inspired and developed from the work of Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO)

The Some Definite Service volunteer missionary network functions through Intentional Accompaniment.

There are four stage of Intentional Accompaniment

  1. connection: getting to know the other person and their spiritual journey.

  2. discernment: helping the other person to discern God’s call in their life.

  3. conversion: the other person’s moment of conversion to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

  4. mission: the other person’s journey to become a missionary disciple able and willing to invite others to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Three Dispositions

DIRECTION

We need to know where we are going. Begin with the end in mind - are we heading towards initial conversion or towards a deepening of discipleship in terms of holiness and mission? Our direction, indeed our end, is relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally, in heaven. We want people to know Jesus and to know him better - to seek conversion. Depending on their relationship with God, the accompaniment we provide will be different.

DOCILITY

Once we have a direction in mind we need to be docile to the Holy Spirit and ‘check in’ with him to see if it is the direction we should be going. Are we open to the people that he is pointing us to? We need to have one ear to the Holy Spirit and one ear to the person in front of us. What are we hearing? What are we not hearing? What is catching our attention?

DETACHMENT

Finally, hold all these things loosely in your hands - it is the Lord’s vision and we work with him - collaborating with him. We try not to overshare or overstate all the thoughts, wisdom and ideas that we possess. Fundamentally, we need abandonment and attentiveness to God’s plan not our own.