You ask about making disciples and having an impact on society. Consider that when Christ charges his followers to go out and make disciples of all nations, he tells them how: baptize. He is neither establishing a sacrament nor endorsing a ritual. He is opening a door to understanding our relationship with God, a relationship immersed in a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of vision, a change of living.  And as can be said for every relationship, our relationship with God must be open to grow and mature through communication and in community.

Where do we start? We start, we always start, where God starts. First, we love—we openly accept our neighbour where and as they are. We do not judge. We do not charge with bible and creed. We merely, in Christ, respond to them. We stand open and vulnerable so they may experience, begin to experience, the God who stands open and vulnerable for all, the God in Christ whose arms are open wide. And we so stand knowing that God alone, not flesh and blood, causes one to say “Thou art the Christ”.

Second, when the time is ripe, when we are asked, we share our heritage of faith. We share it as our heritage. We do not argue it. We present it as the vision whereon we stand, whereby we are informed. We do not make of it a weapon or a threat.

Third, we must be prepared for that which this sharing may involve, catechesis. We must be prepared to answer questions, and answer them in the language in which they are given. We cannot retreat into doctrinal idioms or antique ideas if they will not speak to them who would hear and understand. We must not fear a challenge. We must not approach with dismally low expectations. Discipleship, like every other personal relationship, must with commitment be worked at and worked for. It must be a personal relationship, not the submission of a person to a program.

Fourth, we must be prepared that as the relationship develops it will need to be enfolded in mystagogy, an interiorizing of the basic truths and values, in living, in prayer. We cannot hide our sound and truthful tradition of the contemplation of and meditation upon the mysteries of our faith. Here, indeed, is the portal through which God confronts and communicates heart to heart. In a time when many are turning to spurious practices, to hide our own spiritual wealth is wickedness. We must teach that the heart of prayer and the true dignity of being human are to give thanks to God for what we have. All else will flow from that in its due time.

Fifth, we must keep in mind that we are not in the business of preserving any given culture, language, or set of theological or philosophical terms. If parts of our cultural heritage fail the proclamation of the gospel or obscure the love of God for this world, we must know ourselves to be free to put them aside. We cannot for the comfort of our own tastes hide the light of the world under a bushel, a book, a translation, or a tradition.

Sixth, we must keep in mind that the liturgy, the public rites of celebrating God’s word, the ritual enactments of the good news of God in Jesus Christ, cannot be an act in and for itself. Liturgy exists for humanity—to open us up to God and to the world, to strengthen us in faith and service. It is our public spiritual exercise not an object to be gazed upon.

You speak of making an impact. Consider this. If we take seriously that God lives and dwells within us and that through prayer of body, mind, and heart we are in communion (in communication) with God for the sake of the world, then we know that through us Christ still acts to redeem and heal humanity in our every move, transaction, breath, and step.

There are some who are want to argue that media coverage does not matter today any more than it did two thousand years ago when Jesus took a band of disciples to the edge of wilderness near Caesarea Philippi to ask them what the world was saying about him, that church is always a creature invisible to the public eye, apart from the wisdom and opinions of the world. There is some merit to this position. But at Caesarea Jesus is making inquiry about the world, the impact of his work in the world. The truth has, as does discipleship, many facets. The existence of Christ incarnate means we, like Christ, need to be in the world, in the media in which the world operates. We can, however, only truly, realistically, effectively be in the world in a way comprehensible to that world. That world does not speak or any longer understand the cultic terms of the church, it does not comprehend talk about divine humans, miracles, trinities, transcendent deities, efficacious sacraments. If we intend to reach out to the world and be understood, we must speak a language that can be understood and not our own, our beloved, our cultic tongue. 

In our being in the world we cannot exist as an enclave unto ourselves. We must work together with whomsoever is willing, be they another church, another faith, a government or a business. We need to put our money, time and energy where we say we have put our heart. We must be strong in advocacy to engage and en-courage government and business alike to move toward the radical changes for which the people around the world ache. We need to do this wisely. We need to be flexible in our efforts. Do we expand them, change them, eliminate them? What would serve, not us, not our committee, but the gospel best?  We must be willing to supply bandages and patches. But we must remember that not a few, but thousands around us are impoverished and broken, and that poverty of spirit vies with hunger and homelessness.

Lastly, we must be prepared to support, especially spiritually, those devoted few who are always at the forefront of all our labours. It is often easy for the most zealous and dedicated to suffer burn-out, or to develop a Mary vs. Martha state of mind. We need to keep in mind the biblical accounts of Israel and Judah and how often their downfall was their trust not in God but in their own abilities. Thomas Merton once mused that all the world might well be held in existence by the devoted prayers of a handful of souls. It is a hypothesis worthy of consideration.