But like the start of any other year, the resolve to be better than the past year is ever-present. Whether it’s to try working out or to be consistent in our times with God, the beginning of the year is a great time to change our habits and start anew - in a word, resolutions. With fruitful lessons last year that had common themes about endurance, patience, and joy even in trials and isolation, perhaps all is said and done about 2020.  

Without a doubt, the pandemic has stripped us bare to our limits—not only physically and financially, but also mentally and spiritually—as we braved through ordeals away from our brothers and sisters. While this brought some into faithlessness and despair, it has led many disciples to experience the wonder of relying on God’s power. All over social media, we have not failed to see disciples expressing their gratitude to God for the simplest things, and even for the grueling hardships, they go through. Though their faith was battered and bruised, these disciples somehow still proclaimed it for the world to see.  

In this light, someone described the past year as a “refining of faith”. But if we had already been tested to our limits in the past year, why should we still focus on getting stronger this year?  

As Rolan Monje, fondly called Manong, put in his sermon at the beginning of the year, we can imagine our faith in dynamic power. We go from strength to strength; rather than diminishing in strength, we grow stronger as we go along the journey. And it is only fitting that the young ones—more specifically, the Envolve Ministry or the ICOC Philippines Campus Ministry—lead the way by inspiring the next generation of disciples through a workshop, which was held on January 31st via Zoom. 

The day of the workshop started with the online worship service primarily led by the Envolve Ministry, and with the main message given by congregational Envolve ministry leader Loren Lee titled “The Stronger Path”. Using Matthew 7:13-14 as the main passage, he explained that the key to becoming stronger is the narrow gate, as only through it is where we can be disciplined and thus grow. He inspired young and old disciples alike, by saying that 2021 is the year not to play safe but to go towards the stronger path. 

Afterward, the workshop proper promptly started at 1:00 pm via Zoom. Following a brief but electric virtual fellowship as participants were coming in, Evangelist Ariel Lastrado set the tone and tempo of the workshop with his lesson titled “Radical Faith”. As a way to cope with life in quarantine, we have all naturally grown into habits that give us a sense of comfort. Unfortunately, this may have also meant our discipleship taking a backseat. Through his lesson, Ariel reminded us of our calling to deny ourselves and our unchanging capacity to give our all to God, only if we are willing to overcome ourselves. 

Christian Gonzales, more commonly known among disciples as Chrisbro, helped us visualize another step towards this radical faith by anticipating “Triumph Over Obstacles”. By making us write down our possible obstacles, he validated the possible fears we may have as we go out into the world again with renewed faith. Using Isaiah 41:10, he then implored us to overcome these fears by focusing our perspective on God. He explained that only through this can we overcome our obstacles and turn them into triumphs. 

As though these striking lessons were not already a wake-up call for our mission as disciples, Loren Lee followed the trajectory as the last speaker for the day by illustrating the imitable character of “The Envolve Disciple”. Simply and powerfully, he depicted the Envolve disciple as someone that lives with zeal. The Envolve disciple is someone that stands up for God, no matter how easy it is to conform to the patterns of this world. Loren further painted this picture with the help of the participants themselves, with activities and discussions per cluster in their breakout rooms. All these were centered on growing in evangelism and challenged us to live for Jesus in public and not in private. On the whole, these activities made disciples accountable to themselves and the people in their respective clusters to act on their zeal. 

The workshop ended with each disciple feeling closer to their clusters and vividly reminded of their mission as disciples. When asked about their takeaways from the workshop, Karmela Mariano, a disciple from Envolve Manila, continues to reflect on what she had learned. “After the workshop, the urge to just really talk about God to my friends felt a lot less ‘weird’ because I know that I should allow nothing to stop me from serving and giving my all to God,” she said.  

Now that it has been three weeks after the workshop, Alexis Arenas of Envolve Makati further affirms this answer. “By the grace of God, there have been changes in me and in the clusters. Worries and fears are still there, but we have been working out our courage and heart. Everyone has been motivating each other, making it less difficult to make changes,” she explained. 

Truly there is nothing like the fire and fervor of young people advancing God’s Kingdom, but these learnings also apply to every single disciple of Jesus. Undeniably, it’s easy to stay inside our comfort zones and to forget to deny ourselves with much uncertainty that lies ahead. But if anything, 2020 has revealed to us inner strength that we may not have thought possible, stemming from our very own faith in God. 

From here, we can only grow stronger.