What helps young Christians grow in discipleship? Exploring connections between discipleship pathways and psychological type

Drawing on data provided by 299 12- to 18-year-old Baptists attending a week-long summer programme of the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, the study explores the connections between personal factors (age and sex), psychological factors (introversion, sensing, feeling, and judging), and contextual factors (church support and challenges to faith), four discipleship pathways (group activities, individual experiences, church worship, and public engagement), and two indices of Christian growth (depth of discipleship and strength of vocation). The data demonstrate that psychological factors shape preferred pathways of discipleship, that perceived church support is important for growing both depth of discipleship and strength of vocation, that perceived challenges to faith weaken depth of discipleship, that the discipleship pathway of group activities is central to growing young Christians within the Baptist tradition, and that depth of discipleship is further enhanced by the pathway of individual experience, while strength of vocation is further enhanced by the pathway of church worship.