This is the last post in our series on how to host small faith groups in your parish. I have been drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago, which gathered over 200 parishioners to participate in small faith groups last Lent. Today we look at what must be done throughout the season of Lent to sustain the small groups and suggest some post-Lent follow-up ideas. Week Before the First Sunday of […]
As we continue our series on how to host Lenten small faith groups in your parish, we turn our attention to the immediate weeks before the program starts. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago where last year, over 200 parishioners gathered to participate in small faith groups during Lent. Today’s post includes sample small group promotional materials that you can adapt for your own use. 5 Weeks Out […]
The liturgical calendar offers us two seasons of waiting: Advent and Lent. The Advent season of waiting in joyful hope for the birth of our Lord Jesus often gets overlooked in the rush to prepare for Christmas. Children are notoriously impatient (as are many adults), so Advent is a good opportunity to teach the value found in anticipating the big event. We do this by choosing activities that instruct them on the importance of waiting […]
In our continuing series on how to host small faith groups in your parish, today’s post calls us to look at training leaders to facilitate the small groups. Our model is a parish in Chicago that gathered parishioners in homes to participate in Scripture groups during Lent. 1–2 Months Out A critical step in ensuring the success of small groups is the training of leaders to facilitate the process. Invite the potential leaders to a […]
In a recent session, my class talked about being a disciple in the context of Ordinary Time. Since this Church season occupies most of the liturgical year, the discussion centered on how we can follow Jesus in everyday life. We focused on the works of mercy as ways to practice our discipleship. I set the stage by holding up a poster-sized copy of the liturgical calendar and gave a brief introduction to how we mark […]
We continue our series here on Catechist’s Journey on how to implement small faith groups in your parish. Today we look at the crucial step of identifying, inviting, and training small group leaders. This is by far the most critical step, since the small faith groups will conduct their sessions in parishioners’ homes, without parish staff present. This follows the successful model used by St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago last Lent. 2–3 Months Out Select […]
Today we continue a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay out for you the steps to successfully implement small faith groups in your parish with an eye on Lent as a target. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago, where last year over 200 parishioners gathered in homes during the season of Lent to participate in small faith groups. The success of the efforts at St. Barnabas […]
This is the fifth article in a series about the spiritual life of catechists, inspired by the list of characteristics in the National Directory for Catechesis. Have you ever met someone who was “on fire” for God? When you encounter someone who speaks about faith with contagious enthusiasm, that’s missionary zeal. It’s memorable—and contagious. Zeal is not a word we use much today. The dictionary defines zeal as “great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of […]
During these past few months, as I’ve begun exploring the world of adult faith formation, I have become convinced that one of the key principles of AFF is that it is most effective when it is relational. In other words, we can’t simply gather adults and talk at them—they need to talk to one another! With that in mind, I am proud and excited to launch a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay […]
Social media is a part of everyday life. According to the Pew Research Internet Project, 74% of adults who are online report using social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter. More interestingly, the data show that people who use Facebook get more support from their social ties and are half as likely to be socially isolated as the average American. The data also show that social networking sites such as Facebook revive […]
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