Julianne Stanz, Author at Catechist's Journey

About Julianne Stanz

Julianne Stanz is the Director of Discipleship and Leadership Development for the Diocese of Green Bay and a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Catechesis and Evangelization. Julianne infuses her talks, retreats, and seminars with humor, passion, and insights from her life in Ireland. A popular speaker, storyteller, and author, Julianne is married with three children and spends her time reading, writing, teaching, and collecting beach glass. She is the author of Start with Jesus: How Everyday Disciples Will Renew the Church, Developing Disciples of Christ, and co-author, with Joe Paprocki, of The Catechist’s Backpack.

Recruiting Catechists Who Evangelize (Video)

Julianne Stanz

Finding catechists who are evangelizers and see themselves as such is the key to a faith formation process that forms disciples. The below video highlights five aspects of the process using the word GIFTS. Read the complete article that inspired this video: Recruiting and Retaining Catechists Who Evangelize with GIFTS. Take a moment and ask yourself: does every activity in my parish point more deeply to Jesus? Julianne Stanz wants to help you and your […]

The Seven Ds of Discipleship - illustration of people talking

The Seven Ds of Discipleship: #3 Decision-Making for Christ

Julianne Stanz

This is part three of a seven-part series on discipleship. “Just make a decision,” I said to my two children as they were vacillating between two very simple options for dinner. If only all decisions could be so trivial! While some decisions in our life can be very simple, others will be pretty complex. This is especially true when making decisions in relation to our faith. In the last two parts of this series, we […]

The Seven Ds of Discipleship: #2 Discernment

Julianne Stanz

This is part two of a seven-part series on discipleship. In my last blog post, we discussed desire as a key to discipleship and reviewed a number of ways that we can keep the flame of our faith burning. We will now look at a critical spiritual skill to help us to grow as disciples: discernment. Being a disciple means that we must make the time to reflect upon our lives. Just as Jesus went […]

The Seven Ds of Discipleship: #1 Desire

Julianne Stanz

This is part one of a seven-part series on discipleship. In the past few years, the terms “discipleship” and “missionary discipleship” have become very familiar to those in ministry. But the concept of discipleship and mission is not new and has been a part of our Catholic faith for 2,000 years. The word disciple comes from the Greek word mathetes, meaning “pupil or student of the master.” The Master is, of course, Jesus Christ. Your […]

Forming Discipleship Among Your Catechetical Team

Julianne Stanz

Our parishes include people in all stages of their faith journey. While each Christian shares certain characteristics in their spirituality as children of God, there are differences. Every person’s spirituality is unique, because each of us is a unique human being. Differences can depend on education, formation, geographical location, age, ethnic background, and so on. Each of us is at a different stage of growth in our spiritual life. How can catechetical leaders accommodate catechists […]

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Handling Sensitive Conversations

Julianne Stanz

I will never forget a moment in my tenth-grade classroom when the students were sharing all the different ways that our parish family and our own families have helped us to grow in faith. During the conversation one of my students tearfully burst out, “You all keep talking about your mother and father! But my mother is in jail, and I have never met my father. The Church isn’t a family; it doesn’t care about […]

Engaging in Dialogue with Your Students

Julianne Stanz

“I know why many religious education programs at parishes are struggling and yet why youth ministry is growing in some of those same parishes,” my friend Sarah said to me one day at a coffee shop. “I’m sure that some of these parishes have various factors involved,” she continued, “but I have found a common issue in my 12 years of being a youth minister. It’s pretty simple too.” I urged her to tell me […]

Fostering a Healthy Conversation Around Faith and Science

Julianne Stanz

That young people are leaving the Catholic faith doesn’t seem to be “news” anymore as surveys continue to record diminishing attendance among the younger generations. What is news, however, is the age at which young people decide to leave the Catholic faith and the role that science plays in their decision to leave. According to surveys conducted by CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate), the typical age for a young person to leave […]

Retreat Ministry: Encounters with Christ

Julianne Stanz

Discipleship is a way of life and is not bound by the constraints of programs or processes. It progresses at a pace willed by the Holy Spirit. Time and trust are the currencies of discipleship, but when the time we spend with our students is limited to one hour a week between September and May, our ability to be present in their lives is challenged. Finding ways to connect outside the classroom with students and […]

Service as a Catalyst for Missionary Discipleship

Julianne Stanz

The corporal works of mercy play an important part in discipleship. When acts of service are planned to intentionally proclaim the Gospel and treat all people as if they were Jesus in disguise (see Matthew 25:34–40), they are a catalyst for initial and ongoing conversion. In her wisdom, the Church outlines a systematic and comprehensive process of evangelization and faith formation that nurtures conversion. This process of evangelization includes the following five stages. Pre-evangelization Initial […]

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