One of the challenges of being quarantined is how to draw more seekers to our parish and our initiation process. Strategies for “marketing” ourselves are not different in principle during a pandemic than they are when life is normal. However, some of what we might have done in the past becomes even more critical when …
Let’s be honest—many of our parishes do a poor job of connecting with and communicating with their communities. Not just with regular their parishioners, but especially with those whom we want to attract and bring into our communities—our seekers, our catechumens, and our candidates. One of the inadvertent gifts of COVID-19 was bring this challenge …
Q: We have the people, support, space, everything needed to make a continuous initiation process happen. But exactly how do we proceed with the actual logistics of having people at different places, and how you speak to them individually but also as a group? How do you integrate new people without repeating yourself over and …
Q&A: Multiple seekers on the journey of faith—how to start a year-round RCIA
In a previous post, I talked about how all of the baptized have a vocation to accomplish the mission of the church. Our number-one job as RCIA team members is to form our seekers to be able to accomplish that mission. The first step in the process of formation is to develop in the seekers …
If you’ve been following this series you know we’ve suggested throwing out your syllabus and letting the liturgy and the liturgical seasons guide your catechesis. To wrap up this portion of moving to a year round process I’d like to offer a few more practical tips that can help you move to liturgically based process… …
Is your RCIA open all year-round? Let the liturgical seasons be your guide, Part 3
Recently, I met with about 120 RCIA leaders from the dioceses of Belleville, IL, Springfield, IL, Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO, and the archdiocese of St. Louis. Our agenda was to discuss the vision of the restored catechumenate and how that vision unfolds all year round; it cannot be confined to a few months of the liturgical …
If someone asks you about becoming Catholic this summer, don’t tell them to come back in September. You can start catechizing them right away, even if you don’t have a year-round process. Here are 20 ideas to get you started. 20 ways to catechize this summer — even if you don’t have a year-round catechumenate. …
20 ways to catechize this summer — even if you don’t have a year-round catechumenate
Parker Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach, asked teachers to name the biggest obstacle to good teaching. The answer he almost always got was “my students.” If we asked a similar question of RCIA catechists about the biggest obstacle to their formation efforts, I wonder if the answer would be “the catechumens and candidates.” …
Storytelling is the only way to make sense of having your life turned upside down and inside out. Think about your “Mary at the tomb” moment or your “Paul getting flattened by the Holy Spirit” moment. How are you going to tell others about what happened? How are you going to tell yourself what happened? …
Has this ever happened to you? You’re watching a movie or a TV show. Somewhere close to the end of the show, your spouse walks into the living room. He or she gets drawn into the show and asks, “What’s this story about?” When the show breaks for a commercial, you have two minutes to …
