Is your initiation process “closed” for the summer? Try these four steps to get inquirers involved without adding a lot of extra work for your team.
- Invite the inquirers to come to Mass
- Invite the inquirers to parish events
- Invite the inquirers to parishioners’ homes
- Invite the inquirers to help with a service project
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Hi,
We have been having a year long process already set up in our parish. It has been going on for a few years now and we are improving on it each year. Last year was our best as we really have a program set up now that the inquirers/catechumens like plus is good for the team. But I wanted to share what we do during the summer that makes life easier for the team. There are several really good videos that we like to have them see but don’t have time to show when we really start getting serious during the year. So we have a session one week and the next week our session consists of a movie and discussion. From the feedback last year the movies have really made an impression on the people. We do skip a few meeting scattered throughout the summer especially during the holidays.
Thanks for sharing your story Sally! And thanks for your commitment to a year-round process. (Is there popcorn during the movie?)
We have been doing the year round catechumenate for 10 years now. It has been a wonderful journey. During the summer months we take a break from extended sessions, but continue with Dismissals. We extend the Dismissal sessions to about 15 minutes each week and that gives us an opportunity to make connections as well as encourage them to participate in events of the summer.
For our new inquirers we follow a mentoring process, connecting them with active parisioners to help aquaint them with members of the parish and invite them to summer events.
We continue to learn as we move through the process.
Hi Elaine. Thanks for your great suggestions! I like the mentoring process idea.