Many RCIA teams and catechists are rightly concerned with teaching the dogmas and precepts of the church to their seekers. However, recent research has shown that it is almost impossible to teach complex ideas or make meaningful decisions without engaging people’s emotions. In other words, seekers will only think about and remember ideas that they […]
Are your RCIA seekers awed by the faith?
A press release is a general announcement that companies and event organizers send to media outlets in the hopes that the newspaper or the radio station will give them some free publicity. When e-mail became ubiquitous, the old-fashioned press release morphed into something else — spam. I got a dozen of these spam messages in
Stop sending out RCIA press releases
As RCIA catechists, we tend to think of ourselves as teachers. While we are pretty clear on that, we tend to be less clear on what we teach. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults says that we are to teach “an appropriate acquaintance with dogmas and precepts” (75). But in the same sentence, the
Share your salvation story with your RCIA group
This is the last in a series of posts on the RCIA’s six keys to making lifelong disciples. If you missed the last post in this series, click here to read it. As a reminder, the six keys are: As you read through these six keys and as you read over what we said about
Six Keys to Catechesis for Baptized Candidates
This post is the fourth in a series on how the conversion process in the RCIA makes lifelong disciples. If you have not yet read the previous post on the third and fourth RCIA keys for turning seekers into disciples, please click here. In that post, you will discover how important it is to reflect
Two keys to RCIA conversion that challenge our existing norms
This post is the third in a series on how the conversion process in the RCIA makes lifelong disciples. If you have not yet read the previous post on the first two RCIA keys for turning seekers into disciples, please click here. In that post, we said that formation for discipleship is a gradual process that
Two keys for conversion in the RCIA process
This post is the second in a series on how the conversion process in the RCIA makes lifelong disciples. If you have not yet read the introduction, please click here. In the introduction, we said, “Our biggest challenge in RCIA formation is deepening the conversion of our seekers to such a level that they become
The first two RCIA steps for turning seekers into disciples
Our biggest challenge in RCIA formation is deepening the conversion of our seekers to such a level that they become lifelong disciples of Christ. This task is so mysterious and so overwhelming that we sometimes give in to temptation. The temptation is to tell ourselves that it is up to the Holy Spirit, not us,
RCIA’s six keys to making lifelong disciples
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
At a recent Making Disciples Institute, Diana and I were making the point that the encounter of a seeker with the mystery of Christ is first of all an emotional experience. The Holy Spirit moves the heart of the seeker, causing her to be restless and to long for something that she cannot yet name.
For RCIA to be effective, it has to be affective
