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
If you are trying to attract inquirers to your parish, consider blogging. A blog will draw people to your community every day of the year, at all hours of the day. Why should you blog? Here are five benefits to creating a blog for your outreach ministry. Attraction. When you write about compelling topics and
Recently, Diana and I were leading a Making Disciples Institute for the archdioceses of Winnipeg and St. Boniface. We had been advocating, as we always do, that the RCIA teams move their catechumens and candidates out of the “classroom” and into the life of the parish community. One of the participants asked, “If we do
In a previous article, I talked about the fear that some seekers have when they find us and how we sometimes mistake that fear for sullenness. Our inability to recognize the fear in the hearts of the seekers inhibits our mission to accompany them on their journey of faith. Why is so hard for us
How fear builds walls in the RCIA process
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.”
The problem with RCIA formation
One of our most popular articles was one I wrote a while ago about how to improve what we say about RCIA in our parish bulletins. Almost every parish has something in their bulletin that invites seekers into the RCIA process. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who we are writing to in those announcements
Four ways to attract more seekers using social media
When you talk about your faith story, do you start with sacrifice? When people ask you about becoming Catholic, does your initial reply focus on sacrifice? When you describe the Eucharist, do you do include images of sacrifice? When the first disciples began to tell the story of Jesus, they began by talking about his
Can we still talk about sacrifice?
I’m going to save you $5,000. That’s how much 27-year-old consultant Gabrielle Jackson Bosche charges to translate the world of millennials into concepts older people can understand. Most of what she has to say, however, is common sense. Decoding the millennial generation Bosche frames her insights for the business world, but it is easy enough
Common sense ideas for attracting millennials to your parish
My friend, musician and composer John Angotti, recently led a retreat for a grade school near me. He asked the children if anyone wanted to sing. Liliah, a little second-grader, raised her hand and stepped forward. But then she got crippling stage fright and began to tear up. John picked her up, told her everything
This little light of mine — how to let it shine
A small dark-skinned boy, about nine years old, stood in front of the bishop along with his godmother and a dozen or so other catechumens from his parish. He wore a black suit and a blue shirt with a black necktie. He had an American flag pinned to his lapel. His smile lit up the
The tremendous and fascinating Rite of Election
