Nick Wagner is the cofounder and codirector of Team Initiation.
After “our team is too small,” the next-biggest complaint I hear from RCIA teams is “we don’t have enough.” Enough budget, enough space, enough training, enough resources. I learned a lesson about this a long time ago. My first parish job involved helping with a long-term church renovation project. The renovation took several years because […]
Is your RCIA team too small? Do you long for more help? Do you wonder why more people won’t volunteer? Maybe you need to think about smallness differently. There are advantages to having a small team. Once your team grows past a certain size, you might have to become more of a manager and do
Embrace your smallness: the advantages of a lean RCIA team
I was standing in a bookstore with my mother; we were looking at Bibles. Who knew there were so many? I expected to find “The Bible.” The choices between “leather” and “leatherette” alone were enough to confuse me. We also had to consider paper and hardcover, red-letter and family, amplified and…I don’t know. Quiet? And
What a Catholic nun and a group of Evangelical teenagers taught me about the Bible
Here is a simple process for helping your catechumens find their way around the Bible. If you would like to know more about the Bible, check out this webinar recording: “What your RCIA team needs to know about the Bible.” Click here for more information.
Finding your way around the Bible: basic steps for RCIA
Every RCIA team member is a leader. Catholics are not always comfortable in the role of leader, and we tend to defer to others. We say things like, “I’m just a member of the group. Louise is the leader.” Maybe Louise is the leader. But you are also a leader, or you wouldn’t be on
The neighborhoods around San José, California, are famous for their garages. Behemoth companies such as Hewlett Packard, Google, and Apple all started out in humble garages around here.The Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) didn’t sit around saying, “If only we had more help.” Instead, they said things like, “We’re here to put a dent in the
How to start up an RCIA process from a garage
When you vote for a politician, you are choosing him to lead you and your community. When you go to the doctor, you are choosing her because she can lead you to good decisions about your health. When you want to accomplish something complicated (for example, plan for retirement, decide to get married, buy a
How to discover the best RCIA leader for your parish
Sometimes I fantasize about being the RCIA Czar. I don’t really want to be a czar. I just wish parishes could get closer to the vision of what the Second Vatican Council had in mind when it called for the restoration of the catechumenate. Now you might be wondering how I know what the Council
Six things that are probably wrong with your RCIA — and how to fix them
During a recent trip, I looked up a parish close to my hotel and headed over there for the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass. Just before the opening song, a parishioner went to the ambo, welcomed everyone to St. So-and-So, and then read the parish mission statement. Mission improbable The statement was kind of long, and
Do your catechumens know your mission? Do you?
When I was young, my grandmother gave me a rolled-up rope ladder. She told me to put it near my bedroom window, and if there was ever a fire, I could use the rope ladder to escape down the side of the house.Of course, from then on all I could think about every time I
How to save your RCIA rites from heresy
