I believe that we have reached the final place that will require the most faith and trust that the Holy Spirit will have to lead us to move forward. It is, in my small opinion, THE key shift that needs to be accomplished. If we don’t make this shift, we will continue on the same track and there will be this ongoing effort to reach the adults we lost in the past because we didn’t form them right in the beginning.

Commit to Evangelize First!

If we would commit to evangelize first before we simply went through the process of teaching our children what it means to be Catholic, we would send our entire religious education process into confusion. Our wonderful cyclical system of catechesis would be turned upside down.

I do believe that God is a God of order, and that finding a systematic approach would be helpful to ‘Institutionalize” our efforts. However, I believe we have grown comfortable with our “system” that no longer achieves the disciples we desire. All the bishops are echoing the need for an encounter with Christ. Yet we view this as purely a programmatic effort for our adults – What about the children or RCIA?

Why are we not looking at our current religious education efforts and placing “Milestones of Growth” that must be achieved before we move forward? RCIA is an excellent example of giving adults or teens catechetical material and running them through a calendar cycle. We have no real intention to make sure that they have been evangelized. We simply presume that it is happening, just like we presume baptism ignites the heart on fire with love for God.

Questions to ponder for discussion

What would happen if we were no longer going to base our catechetical efforts on a calendar but on Milestones of Growth that we would need to see in place before we moved ahead?

Teaching by grade level is easy in one sense but people are at different places. Could we redefine who we teach not by the age of the participant, but by their current place in the journey to mature discipleship?

The Holy Spirit does some of his best creating in the chaos of life. Are we willing to allow this process to enter into a period of chaos and follow the Spirit’s leadership through it?

If we waited for true encounters with God before we moved forward, how would that change our focus?

Holy Spirit, come! Create in us a willingness to go to places where you will lead, even if we don’t know where it is.  

While I understand this to be a challenging transition, I believe this is THE shift that must be made. The best part of this transition is that we will restore the process to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Once we make this shift, it will force us to transform every other aspect of our programs.
In my next blog, I will provide an example of this type of transition. Until then, Come Holy Spirit and empower us to follow you!