Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Adult faith formation: More than just the facts
Adult faith formation: More than just the facts
by Sr. Janet Schaeffler, special to The Michigan Catholic
Published November 13, 2009
Last month we asked the question: What can we do to ensure adult faith formation leads to being disciples in mission to the world? There are, of course, many ways. Here are just a few:
- Whatever we do, whatever the program/process (in whatever format/media we're employing) include the "so what?" question. What does this have to with my life? And not just my life, how does this impact the common good?
- Invite/encourage people to tell stories. Listening to others' experiences we become aware of the needs of the world.
- Signs of the times. Is your parish faith environment and your program/processes filled with the signs of the times? Do you listen to what people are talking about? What about their questions, needs and concerns? Do the weekend general intercessions reflect today's needs (or were they written by someone else four months ago)? Are the adult faith formation programs offered a result of what the learners have asked for, a reflection of what is happening in their life circumstances?
- Become a place where people gather to talk about their questions, their feelings, explore how faith relates to the challenges of the day. When something happens in the life of the parish, the community, the Church, the nation, the international community, do people first look to the parish as a hospitable place and the place to gather to explore with others their wonderings, their questions and range of emotions? When 9/11, the sex abuse scandal in the Church, the tsunami, Katrina, the ongoing war in Iraq, the Virginia Tech tragedy happened, did the parish respond by inviting people to gather for coffee and brownies, wine and cheese, soup and bread (whatever is comforting food) and a chance to talk about how they were feeling rather than a class on the theology of these events? People need, first, to talk about their feelings, their concerns, their worries. Then, the question can be asked: What is there in our tradition that will help us through these events, these incomprehensible challenges to our lives today? Of course, it does not stop there. What does this mean for the way I'm called to live my life as a disciple? What can I do? What can we do together?
- To invite people together when an event occurs is one possibility. What if there was a hospitable gathering every week or twice a month for people to come together for prayer and reflective discussion of whatever was on their minds? Depending upon the topic of discussion, the facilitator (or any participant) could always be encouraged to mention needs in the community/world where people could respond.
Some people might come all the time; others might come whenever they felt a need. When an extreme need surfaced in the community/world, a welcoming place would already be there.
- Use all opportunities (infused into all adult formation sessions: speaker series, parent meetings, Church bulletins, blogs, Web sites, your e-newsletters, 30-second public service announcements on television, etc.) to raise questions about things in your community, country, world that aren't proceeding according to Gospel values.
- In homilies, connect the call to serve, the call to be a person for others, to baptism and the Sunday Scripture readings.
- Revisit and stress the dignity, the call and responsibility of the laity in the Vatican II documents, "The Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World"/"Christifideles Laici," Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortation that followed the 1987 Synod on the Laity, and the U.S. bishops' documents, "Called and Gifted: The American Catholic Laity" (1980) and "Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium" (1995). "It is they (the laity) who engage directly in the task of relating Christian values and practices to complex questions such as those of business ethics, political choice, economic security, quality of life, cultural development and family planning. New situations, especially in the realm of social justice, call for creative responses. We know that the Spirit moves among all the People of God, prompting them according to their particular gifts and offices to discern anew the signs of the times and to interpret them boldly in light of the Gospel. Lay women and men are in a unique position to offer this service" ("Called and Gifted," No. 21-22).
- Use "convoy learning" (field trips)! Go to where the people, the needs, are. We learn best by experience. Put the learners in vans and go to visit, be with, and experience various needs and situations that are different from what people's daily lives usually hold.
- Invite people to do the do-able. Then we talk about being missioned to the world and think about some of the world issues and/or begin to study some of the justice/peace issues of today, it can be daunting. Some people's responses could easily be: What can one person do? Some people have all they can do to care for their elderly parent(s) and advocate for their rights. Is this not responding to human need, the human need where our life experience currently reveals God presence?
Some people who are homebound might feel they can't be involved in touching the world beyond their home. My mom was very involved in a telephone ministry of calling people weekly, people she did not know (at the beginning), but whose names were given to her to check in on once a week. Letter-writing about important issues of concern is another valuable way to be involved in making a difference in the issues of today.
- Outreach fair. Our parishes often have ministry fairs, highlighting all the parish ministries in which parishioners are invited to become involved, because of their baptism. These are important and need to continue. At the same time, do we have service and outreach fairs, since we are likewise called to be missioned to the world, to make a difference in someone else's life, in the life of our world? Various groups/agencies can be invited which provide numerous avenues for awareness as well as involvement.
- Parishes also do a wonderful job of highlighting, commissioning, and/or thanking the various parishioners involved in the ministerial life of the parish. Can we acknowledge also that parishioners have taken seriously their call to be of service in the world? The sensitivity in doing that is to realize that people respond in ministry in many ways.
- Adult faith formation is about much more than imparting knowledge. It's about transformation. One of the ways to do that is to enable the person to develop skills: skills for ministry, for service and for outreach. Incorporate those practical sessions/opportunities into your programs. Don't presume that everyone has the skills.
- Don't let your "programs/processes" (no matter what kind/format they are ... speaker series, online group, infused into existing structures, bulletin, Web sites, etc.) ever end. Give people ideas of ways to be involved with others, of ways to be of service. Link people with others, with groups who have like interests with theirs.
Sr. Janet Schaeffler, OP, is the archdiocesan associate director for adult faith formation for the Office for Faith Formation/Catechetics.
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