It’s that time of year when many ministry staff and volunteers are preparing to launch or re-start initiatives, groups, programs, and more, as students and adults transition back from summer vacation season. Sometimes we can get caught up in the complexity or scale of our plans and forget our key foundations.
I’ve been reading Chris Wesley‘s Rebuilding Youth Ministry, and while the book is a great strategic guide for youth ministry, it has a straightforward clear message for all of us–from RCIA to adult small groups to kids faith formation and beyond. Drawing from Rebuilding Youth Ministry, here are six resolutions to help keep a more personal, discipling focus in your fall ministries.
1. Remember, the vast majority of people are “relationally driven,” not event-driven. Make sure forming friendships and relationships are an ordinary, intentional part of your ministry.
2. Never assume a particular point in one’s spiritual journey or baseline religious knowledge from any participants. Yes, the bulletin announcement may have read, “grow deeper in the faith through a Bible Study of John’s Gospel,” but the reality is that some who attend may be functional agnostics, others might have erroneous notions of “Church teaching.” And this is a good thing 🙂 as long as you stay away from assumptions and get to know participants.
3. Decide what’s important. What’s really important–you know, the aspects that bring people to relationship with Jesus Christ in his Church. Make sure it gets repeated again and again and again. As Wesley explains, “If you think that the most important truths anyone should take away from your process or program are ‘all of them’ then you need to know your limits” (p. 52). You can’t cover every glorious truth of the faith in one group, program, or parish initiative.
4. Teach and communicate spiritual practices. Use your time to grow disciples–followers of Jesus Christ who actively pray, who actively seek God’s will, who tithe and/or give spiritually–rather than just providing information without formation.
5. Get past terms with baggage. Who’s not into the “New Evangelization” these days? But for many Catholics the perception of evangelization is mysterious and scary. To overcome this obstacle, Wesley uses a simple, action-oriented phrase: “invest and invite.” If you can show your participants how to invest and invite, then evangelization will happen. When you encounter obstacle phrases, do the same thing–focus in on actions your participants can share in and do right away.
6. Multiply the ministry. You’ve got the qualifications and the time to lead your initiative alone. Should you lead it alone? Absolutely not. Who are you mentoring? What other volunteers are being formed for future leadership roles through your work? If your new fall program is extremely successful where are the people to expand the scale? Who are you apprenticing to continue the ministry when you need to address other priorities?
Yes, these are just the basics–but they’re essential, foundational basics. Take a look at the areas you lead or volunteer in within your parish and see if you can make these resolutions a reality this fall!
Copyright 2015, Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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