Frustrated with lack of adult formation available at my parish

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After years (10) of being involved in Religious Education as a catechist at my parish and most recently as a “mentor” (a.k.a. small group leader) in our confirmation preparation program, I feel strongly that the only way for the children to be excited and involved is to continuously offer life-long education opportunities for the adults in their lives. How can we expect the children to be serious and prayerful about receiving the sacraments when they have not experienced prayer in their home, do not attend Mass regularly…etc.

I am wondering what other parishes/individuals have done to begin an adult education program?..was/is it successful?..what obstacles did you experience.

Thanks for any advice you have to share!!
 
After years (10) of being involved in Religious Education as a catechist at my parish and most recently as a “mentor” (a.k.a. small group leader) in our confirmation preparation program, I feel strongly that the only way for the children to be excited and involved is to continuously offer life-long education opportunities for the adults in their lives. How can we expect the children to be serious and prayerful about receiving the sacraments when they have not experienced prayer in their home, do not attend Mass regularly…etc.

I am wondering what other parishes/individuals have done to begin an adult education program?..was/is it successful?..what obstacles did you experience.

Thanks for any advice you have to share!!
First we formed an Adult Faith Formation Team. The purpose of the team is to gather information and then to discuss what type of programs to offer each year and to make suggestions and implement the offerings. We started with a parish wide survey asking what kind of things people would like to see offered, the best days and times for classes or lectures, and also the amount of religious education they have had already.

This helped us focus our efforts. We now have an extensive adult education program with at least three 5 or 6 week courses a year, ongoing Bible study, a book club, several theological lectures a year, a few lectures of parenting issues, days of recollection, workshops on prayer, video series and individual videos on different topics (last year we showed Christopher West’s 8 session DVD on the Theology of the Body). We also are in charge of the magazine and pamphlet rack and started a parish library. We also help decide who will do our yearly parish mission. We are also considering doing something like Disciples in Mission. The pastor comes to most of our meetings and we have some very good discussions. The members of the committee are varied but we have yet to get some young adults or even those in their 30’s to join. These are the ones who don’t seem to be interested in coming to any of our programs except the parenting ones.
 
the first move should be to poll the parish and find out where the need is, what people want, what they will pay for (if necessary) before you spend money on books and videos that will not be used. We have been advertising a bible study to begin next month for 4 weeks in the bulletin, to CCD families, from the pulpit, at parish events, and have not one response. Even those who checked “bible study” on the October survery say they can’t or won’t attend. I purchases a case of the new adult catechism because our poll said the number one desire was for a course on doctrine, not one taker, fortunately we use them for RCIA so I did not misspend that money.

I have tried everything, and am ready to give up, and stick to my job, which is formation of catechists, and sessions for parents, and keep them open to the parish, as we do now.
 
the first move should be to poll the parish and find out where the need is, what people want, what they will pay for (if necessary) before you spend money on books and videos that will not be used. We have been advertising a bible study to begin next month for 4 weeks in the bulletin, to CCD families, from the pulpit, at parish events, and have not one response. Even those who checked “bible study” on the October survery say they can’t or won’t attend. I purchases a case of the new adult catechism because our poll said the number one desire was for a course on doctrine, not one taker, fortunately we use them for RCIA so I did not misspend that money.

I have tried everything, and am ready to give up, and stick to my job, which is formation of catechists, and sessions for parents, and keep them open to the parish, as we do now.
We have the same problem. Even though we have a great program, not a large number particiapate. Those who do really like it and keep coming back. I think that people want to learn but are so stretched with obligations that they can’t find the time. Our team is looking into other ways of getting information to people. I started writing really short articles in the bulletin on Catholic traditions. I also have a question of the week and put the answer in the following week’s bulletin. We are also exploring things we can do online, similar to what the colleges do with Blackboard or other online courses. The difficult part with that is it is time consuming for the instructor, but it might be the key to getting young adults involved.
 
Fr. Corapi said the key to catechesis is intense prayer, fasting, Adoration, and relying on our Lady.

Perhaps, your first course of action would be to recruit a prayer team to do a novena.
 
My parish offers Adult Bible Study and Catechisis during CCD. I don’t know what program they use, because I have been unable to attend. I place on catching the new classes starting at the beginning of the year.

Our CCD is done between the 830am Mass and the 1115am Mass to ensure that everyone who goes to CCD/Bible Study gets to Mass.
 
I’ll suggest Family Life’s “Homebuilder’s Series.” It’s a series of bible studies centered on Christ Centered Marriages. Although it doesn’t incorporate Catholic Liturgical subjects, it does provide biblically based, practical information on issues that help build Christ centered marraiges.

We’ve found it a very good outreach tool. You can invite friends and neighbors not currently involved with a local church and use this study to get them involved in the local church.
 
OP is an experienced catechist and quite likely competent to lead a bible study that comes with a facilitator guide, or a CCC study course or something similar for adults. Come up with a proposal, ask to advertise to assess and generate interest and offer to put on a short term 6-8 week program as an experiment. Hopefully you will be able to convince the pastor that more is needed and wanted. could it be that your perception is a sign it is time to move into this area for your ministry?

(I should warn you, asking pointed questions like that is how I recruited the people we now have doing programs for adults in apologetics, bible study, RCIA, Confirmation, sacramental prep, moral issues, and Spanish language course on Creed and Commandments.)
 
After years (10) of being involved in Religious Education as a catechist at my parish and most recently as a “mentor” (a.k.a. small group leader) in our confirmation preparation program, I feel strongly that the only way for the children to be excited and involved is to continuously offer life-long education opportunities for the adults in their lives. How can we expect the children to be serious and prayerful about receiving the sacraments when they have not experienced prayer in their home, do not attend Mass regularly…etc.

I am wondering what other parishes/individuals have done to begin an adult education program?..was/is it successful?..what obstacles did you experience.

Thanks for any advice you have to share!!
**Totally agree. My thought for my own parish and catechism classes are that
  1. The parent must parttake in some class related to their child’s
  2. The educaters must also have taken classes
  3. & Give the parents information
one and two might seem a little far fetched for most people since their “too busy” for their own faith but have plenty of time for everything else…
BUT
My family is working hard at the distribution of educational dvd’s and pamphlets of Catholic information. Why we celebrate mass, what it means, and plenty of other things about our faith. But it takes volunteers, so, the more people involved in getting people involved would benefit the whole.
Good luck and God bless**
 
Oh, and a little rant on the same subject,
I find it utterly embarrasing on the lack of participation in Church. For a settlement campaign for the families of molested victims, thousands of families in my own parish (one of the largest) couldn’t come up with $600,000 in months but a Baptist church could come up with 4 mil in exponentially less time. Maybe we should do like the Mormons, door to door. It’s so sad how lazy and unwilling some Catholics are.
 
Oh, and a little rant on the same subject,
I find it utterly embarrasing on the lack of participation in Church. For a settlement campaign for the families of molested victims, thousands of families in my own parish (one of the largest) couldn’t come up with $600,000 in months but a Baptist church could come up with 4 mil in exponentially less time. Maybe we should do like the Mormons, door to door. It’s so sad how lazy and unwilling some Catholics are.
Most people would not want to donate to pay off lawsuits stemming from the priest abuse issue, since they blame the church leaders for causing the problem by not removing the abusers from ministry. People would probably be willing to donate for any other cause besides this one.
 
It will take parishioners such as yourself to make things happen. Some of us have taken the responsibility to put together evangelization opportunities. We have one guy who put together a bible study on Revelations, we had no Ultreya but started one, we get different parishioners to speak of their faith with our RCIA group, we started inviting different priests to speak to the men of our parish…The parishioners had to do this. We certainly can attest to your frustration. If we could convey to our pastor to be around for the scheduled confession times before mass I think the earth would shake. Unfortunately its not always the parishioners who are “dead”. We do continue to pray for him.
 
spiritdaily.org/Quickhive%20articles/realmen.htm

I’m going to be frank here, the church needs its men back. God bless the priests, without them we have nothing. But I’m talking about the men, the working class, the first line of the family, the everday guy to get down on his knees in front of the Lord and plead for mercy. The guys who will defend the church.

Before I came into the church i really viewed it as an old lady thing to do, and God forbid i ever pick up a rosary…that’s for old ladies! Praying? I dont do that! Confession? Why would i have to do that…miracles? i dont think so… If you can imagine, i am 6’ 3, and 220 lbs, lean athletic build. I wear a WW2 era bomber jacket and sport a full beard. I might be the last person you expect to find in a church. But why? Where did this stereotype come from.

It wasn’t until i watched a tape of this cocaine snorting, prostitute frequenting, ferrari driving, drug dealing, dishonest man who lost it all and became a priest. He was talking about spiritual combat, souls falling into hell like snowflakes over sexual sin ( i remembered that one!), the devil, angels, and Jesus Christ who saves. Each of his words was a pointed command to my soul, like hellfire and brimstone. This really turned on the Holy Spirit inside of me. This priest by the way, is Fr John Corapi. He is the bomb.

Fr Corapi was a blessing in my life. Watching his immortal combat series changed my outlook on life. If you can inspire the men in your parish, it will flourish with piety. There is something about a man genuflecting deeply and holding it for a prayer, different from a woman doing it. Today after I left the confessional i looked up and there were three elderly women smiling like idiots at me, lol. It was not something you see every day i guess.

Jesus has be feminized a little. Or maybe we are too homophobic to say we are in love with Jesus. It’s not normal for a man of this day and age to have a Lord, right? We forget He was the man of all men. The men He chose as disciples were the wild bunch! Read the bible, St. Peter cut off a soldiers ear for gosh sakes!

Remember that “feminine rosary”? I made my own. It’s made of parachute cord, plastic pony beads, and a rugged crucifix. It looks like it belongs in Operation desert storm. It’s my combat rosary. It inspires me to pray. The bible? I read the scripture like crazy, it’s full of useful information in combating the enemy. Why pray? Because it saves souls! Pray for the weak, the dying, the addicted, the tempted, the young, the aborted, they need it! Not addicted to sin? Try to stop for 1 week then come back and tell me that.

I’ve been mulling over ways to approach it, and the two ideas i had were:
  1. Male only “prayer groups”, but don’t call it a prayer group. Prayer groups are for…you guessed it…old ladies! joking… Men need a place to meet and discuss pertinent faith issues, morals, etc.
  2. Devote one homily a month to an important theme from Catechism. Importance and significance of confession, reverence for the Eucharist, and other doctrine of the faith. People are HUNGRY for this information, they want to know it.
As soon as i finish RCIA I want to let the fire inside me out, and start to do something about it. I feel strongly that this is why I was called back to the church, I just get so upset to no confession lineup, and 20 minute communion line ups, no reverence at all of the sacrament, listlessness during the most important prayer hour of the week…

And thus ends my rant.
 
our pastor has been trying to start a men’s group for years. finally a courageous dedicated layman has come forward to start That Man is You, a spirituality and leadership program for men. They had a kickoff dinner to explain the program to men of the parish, over 80 attended, 40 came back for the intro meetings, and there is a core group committed to the 24 week formation program–meeting at 6:30 in the morning, now that is real commitment.
 
That’s amazing! That is what i’m talking about!

There’s something about a fellow lay man promoting it, and the pastor. Like i said God bless him, but there is a difference. That sounds like you have a serious core group.

Puzzleannie, is it possible for me to get in contact with those organising? I have questions.

-revelations 🙂
 
the organization is out of the Galveston-Houston Diocese you could look on the website or call the diocese, when I get to work after the holidays I will try to find contact info.

duh. DH tells me it is, guess what

 
:eek: That site is amazing. That is exactly the vision i had in my head. This is good stuff. We need the “adult” version of the church, not the sanitized P.C version. If people could hear serious adults speak about angels, Satan’s attack on the sanctity of the family, manifestation of true evil, and the Virgin Mary, we might do something about it.

I remember looking at my GF a few weeks ago and asking her how she felt about me having another woman at the same time as her…without losing a beat she replied “well it better be Mary!” 😉

We must not forget some of the pastors and theologians who have lost the spark: angels were literary device, there is no hell c’mon, the devil is an idea not a reality, and all these benign homilies. It castrates the faithful of their spiritual nourishment.

Thank you very much for posting that, thank you a million times.

-revelations
 
our pastor has been trying to start a men’s group for years. finally a courageous dedicated layman has come forward to start That Man is You, a spirituality and leadership program for men. They had a kickoff dinner to explain the program to men of the parish, over 80 attended, 40 came back for the intro meetings, and there is a core group committed to the 24 week formation program–meeting at 6:30 in the morning, now that is real commitment.
We have a group of men that meet after the 7:00 daily mass on Wednesday mornings. Most are retired but some catch the train after the meeting. They have bagels and discuss the upcoming readings for Sunday and offer prayers for their intentions.
 
OP is an experienced catechist and quite likely competent to lead a bible study that comes with a facilitator guide, or a CCC study course or something similar for adults. Come up with a proposal…

(I should warn you, **asking pointed questions like that is how I recruited the people we now have doing programs for adults **in apologetics, bible study, RCIA, Confirmation, sacramental prep, moral issues, and Spanish language course on Creed and Commandments.)
**
EXACTLY!!!**😃 Look out here you go SHINING LIF A STAR!.
 
well we got 12 people signed up for Great bible Adventure–we are doing the quick study 8-week intro first, and if enough stick with it will consider the (expensive) full 24 week course. it remains to be seen if they will cough up for the student packs ($15 with parish discount). Deacon is doing that he is very enthusiastic about the DVDs.

“that man is you” starts tomorrow morning at 7 am before Mass. that should be interesting, of the 90 men invited to the kick-off dinner, they got a solid core planning team, and this is the first full group meeting, curious to see how many commit. good thing many or most of them are men not currently active in other parish areas.

the initiative in our parish that is involving the most new people (not already in a parish ministry, liturgy, CCD etc) is surprisingly not Disciplies in Mission, although that has brought in a good number of people now continiuing with the small groups, but the Service Club, which has several smaller units–one for DIY projects around the parish and for poorer parishioners, one supporting St. Vincent society, one for bereavement and visiting the sick, and one for social justice/pro life education and activities. at least 100 people I have never seen before have come out of the woodwork and are active, and actually taking leadership roles, in these efforts, all started NOT by Staff but by motivated parishioners.

I don’t think you can divorce discipleship and service from adult formation, one without the other is empty.
 
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