An old African proverb says: Every morning, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle — when […]
Do your RCIA catechumens wake up running?
The RCIA is a training process. If we look at other training processes, we begin to see how the RCIA is perfectly designed to train seekers in the Christian life (see RCIA 75 and Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, 14). Three levels of training Let’s take running for example. If you are a running
RCIA training level one: evangelization
To order your copy of Year-Round Catechumenate, click here. Develop a Year-Round RCIA Process (webinar) Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal Join us as we look at how moving to a year-round catechumenate process can begin to solve many common problems we encounter in the RCIA. Date: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 2:00p to 3:00p
Instant Review: Year-Round Catechumenate
Let’s try a thought exercise. Pretend for a moment that you are God on the day before Creation. What is going through your mind? Are you perhaps lonely and dreaming of what it would be like to have companions? If you had companions, what would they be like? What would they do? How would you
RCIA catechists: Are you good stewards of imagination?
Every once in a while, I meet an inquirer who is a Type A, goal-driven personality. He or she wants to know how many meetings we will have, how long they will last, and what book he should read. More often, however, it is the RCIA team that is goal-driven. We meet to create a
One month after my 16th birthday—and one month after I got my driver’s license—I made a date with a girl I had a crush on. When I got home from school, I asked my dad if I could borrow his sports car for my date. He said no. We had just had an ice storm,
Five powerful discernment practices for RCIA teams
How skilled is your RCIA team at evangelization? Many teams don’t think about it much. Most of us have a few weeks of the year that we identify as the “precatechumenate,” but that often seems more like interviews or classes than evangelization. Here is what the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults says our teams
Three extremely easy evangelization skills every RCIA team can master
[quote] Move toward an excellent initiation process by focusing on the unbaptized.
Are you overloading the RCIA “boat”?
Take one simple step toward an excellent RCIA process in your parish.
Don’t settle for a “pretty good” RCIA process
The number one roadblock for most organizations—including RCIA teams—is complacency. Allowing complacency to grow can be deadly. RCIA teams are supposed to be all about conversion. And complacency kills conversion. Most teams start out with a high level of enthusiasm for the conversion mission. And then one of two things often happens. The complacency level
Can your RCIA team recognize these 6 deadly barriers to conversion?
