Faith Formation Team Training

A Workshop Series for Implementating
The Pastoral Plan For Adult Faith Formation
in the Diocese of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph

Introduction: The Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation, Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us (OHWB) a document published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), provides a vision for adult faith formation for the parishes and dioceses of the United States. Our diocese has developed an Adult Faith Formation Pastoral Plan to implement this document (Adult Faith Formation Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph).

Purpose: This workshop series is a resource that will help parishes to implement the plan. It can be taught at the parish or on a regional level for Faith Formation Teams, who will be implementing the plan in their parish. This series responds to the USCCB call to make adult faith formation the "center of parish catechetical efforts" for ongoing lifelong formation and assists the parish team in learning how to plan and promote adult faith formation at the parish level. Each parish is encouraged to provide a team of from three to twelve participants for training. Pastors, parish staff and interested adult parishioners would be candidates for participation.

The facilitator for this series of workshops could be a diocesan staff person, and/or a member of the diocesan Faith Formation Commission or a parish adult religious education professional who has attended the training workshop or comparable training.

The goals of the workshops are as follows:

to introduce the Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation to the participants
to motivate participants to increase their commitment to adult faith formation
to educate participants to the various principles and goals of adult faith formation spelled out in both OHWB and the diocesan implementation plan
to help participants to assess the present status of adult faith formation in their parish
to enable participants to begin to consider parish needs and begin to develop strategies that would enable the parish to strengthen its program for adult faith formation
to create a network of adult religious educators among the parishes who can support and resource one another
to create parish teams with the resources to build a stronger adult faith formation program
to provide parishes trained by this office with a package of audio-visual programs and library resources valued at $1600.00 (the contents of which are listed in appendix B of the diocesan plan).

Read on to discover the contents of the workshop.

Adult Faith Formation Teambuilding Process
Proposed Training Program

Come and See Night

To gather a group of people from a parish to discuss adult faith formation and it vital role in the Church
To examine the goals of Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us: A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States (OHWB)
To introduce the diocesan Parish Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation
To invite people to support the adult faith formation plan and/or volunteer to serve on the Faith Formation team for their parish (the pastor determines the members of the team).

Session 1: Focusing Upon Adult Faith Formation

To begin a discussion of adult faith formation
To review the purpose and goals of OHWB
To reflect on team members’ personal experiences and the need for adult formation in the face of challenges facing our society, community, parish, etc. today
To begin a discussion of mature adult faith and the needs of adult learners

Session 2: The What and How of Adult Faith Formation

To identify the content areas of adult faith formation envisioned in OHWB and begin discussion
To become more aware of the parish climate for adult faith formation
To explore various concrete approaches for adult faith formation
To provide information about approaches that might be used in the parish

Session 3: Organizing for Adult Faith Formation I

To discuss the six content areas and how they might be addressed from Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us
To give description of adult catechesis as found in the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC)
To create a generic mission statement for adult faith formation in the parish
To identify the steps that will be needed to accomplish a successful effort in the parish.

Session 4: Organizing for Adult Faith Formation II

To present the principles for adult faith formation as found in the Pastoral Plan
To discuss the pivotal importance of gaining parish support and inclusive approaches to faith formation
To develop the discussion regarding Adult faith formation programs in the parish
To identify specific objectives and strategies
To take steps toward creating an organization that implements Adult Faith Formation goals and objectives in the parish.

Session 5: Launching the Faith Formation Team in the Parish

To introduce a planning process for the adult faith formation team.
To develop a plan for a needs assessment in the parish.
To set goals and objectives for an initial adult faith formation effort in the parish
To discuss available retreats, adult faith formation resources and diocesan programs that aid faith formation
To discuss and sample resources available to the Faith Formation Team in the package provided by this office

Six months to a year later

Session 6: Reviewing Progress and Discussing Strategies

To discuss the progress of and evaluate the parish plan
To assist in developing new strategies for parish faith formation

The final workshop is a follow-up experience intended to assist the participants in evaluating their initial strategies and to enable them to take the required next steps in order to implement the plan in their location.

*Note: It is essential that each participant at this series of workshops have their own copy of the Leader’s Guide to Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us and the diocesan Adult Faith Formation: Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

For more information, please contact the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis at (816) 756-1850, ext. 222 or 714-2308. Email us at sasso@diocesekcsj.org or dowdy@diocesekcsj.org