“Travelers” Find Fuel For the Journey in Faith

THE JOURNEY OF THE NEW HOPE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Q. James, Pastor
New Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Charles, MO

“For the first time, I really felt drawn to the water.”
“I have been a part of the Presbyterian Church all my life, but this is the first time I feel there is a purpose.”
“This shows we are trying to care for one another in this church.”
“It’s the first time I feel free to admit that I have doubts.”

Each of these statements has been heard from “travelers” along The Journey, what the New Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Charles, MO, has named its adaptation of the catechumenate. New Hope has practiced the catechumenate for over eight years, with a total of close to 150 participants as catechumens or affirmers (known collectively as “travelers”), and sponsors. Several have “journeyed” more than once, in either or both of these roles, because as they have found, there is always more to be discovered.

I had known of the catechumenate for several years, but I had not yet experienced it. A season of congregational visioning and strategic planning provided the soil for me to seed the imaginations of those in my congregation who were tasked with discerning new ways of “being church” in this increasingly secular age. In October of 2015, two of our ruling elders and I attended the Catechumenate Training Institute in Sacramento, CA, to learn more and experience an (albeit brief) immersion into the catechumenal process. We learned enough in those three short days to know that we wanted to know more.

We were not after gimmicks or quick fixes to get more members, even though that is what everyone always wants. Our hopes were greater than that. We wanted genuinely to be church together for our community, to “welcome and include all” and “be God’s love in the world” as our congregation’s new purpose statement indicated. Rather than simply distributing information about our church, we wanted to find a way to receive people more fully into our faith community, not expecting them to conform to our way of doing things but, like new parents expecting a child, willing to change ourselves in order to make room for the new life newcomers represent.

We have come to value the catechumenate as a process of caring accompaniment that involves listening, discernment, and companionship to help people encounter the Christ who welcomes all in baptism and desires that we flourish in a community of mutual love and self-giving. Our hope has been to welcome people into our faith community with the understanding that all of us are in a continual state of arrival in faith. Being church is an ongoing endeavor of journeying to, through, and from the waters of baptism as beloved children of God called to love and serve the world God so loves. None of us are experts at this, but only practitioners together in community. We caringly accompany one another in this life of faith.

Over the years, the catechumenal life we have shared together has formed us in remarkable ways. The New Hope congregation has become more deeply invitational, hospitable, formational, and attentive to those coming into our midst. We have become a more nurturing, welcoming community, and outreach and mission are pursued with a greater sense of purpose as we seek to be God’s love in the world. Most importantly, this ministry has taught our congregation that it is not only “okay” to have questions (and doubts!) about faith, but that nurturing those questions in a safe and inviting space leads to deeper faith, stronger community, and a more profound relationship with the God who took flesh in Jesus.

The catechumenate takes tremendous effort, time, and patience. It is messy. We do not distribute pre packaged answers to questions we assume people have. Though people’s questions and needs may be similar, we aim to embrace everyone in their singular uniqueness. It takes commitment to let it grow and to learn from it over the course of time. If you do it, know that it will change you. Read that previous sentence as both the endorsement and the caution it is. We have not discovered a new way of being church. Rather, we have discovered an old way of being church that is sorely needed again in these early years of the 21st century.

In one of the early gatherings of The Journey, the group was engaging in prayerful reading (lectio divina) of chapter 11 of John’s gospel. In that story Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. While Lazarus is still bound in his grave clothes, Jesus turns and instructs the community: “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:44) In response to this, one traveler reflected, “That’s what is going on here. The Journey is unbinding us.”

May it be so.