Bigger always Better?: The Small Church and the Catechumenate

By Larry Ehrens, JBL Board Member and Vice President

After facilitating the Catechumenate in a Cathedral parish and several good sized suburban congregations, I was unsure how to go about this same ministry in a smaller setting. My question was: Is the Catechumenate scalable to smaller churches?

Our new church plant has a Sunday attendance between 50 and 60 persons. We have a new building and a big mortgage. There is a wonderful circle of dedicated members who have led this congregation through a string of changing clergy, financial ups and downs, and the everyday challenges of maintaining eight acres of land. This same small group is on the edge of burnout — and is always looking for new members to engage in the ministries of the congregation.

To my delight, two young women expressed a desire to be baptized. There is no history of the Catechumenate in this congregation.

Small church communities have a number of unique qualities which allow the Catechumenate to flourish. Healthy ones have an amazing sense of community. Members are known to one another. They pull together for a common goal and they let you know if they do not like something. I like to think that the communities that Paul visited were similar to today’s small churches.

Here are my initial thoughts about how to go about establishing a Catechumenate in a small church:
• Spend time with each of the potential Catechumens to hear their stories, and what is calling them at this moment.
• Begin to recruit and form a small Catechumenate team. Spend some time listening to where they are in their faith journey.
• Facilitate several group sessions on the process of the Catechumenate and do some community building among the group members.
• Gather the potential catechumens, the catechumenate team, and members who have not been confirmed in other Christian denominations beginning in January. Our group will gather before the main Liturgy on Sunday morning.
• Use the basics of the Catechumenate on a smaller scale, reflecting the size of the congregation.

If the Catechumens are ready, Adult Baptism would occur at the Easter Vigil. Adult Confirmation and Adult Reception in Regional Gatherings with the Bishop occur between Easter and Pentecost. The group would meet for Mystagogia until Pentecost. The small Catechumenate community would be uniquely involved in the Pentecost Liturgy.

Although probably common pastoral sense, the power of gradually being intimately incorporated into a small church community will be very meaningful and grace filled. In this case, smaller may be better than bigger.

Some further resources on this topic:
A Harvest for God: Christian Initiation in the Rural and Small Town Parish by Michael Clay; Liturgical Training Publications; 2003
Go Make Disciples: An Invitation to Baptismal Living – A Handbook to the Catechumenate; Editors — Dennis Bushkofsky, Suzanne Burke and Richard Rouse; Augsburg Fortress Press; 2012
• www.MountainGrace.org: A blog created by the Rev. Jon White who serves a small Episcopal Church in Central New York State. The focus of the blog is on small church vitality. The section on Formation contains a fine overview of the Catechumenate.

Larry Ehren is an Episcopal Priest, currently serving St. Mary Magdalen Episcopal Church in Belton, Missouri. He is completing his Doctor of Ministry degree in Christian Spirituality at the Virginia School of Theology.

Which fountain offers new life?

By Elise Eslinger, retiring JBL Board member, with Richard Eslinger, lifetime member

Do you remember that lively fountain scene early in the ‘70s movie Godspell? Jesus seeks out and is baptized by John, and interaction between the cousins attracts the attention of a motley crew of young people. The whole gang joyfully splashes with Jesus and John in the waters of that fountain. These “flower children” are launched into a transformative journey of faith—a total immersion into the teaching and healing ministry, betrayal and death, and joyful resurrection of Jesus their Lord!

This scene came to mind as my husband and I spent the weekend in Saint Augustine, Florida, following our evocative JBL-NAAC/Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission (APLM) retreat. As we visited the Ponce de Leon Park and its “Fountain of Youth,” we saw freshly the counter-significance of our Gathering which explored Becoming the Story We Tell. *

Our retreat community had been very intergenerational—participants ranging from founding mentors, leaders and teachers in their 70s and 80s, to experienced catechumenal practitioners and recent inquirers, to youthful ministry leaders with many questions (reminiscent of those young folks in Godspell)! We became poignantly aware of the great contrast between believing in a miraculous “fountain of youth” and being immersed in the baptismal fountain of death/resurrection/eternal life in Christ!

In retreat, we had been hospitably offered excellent presentations, a sequence of rich daily prayer and Triduum-based worship, evocative small group lectio conversations, and rich table talk over delicious meals. By rehearsing practices of welcoming, praying, personal and shared reflection on scripture, and drinking deeply of the Living Water in worship, we had been moved toward fresh and hopeful forms of discipling and bridge-building, so needed in our disintegrating and often polarized cultural contexts: contexts intensively glorifying “eternal youth.”

We now affirm again, gratefully, that our congregations can be invited not only to sing fountain songs of faith, but to become the Alleluia Song, to become the Christ-Story we tell—on behalf of loving and serving generously for the sake of all God’s children—“day by day” (just as the Godspell youth sang).

 

* Becoming the Story We Tell. Rediscovering our Baptismal Identity and Calling by Immersion in the Central Drama of our Story is the creative, transformative pre-catechumenal, discipling ministry of the Anglican Church of Canada, created for today’s cultural context by providing both strategy and resources for congregational consideration. See https://www.anglican.ca/becoming

Freed from self-righteousness

By Bryon Hansen, Pastor at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church, Seattle, WA

Phinney Ridge Lutheran uses a horse trough for baptisms.  It’s a temporary arrangement.  One day we will have a permanent font suitable for full immersion.  In the meantime, we pull a horse trough from the attic and place it in the assembly to be used at all baptismal festivals.

Like the vessel itself, a bit large and imposing, the journey to these baptismal waters is no small thing.  Asked to publicly renounce evil and confess their faith in the triune God, those who stand on the precipice of the baptismal waters at the Vigil arrive after a period of self-examination.  Prior to Lent, those in the Catechumenate process are asked to shape a Lenten discipline around the question, “What will I have to learn to risk or renounce in order to accept more fully what Jesus is offering?”

Bobby had participated in the Catechumenate since early Autumn.  Until this question was posed to him at the pre-Lenten retreat, he was pre-occupied with the prospect of being baptized in the horse trough.  It seemed silly and even offensive.  After the retreat, it suddenly dawned on him that the business of being baptized involved a whole lot more than being bathed in the trough.   It involved promises of fidelity to God and the church.   The renunciations and profession of faith were only the beginning of a lifetime journey of dying to the ways of sin and the powers that defy God.  What did Bobby need to renounce in preparation for his Easter baptism?  He discerned a need to renounce self-righteousness.  His attitude was getting in the way of receiving the gift of Jesus’ mercy and, curiously, his ill feelings around being baptized in a horse trough intersected with his Lenten discipline.

Bobby was familiar with horse troughs.  The one we use for baptisms was not unlike the many watering troughs he helped his father maintain on the ranches he grew up on in Hawaii.  Every morning Bobby woke up with the sun rising out of the Pacific Ocean through the picture window of his bedroom.  He grew up with a picture of the ocean as beautiful, vast, life-giving and sacred.  He also recalled a photo of his father being baptized in the ocean.  As a Hawaiian he felt deeply connected to that body of water.  What a stark contrast between his father’s baptism in the ocean and his impending baptism in a horse trough.  He felt that as a good person, he deserved a baptism in the ocean, just like his father.

Bobby discerned what it was that was standing in-between himself and what Jesus offers through the gift of baptism: “Could it have been made any clearer what I should be renouncing?  The decision to be immersed in the trough, in many ways was a true gift.  It was a release from pride and opportunity to be a child again, free from judgment and free from the responsibility of deciding what my righteous deeds had deserved me or what my identity as a Hawaiian had privileged me.”

St. Ambrose described the impressive fourth-century baptistry in Milan as a “noble holder of God’s grace.”  Bobby came to see the horse trough as no less noble.  With the community that had supported and mentored Bobby surrounding him, the vessel became an instrument of grace, helping Bobby make a humble turn.

In the process of discerning what he needed to renounce at his baptism, Bobby came to trust that his change of allegiance at the Easter Vigil was made possible not by whatever promises he would make but by the greater promise of God.  In reflecting on his baptism later, Bobby said, “For a few brief seconds suspended in the water of the baptismal pool I was weightless, free from self-righteousness.  Just my body.  And God was carrying me.”

Ottawa Training includes Poignant Moment

By Greg Smith, JBL:NAAC Board Member

A JBL Training was held in Ottawa, Canada from October 25-28 using facilities at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa.  The Training was jointly sponsored by the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and St. Paul’s University.  St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Ottawa generously hosted the event and supported the training with significant resources.

Approximately 40 individuals participated, representing both Anglican and Lutheran churches from the area. Trainers, Bev Piro and Greg Smith, from the JBL Board, worked with local organizers, the Rev. Gregor Sneddon (ACC) and the Rev. JoAnne Lam (ELCIC) who made the local arrangements and planned all of the liturgies.

Catechists trained on the Job

For the first time, those acting as catechists in group leadership were all new to the task. With an evening orientation beforehand, they all contributed to an atmosphere of hospitality and formation, which resulted in a thoroughly engaging event.

Enthusiastic Feedback

Preliminary feedback for this method of catechumenal formation for baptism was enthusiastic. Participants expressed the value of important experiences within the format of the Training, inspiring  hope that the Catechumenate will move forward in the area. They also hope that this might be the beginning of rejuvenating the Catechumenate within the Anglican and Lutheran churches in Canada.

Poignant Moment

One moment of this Training was particularly poignant. We were all a part of an Easter Vigil service on Saturday night: lighting the Easter fire in the first snowfall of the Ottawa winter and carrying our points of light into the darkness where we heard the stories of our God’s saving actions for us.

On the following morning we woke to hear of the violent attack on worshippers in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. We realized that this violence had been happening even while we took ourselves through the Easter Vigil.

The morning’s work in the Training was to practice Mystagogy – reflection on the experience of the Easter Vigil. This turned out to be deeply meaningful work for us within the realities of current events: walking wet with the waters of baptism within a world where hate and violence is so present. The hope we have to shine on this world through those small points of light lit at the fire of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of Resurrection triumph over the powers of death, will stay with us for a long time.

Reimagining the Catechumenate

By Charles Mantey, JBL:NAAC Board Member

Even after working with the catechumenate for over twelve years in two congregations, I keep learning new things. What is supposed to be a process attuned to spiritual formation can easily become a program which ignores the needs and desires of the individuals we are serving. Fortunately, the Spirit keeps inviting us into new things or throwing a curve ball that we cannot ignore.

The Spirit Throws a Curve Ball
This became clear in my current parish as we began the inquiry process this fall, much as we have been doing for the last seven years. The Spirit threw a curve ball. For the first time in all the years I have been doing the catechumenate, one person alone is inquiring — one who is very keen on going through the process.

It became clear that we needed to shake things up a bit. Not only because we have only one person interested in the catechumenate, but because things have begun to feel a little too packaged.

Change in the Forecast
Change had been in the forecast. We were looking forward to implementing some ideas from “Becoming the Story We Tell.” (The JBL:NAAC Gathering, January 9-11 in Orlando will introduce us to this process developed by the Canadian Anglican church.)  Turns out however, our church was due for a change a year earlier.

Our first response was, “we can’t do this with one person.” Then it came to us: “Why can’t we?” The curve ball forced us to think creatively. The wonderful thing about the catechumenate is that it is not a program. It can be aligned to a particular setting and context in each parish. It can and should evolve, even as circumstances change.

Looking Forward
We are blessed with a dedicated catechumenal leadership team who have become excited about new ideas. Planning is even now under way, so we don’t know quite yet where this will end up. We’re keeping our minds open to the new things we are just beginning to discern. We look forward to what the new year will bring and to see what the Spirit may throw next.

Thankful for the Catechumenate

By Eddie Francis

Fremont United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon began their catechumenate, Sacramental Living, a year ago. Eddie Francis was one of the first catechumens and was deeply impacted by the process.

As a child, Eddie resented having to go to church since the message didn’t resonate with him. As an adult, however, he started attending a UMC church with his girlfriend (later wife), when he was going through some difficult times. A few years later they moved and started attending Fremont UMC. When they approached Pastor Linda Quanstrom about having their son baptized, she invited them to join Sacramental Living. Although apprehensive, they joined the group and discovered, to their surprise, that they weren’t baptized. They decided to be baptized along with their son.

Eddie writes:

The Sacramental Living process was my first experience with any real religious teaching outside of church services. I’d never attended a bible study of any sort, didn’t go to any church camps growing up, and really only attended a handful of Sunday school classes as a kid. This was all new and a little scary for me, but I was determined to get the most out of it.

In addition to reading and studying the bible for the first time, I also got to experience praying with the group, which had always been a pretty private practice for me. Rather than being scary it became something that I looked forward to at the end of each class.

Through it all, one of the things I’ll take with me the most was forming and deepening new relationships with others in the church. My sponsor, Paul, was amazing and I’m thankful our families got to know each other throughout this process. Paul made a point of making time for me outside of the class and was a great resource and companion to have on the journey.

Culminating the entire experience was the actual baptism, and that was very special for me. It really felt like my journey to the church had been . . . completed. I’m not sure if “completed” is the right term, maybe my journey “began,” but I felt like I’d closed some sort of loop. Experiencing baptism with my wife and son, along with the other important people in my life and our church family, was something I’ll never forget.

I’m thankful that our son will be brought up with a better relationship to God and the church than I ever did. And as an added bonus, we’ve made some new wonderful relationships inside the church!

How does Eddie’s experience resonate with you? Share your thoughts and comments on our blog.

What does GOD’S story have to do with OUR story?

Come to the Annual Gathering and leave with a resource for restoring the connections!

By Bev Piro, JBL:NAAC Board President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Loss of Connection to God’s Story

The Bible is our best avenue to know God’s Great Story of saving acts. We travel from the flood, to the crossing of the Red Sea, through the Israelites’ Babylonian captivity to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through these stories we come to know God as one who acts on behalf of humankind to restore connections with the divine and our relationships to one another. So what difference does that make in the life of the church or, for that matter, in my personal life? Many churches where the faithful and the questioning come to meet and be nourished by the Great Story have become central gathering places for “friends and ersatz family” doing an honorable measure of care for the poor or homeless. However, they have lost their rootedness and connection to the God’s Great Story.

How Do We Restore the Connections?

JBL:NAAC’s Annual Gathering will introduce a resource to address that very question. With our colleagues from Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission (APLM), JBL will co-host Becoming the Story We Tell (BTS) January 9-11, 2019 at the Canterbury Conference center in Oveido, Florida (near Orlando). This Gathering is suitable for everyone interested in deepening a parish’s connections with the paschal mystery and baptism, not only catechumenate practitioners. In fact, BTS may be a fine entry into a fuller catechumenate ministry.

Becoming the Story is a parish resource. You can learn more about Becoming the Story We Tell at this website. You can register for the January 2019 Gathering here.

Plus There’s More!

The Gathering includes worship, workshops and keynotes to introduce this resource. Social hours provide time for fellowship and story telling with friends old and new. This is a time to reflect, to learn and to be renewed for ministry in your own setting wherever that may be. And what’s not to like about a trip to Florida just as the Christmas season comes to an end? There are even ways to pay for the conference from 2018’s professional development funds.

God’s Great Story has everything to do with our story. Come to the Gathering and take away a tool to restore or strengthen the connections in your congregation and in your life.

 

You can leave your questions or comments on our blog. 

Catechumenate Training Changes Lives & Congregations: Stories from the Trenches

By Martha Maier, JBL:NAAC Board Member

From Skeptic to Believer

Pastor Linda Quanstrom was a skeptic about the catechumenate. But encouraged by her District Superintendent, who had recently joined her church, she rounded up a team to attend the catechumenate training held in Seattle, WA last fall. After the training she wasn’t sure the process would work in her modestly-sized urban congregation in Portland, OR. But nonetheless, with the support of those who attended the training, Fremont United Methodist Church gave it a try.

Before FUMC began the catechumenate, Linda figured that if two people went through the process, it would be a worthwhile venture. To her surprise, eight signed on as candidates, and another eight readily agreed to be sponsors.

Linda was surprised, but profoundly pleased by how well the catechumenate was received and the impact it had on her church. “I’ve confessed to my people that I above all others was ‘O ye of little faith,’ but I was moved, week after week by the commitment they demonstrated to the process, the stories they shared and the prayers they prayed for one another. Upon completion they asked that we organize covenant groups so that they and others could continue the journey of communal prayer and support.”

Quanstrom and others from her church believe this is such a significant process leading to essential and foundational spiritual grounding, that they gladly agreed to host a training this fall. As part of the event, they will talk more about how this process has impacted them and their church.

Role play impacts real life

Pastor Eric Peterson, a self-proclaimed “baptism nerd” found his people when he attended a catechumenate training event held Vancouver, B.C. several years ago. At this event, he experienced a condensed catechumenate process over the course of three days. At the final worship service where the “Affirmation of Vocation” rite was celebrated, he was asked to take the part of someone who had been baptized at the Easter Vigil.

He and the other participants gathered at the font and, without have given it much thought beforehand, he shared this simple statement of how he planned to express his baptismal identity vocationally: “My name is Eric Peterson. I affirm my gifts as a writer, and I dedicate myself to use words to the glory of God.”

Eric thought he was merely role-playing. But as he was driving home, he realized that “something may have happened to me back there.” He writes, “I spent the rest of the seven-hour trip absorbing an identity I had previously resisted, praying for the Holy Spirit to prompt me with what to write.” The result can be seen in Eric’s recently published book, Wade in the Water, from which these quotes came.

As many of us have realized, even when we think we are “role-playing” at the trainings, it can have a profound impact on our lives.

How has a catechumenate training impacted your life or your congregation? Share your response on our blog.

And you can sign-up now for our fall trainings: October 5-6 in Portland, OR and Oct. 25-28 in Ottawa, Ontario. More details and registration details are on our website.

“Living Wet” in a Troubled World

By Elise Eslinger

A world in turmoil

The world, the nation, the churches, our cities and communities are in conflict and turmoil. Even creation itself is groaning. How to respond in this season? “Write the vision plainly, so that a runner may read it.” (Habakkuk 2:2) In this digital culture, what makes for such a plain vision— a blinking display on one of those huge signs, or massive texting, twittering, messaging?

“Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.” (Hab. 1:3) We cannot escape instant images of war, famine, natural cycles or disasters, murder on the streets and in our children’s schools, as well as the strife and contentions ever visible in families, government bodies, and, yes, our churches. Overwhelming—what can one “living wet” person do?

Called to trust

“But the righteous live by faith.” (Hab. 2:4) Oh dear, oh yes. Surely this affirmation is both personal and communal, on behalf of God’s shalom intentions in any circumstance or season of life? The prophet Habakkuk experienced times of great besiegement, yet once his complaint was voiced, he chose to keep watch and to await God’s response. What a contrast to many of our contemporary behavior patterns; yet, our hearts are called even now to such attentiveness and trust. We need certainly to lament authentically, to pray honest complaint, and then together to listen, look, watch and pray for guidance toward attitude and action.

So very often this attentiveness is experienced when companions in Christ share the baptismal journey in catechumenal seasons of congregational life and ministries. Perhaps our opened eyes will come to see, to discern, how God is indeed at work in our beleaguered world, and how we are being called to participate in that grace. We may be urged not only to “write the vision plainly,“ but, indeed, to “live it plainly,” living very wet, just as the saints and countless faithful disciples have through the ages.

God of the ages, we thank you for the vision written plainly in the life of Jesus and pray that we who follow him will bear witness faithfully, day by day. Amen.

Elise Eslinger is a member of the JBL:NAAC Board of Directors. 

You may share your responses to this post on our website. 

Forming Lay Leaders

By Martha Maier

How do you lift up and train leaders for the catechumenate? After becoming Associate Pastor at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, I spent some time educating the congregation about the catechumenate. When a training was scheduled in our state, I loaded up my van with interested lay leaders plus Danette, who just went along for the ride. Her husband was interested in the training, and she was newly retired. She made it clear she wasn’t making any volunteer commitments for a year.

Of course, the Holy Spirit works in surprising ways and it was Danette who came back most enthused about the catechumenate. She soon agreed to be head catechist and team leader for our process.

During the first year of our catechumenate, I was heavily involved with it. I attended all the team meetings, most of the catechetical sessions and met nearly weekly with Danette for training, coaching and support. However, knowing that the catechumenate works best as a lay-lead process, I gradually decreased my involvement as Danette and the team gained confidence and skills.

Danette served as the head of our catechumenal process for eight years. By the time she retired from her leadership role, she and her team were doing most of the planning, recruiting of sponsors, and leadership of the catechetical sessions. I was primarily cheerleader.  My role was to invite prospective catechumens into the process, attend team meetings when I could, coordinate the rites, do an occasional educational piece at the catechumenate sessions, and affirm the team for all the great ministry they were doing.

Our catechumenate team was initially made up of those who attended the training. After that, we drew our leadership from those who had served as sponsors for one or more years. We trained them on the job, giving them increasing responsibilities as they gained familiarity with the process. When trainings were offered nearby, I would take or send those able to go.

By the time Danette retired as leader, she had mentored new leadership who could take over from her. She did her job well – I only needed to offer the new leaders a bit of extra support.

How have you developed leadership for your catechumenal process? Share your responses on our website.

Martha Maier is an ELCA pastor and member for the JBL:NAAC Board of Directors.

[x_share title=”Share this Post” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”true” email=”true”]