Driven by Interest and Need
You may think this an odd position for me to take. It isn’t. Successful adult formation is built on sales. As a friend of mine likes to say, “No need, no deal.” Gas can be twenty cents a gallon, but I won’t stop if I have a full tank. On the other hand, it may be twenty dollars a gallon, but I’ll fill up if it’s the only station in town.
Adults are driven by interest and by need. They are often not interested in learning the Faith but they will come when they have to. How does your parish get adults into formation sessions right now? That’s easy — nearly all parishes require six months of marriage formation. Nearly all parishes require one or more session of adult instruction in order to get a child baptized in the parish. Adults all come even though they mostly hate it. Why? Because they want to get marred in the Church or they want that baptismal certificate and celebration. They’ll put up with the sessions. The price is worth the trade.
So, we use that principle and expand the concept. We all know the Sunday homily is not sufficient for adult formation. The popes have said this for roughly a century. It makes sense. Can you name any subject that you can master simply by listening to a 10-minute talk once a week? Neither can I. We simply need to demonstrate that the Catholic Church actually has useful things to say to the people who pay the bills.
But first, we need bait to get the adults in. We have it: the parochial school. Most schools already require the parents to invest a certain amount of “volunteer” hours. Simply require some of those hours to be spent in weekly or bi-monthly adult formation session as a condition for their children’s attendance in the parochial school. Sure, some of the parents aren’t Catholic — so? They don’t have to convert. They just need to come and listen. This is informed parenting — the parish insists on making sure every parent knows what the school teaches. Run a short session series: an hour or so a week for four weeks, provide free baby-sitting (the eighth-graders can pitch in here), perhaps with a light dinner thrown in. Then they can take a break for four weeks. Keep in mind that some parents work split shift or second shift, so schedule accordingly.
Motivate the parents of younger children. Parents are supposed to be doing sacramental preparation, so the classes in kindergarten and first grade teach them how. When that first class of parents hits second grade, you will be able tp close down the First Confession/First Eucharist component in the parochial school and the CCD. It’s the parents’ job from now on. For third grade and later, continue the sessions — the motivation is that now the parents have to prepare their children for confirmation. If your parish is one of several in a big city, get other parishes on board and get the bishop behind the plan. Otherwise, parents as lazy as I am will flee to other schools in a wild attempt to avoid the coming responsibilities. Here is how it works:
Say you start the program in 2004. You announce that in 2006, the second-grade sacramental prep for children will shut down. All parents of kindergartners must attend adult formation in 2004 or their kids can't attend school. The parents are taught how to do remote prep for Confession, Confirmation, and Eucharist. When their kids hit first grade in 2005, the parents are taught immediate prep for Confession, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Meanwhile, the 2005 kindergarten parents are learning remote prep. Then everyone moves up a notch in 2006. Now in 2006, the parents who have had two years of training in how to teach their own children the sacraments actually do it — their kids are in second grade, so the second program (2006) focuses on hand-holding and helping the parents iron out problems the parents are facing at home in preparing their children. In 2006, the school/CCD sacramental prep program shuts down: it isn't needed, the parents are doing it. Meanwhile, the first-grade and kindergarten parents of 2006 are learning to eventually do what 2006's second-grade parents are currently doing. If the kids normally get confirmed in eighth grade, then in 2012, the parents will be preparing their children for confirmation, because 2012 is the year the school/CCD confirmation prep program shuts down. That first class is the lead engine and every subsequent class just follows along behind like a train. The whole sacramental prep component goes away within a decade and within that same decade you develop a comprehensive and vibrant adult formation program. All the goals are already built in, and there's no way to stop the train once it's started. It gives a carrot and a stick to everyone involved.
If some kid transfers into second grade from Australia or wherever in 2006 or later, his parents can do a crash-study course or delay their child's sacramental reception. Second grade teachers are faced with that problem all the time. The only difference is the problem is now one of adult education, not the child's education. The program will necessarily develop ways to deal with the problem. That's the great thing about subsidiarity. They'll figure it out. And it will be just as good, indeed, it will be better, than anything the school is doing now.
“But not all parents will do this!” the pastor exclaims. “I am responsible for seeing that those kids are prepared for the sacraments!” Not really, Father. The parents are responsible for that. They are the primary educators. Pastors need to get the parents — without the parents, the kids will generally abandon the sacraments. Remember, priests assist the parents, not the other way around. Assistants often have to live with bosses who are impossible, as we all know. Does a priest take over another pastor’s parish when he dislikes what the pastor next door is doing? Parents are the priests of the domestic Church, the family is their parish. In the domestic Church, i.e., the family, every priest is a visiting priest. When it comes to the children, treat the parents the same way you would treat a brother pastor. They are, you know. And they’ll respond well to that level of respect.
Sweeten the Pot
Getting them in the door is a start, but we have to keep them coming back without rebellion. So, parents or parochial school teachers who attend a certain number of weekly formation sessions get a cut in tuition, a bonus, or cash payments/prizes. Maybe a local travel agency will donate a cruise, the local appliance store a refrigerator. Ask parents and teachers what they would like for prizes, and get those prizes. Make the sessions look and feel like an adult event. Adult presentations should resemble what professional people see when they walk into a conference in their field of expertise — classy. Doing any less is disrespectful to the adults.
What is classy? Ideally, a venue with comfortable chairs, decent tables, free pens, clean walls, decorated with well-framed, tasteful fine (religious) art, nicely carpeted floors, excellent lighting. Rooms contain good presentation areas with clean lines of sight for all participants, good ventilation and heating/cooling, a good sound system, and are conveniently located near the free babysitting and the free, off-the-street parking. Think of a doctor's office, a lawyer's office, a courtroom, a church or any other adult space where children naturally quiet down just upon entering it because they suddenly realize they are in a place where adults do serious work, a place that can be entered only upon coming of age. This is not a dual-use space, it is not a cafeteria, it is not a gymnasium. It is for adults. Period.
Pastors, you have an enormous resource staring you in the face. Homeschoolers are the best teachers and mentors you could ask for. They know the Faith, they know how to transmit it, and they know what it is like to be scared doing it, so they know how to deal with parental fears. Have them run your adult education classes, especially the sacramental prep sessions. Pay them.
You can, in fact, pay professional speakers to come in on a regular basis. There are good speakers available from Bridegroom Press, Catholic Exchange, Catholic Answers, St. Joseph’s Communications and the like. Most charge somewhere between $500 and $1000 for a talk, plus travel expenses. Put them up in the rectory and book travel well in advance to minimize costs. Forty weeks of that will cost forty to sixty thousand dollars, or the price of four parochial school teachers, and you get top-notch presentations. But only 20 adults show up! So? How many kids do you need to fill a grade school class? Why is this different?
Want a less costly idea? A parish can generally roll its own speakers’ bureau. Set up a committee and have an audition night. Anyone who wants to speak on a topic can audition for a spot on the roster. Make it clear that you are paying several hundred dollars for a person to give an orthodox one-hour talk plus Q&A on any subject that touches on Catholic Faith. People will come out of the woodwork.
Have the committee decide who makes the cut after a ten-minute sample presentation. Then have the full talk previewed and vetted for orthodoxy. For the first year, take anyone remotely good, have the audience vote, and invite popular speakers back for four-week or six-week series. It’s the parish version of American Idol. You might even use one of the many fund-raising cruise firms to put together a cruise for the parish, with popular parish speakers as the highlighters — they get a reduced price or free berth in exchange for talking on the cruise. That way, the cruise pays for the adult education and the educators have a prize to compete for all in the same boat, so to speak.
Once adults start seeing that the Catholic Church actually has useful things to say, form parish small groups around specific topics: men’s group, women’s group, health group, etc. Family groups should figure prominently. Families are supposed to band together to support one another (e.g., homeschooling parents teaching parental formation classes). Start a group reading — Familiaris Consortio or John Paul II’s Letter to Families. I’ve never met a parent who studied either one and wasn’t delighted by them.
Ideas for Programs and Materials
Start a Catholicism 101 class and give out certificates of completion at the end. Do a series on Catholic-Protestant differences. A presentation on medieval and Renaissance artwork brings enormous numbers of people out — you can download pictures off the web and run an overhead to show them. Run the RCIA series slightly adapted for Catholic adults. Catholics who have been sponsors in orthodox RCIA programs love it: they’re finally getting the Faith at an adult level.
My website already provides tools for adult study. I’ll add more, including class notes from my graduate theology courses, a web discussion board for CE readers to throw around ideas on adult formation, and my old talk outlines for RCIA. The first six weeks of that RCIA instruction is essentially found in my book Sex and the Sacred City, and that book is written to be used for group study.
Other good resources to build a class around: Any of A Father Who Keeps His Promises. For Bible study, Jeff Cavin’s Great Adventure timeline is a good start. Both Emmaus Road and Navarre Bible study series is excellent.
Ask the adults in the parish what they want, maybe a series on stem cells or medical research or gay marriage or the problem of pain. A talk on annulments and divorce is almost always popular. Debunk The Da Vinci Code discuss The Passion of the Christ, take your topics from the news media headlines and let the pagans do your advertising for you. Put educational inserts in your bulletin: a different doctrine or book review each week. Give Catholic adults a list of topics to choose from, poll them, collect the forms along with the collection envelopes. Advertise, talk to your friends and start your own group in your home or at the parish center. This is both the right and duty of lay Catholics, described in the documents of Vatican II, and we need to start living it. Listen to parish adults, answer their needs, and they will respond.
But most of all, pray. Gather a small group regularly in front of the Eucharist and ask God for assistance. He will send it.
© Copyright 2004 Catholic Exchange
Steve Kellmeyer is a nationally known author and lecturer, specializing in apologetics and catechetics. His new book on the Theology of the Body, Sex and the Sacred City, is now available for on-line or phone ordering through Bridegroom Press as are his other books, audio recordings and teaching tools. If you would like to comment on his columns or other writings, please visit www.skellmeyer.blogspot.com .
