Popular author Bill Huebsch gives an overview of whole community catechesis and what it means. He then offers concrete suggestions for a step-by-step process (the nuts-and-bolts) for implementing this catechetical model. The appendices provide sample hand-outs, outlines for prayer and meetings, and organizational tools.
Are you looking for a fresh approach to a life-changing catechesis that involves all the members of your parish family? Have you heard of whole community catechesis but don't know how to implement it in your parish? In part one of this essential resource, Bill Huebsch provides both the principles and the nuts and bolts for making whole community catechesis a reality in your parish. He explores seven principles for catechesis and then suggests nine ways to make adult catechesis the norm in your community. Many of the pages throughout this user-friendly book are reproducible to use for presentation, teaching, and discussion. Here you have truly a "handbook for success"! Book jacket.
The author, a national leader of the WCC movement and a popular speaker, encourages pastors to embrace whole community catechesis as a way to involve their parishioners more fully in adult faith formation and active participation in the liturgy. Also shows the solid basis for this approach in Church documents and recent movements within the Church.
Whole church, for the sake of the world. A church informs about its faith through all that it is, says and does. This threefold way of telling determines what the recipient hears. Therefore, if a church wants to be true to its mission it must constantly ask itself two questions: What is the church's calling, and what is the message it sends? How do our churches deal with this challenge? The Church is not for its own sake, but for the world, one of the analyzed documents says. It is called to be an instrument for our loving God ́s plan to heal a broken world. The basic pattern is found in the Holy Scriptures, but in every time and every cultural context the Church must seek relevant ways and forms. And why not do this in conversation and with open ears to the experiences of others, and with the courage to change, if necessary? The first part of the book is the result of such a listening. Perhaps it surprises someone that I turned to three American Catholics to listen to their experiences. Inspired by the radical message of the Second Vatican Council, they challenge their own church to a radical paradigm shift on the way of being a trustworthy church. Using the model they developed as a base, I turned to my own church, the Uniting Church in Sweden, by asking the same question battery, and the same to an ecumenical document, The Church: Towards a Common Vision. And the result? Yet another reminder that every church that wants to be part of God's mission for the sake of the world must constantly test itself in the face of the critical questions of how it faithfully can pass on its message of joys and hope to the world.
The author uses clear, concise and fluid prose to provide an outstanding summary of the "General directory for catechesis". His text goes straight to the heart of each passage and serves as a key to opening the riches contained there. The brief study guide in the front of this book will help readers ask thoughtful questions and focus on key points as they review the text. Catechists, teachers, principals, DREs and parish leaders will find here an indispensable aid for studying the GDC -- and a book that is enjoyable and informative in itself
It is now just over twenty-five years since the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is also more than thirty-five years since St. John Paul II called for a new evangelization to be characterized by a new ardor, a new expression, and new methods. The conviction common to the contributors in this volume is that the Catechism flows from just such an ardor. Speaking the Truth in Love draws together a group of Catholic scholars and field practitioners to focus on the capacity of the Catechism to be a powerful point for the renewal of Christian catechesis, education, and culture through its reclamation of the Christian heritage, its explanatory power, and its compelling articulation of a civilization characterized by faith, hope, and love. A special focus of the book is how the Catechism provides a creative reference point for pedagogical renewal in the Church. “Since the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, catechists and pastors of souls have discovered how it has served as a great instrument of the New Evangelization. We have awaited this volume as a mature reflection on its vital place in the hope expressed by St. John Paul II for a springtime of New Evangelization. In these pages you will find testimony on how, through the Catechism, this springtime is already taking shape.” —Most Rev. Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury, Province of Birmingham, England
Here Bill Huebsch offers a blueprint for how to bring the dreams and visions for a GREAT parish to fruition. He shows parish leaders and ministers how to move in the direction of lifelong faith formation by offering adults in the parish powerful conversion experiences (particularly through parish-based retreats and intergenerational Faith Gatherings). He also offers a clear and consistent plan for step-by-step growth, with special emphasis on excellent liturgies, strong and effective catechist and teacher formation, and developing households of faith. In this definitive guide, he not only shows parishes how to get started but also how to keep going until lifelong faith formation is a reality.
Catechetical leaders at all levels perform a crucial and multi-task ministry. Here Chris Anderson reflects on the history and role of catechetical leadership in the Church, and he highlights the qualities needed to successfully fulfill this demanding vocation. Book jacket.
The key in the Generations approach to faith formation is that it builds on the strengths of a parish's current catechetical program, while creating a lifelong faith formation plan and intergenerational learning programs that gather all the generations to learn together and nurture faith at home throughout the life cycle. The CD-ROM includes PowerPoint presentations for each chapter, along with articles by religious education theorists who have been instrumental in developing a new paradigm of lifelong faith formation. The book is ideal for parish pastoral and catechetical leaders, as well as university courses in religious education and pastoral ministry.
Readers are invited into a unique ongoing conversation with Maria Harris, author of Fashion Me a People, which has been a popular book with Catholic and Protestant educators for over seventeen years. Adopting the framework of that book, Gabriel Moran has written a succinct and vibrant commentary that interprets, applies, and expands upon the earlier text. Includes a memoir about the life and death of Maria Harris.