Phase Two, Part 1

Posted July 23, 2010 by Matt Brounstein
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
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Hello Again,

Well we are going to start phase two of the three-phase plan to bring Family Formation to your parish.  The start of phase two, also known as Transition Time, involves fine tuning what you were doing in phase one, but this time with a different focus in mind.  By phase two you know that Family Formation will happen.  So, what does phase two look like.  Let’s focus on two things today.

Continue to pray, pray, pray! Again, ask everyone with whom you are in contact to be praying for this to happen in God’s perfect timing.

Gather your Core Team on a more regular basis (monthly is good) for extended praise and worship and prayer as a group.  Take time for individual quiet prayer and share what the Lord says to each one of you.  Have each person fast for one day leading up to your meeting.  Fasting with your prayer gives it extra “oomph.”  This is the time to plan out your details and hand out specific tasks for the implementation of Family Formation.  Reference the Family Formation Coordinator’s Manual to see what jobs need to be done and what long-term things you still might need to do.

Again, these are simple things but quite necessary to getting the job done.  Think of them as dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.  Good luck!

Yours in Christ,

Matthew Brounstein

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Phase One, Part 4

Posted July 20, 2010 by Matt Brounstein
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
Tags: ,

Hello Everyone,

So, we are over half way done with phase one of three in bringing Family Formation to your parish.  This post will cover several things that need to be done to finish phase one.

Form your CORE team.  These are the people who will commit to praying about Family Formation and help with the process of implementation.  These are your key volunteers for the program.  People who will be speakers, catechists in the classroom, people who will make copies, distribute, give testimony, or help in the background.  Plan meetings with these people once a month.  Pray together as a group.  Mobilize as a group.  And of course, share a meal together to build better relationships and thank your key helpers.

Start to change your vocabulary! Where before you used CCD/religious education/faith formation terminology, now speak of Family Formation and family catechesis.  Instead of teacher, call them catechists.  A small change but words mean things.  Explain the reason for the change to all who ask.

Start Learning! Familiarize yourself, your Core Team, your pastor, and the entire parish with Church teachings and documents on family catechesis.  A good place to start is with the Family Formation Coordinator’s Manual.  The Coordinator’s Manual has many quotes on family catechesis from the various documents of the Church, as well as many other tools to help you implement the Family Formation program.  Really, if you plan to implement Family Formation, this is one tool you cannot do without.  It is written specifically for someone in your position to do exactly what we are talking about.  Other ideas for spreading the word and teaching involve developing bulletin boards, parish bulletin announcements, announcements from the pulpit, an intercession/petition at Mass, and newsletter articles; or devote an entire newsletter to discussing the primary role of parents in educating their children in the Faith.  The Church’s documents speak clearly about this.  Familiaris Consortio, Gravissimum Educationis, and Letter to Families are foundational documents to draw from.

Start motivating! If family catechesis is a totally new concept in your parish’s current educational systems, use a good share of this first phase to begin to ask parents to be more involved in their children’s religious education.  Give them something to do at home with their children.  This may be a good time to begin implementing the Family Formation Sacramental Prep Program or to have them begin using the W.O.G. Logs.  You may want to ask parents to come in one time each month to receive a teaching on a topic of faith or parenting.  Make Our Sabbath Scripture Book available for purchase to get your families thinking about the Sunday Gospel reading each week.

That is it for phase one!  As I stated earlier, it is the longest phase and requires the most legwork, but in the end, the more effort you put into phase one, the more you will get out of the program and set the program up as something that will not go away.  Furthermore, you can be sure that it will bear better fruit.  God bless you in your implementation.

Yours in Christ,

Matthew Brounstein

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Template-Only Option

Posted July 19, 2010 by Sue Klejeski
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators

The purpose of this post is to announce that the September CD for parishes registered for the Template-Only Option is ready to ship.  By registering early, busy DRE’s will allow themselves plenty of time to make copies and do everything necessary to ensure a relaxed, organized, joy-filled kick-off to the year.  (Hey, we can hope, can’t we?)

It occurs to me though, that this might be a good time to step back a bit and explain the options.  Family Formation is available in two format options for parishes.  With the Ready-to-Use Option, everything is printed, bundled up, and sent to you each month.  All you need to do is package it for your specific families and distribute.  With the Template-Only Option you receive a CD each month containing all the Home and Classroom Lessons together with permission to print  for the registered families in your parish for a specific year.  Both options have their pros and cons, depending on your situation, and perhaps the following  chart will help you decide:



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The First and Foremost Educators

Posted July 18, 2010 by Sue Klejeski
Categories: Parent's Perspective
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Papal Keys Icon“… parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children.  Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it.”

-Familiaris Consortio, 36

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A little summer travel …

Posted July 16, 2010 by Sue Klejeski
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
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Thank you to all of the parishes and dioceses who have recently invited us to speak about the blessings of Family Formation to their members!  Your openness to this unique model, your thoughtful questions, your hospitality, and your support for our work always make it so nice to visit.

In the past few months we’ve spoken to:

  • the parents at St. Mary’s in Larchwood, IA
  • the parents at St. Mary’s in Waverly, MN
  • the parents at St. Francis Xavier in Buffalo, MN
  • DREs from the Diocese of New Ulm, MN
  • DREs and parish representatives from the Diocese of Peoria, IL
  • And coming up soon we will have a presentation to directors of evangelization and catechesis from various dioceses and archdioceses at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

If you are interested in having a Family Formation representative come to your parish, contact us.  We love to travel and would be especially interested in promoting the program in Hawaii or Florida sometime this January.  (Okay, I’m just kidding about that last bit.  We’ll do our best to help you even if you live in snowy Minnesota.)

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Phase One, Part 3

Posted July 15, 2010 by Matt Brounstein
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
Tags: ,

Hello Everyone,

Let’s continue with our three-phase series to bring Family Formation to your parish.  We are still in phase one.  Phase one tends to be the longest phase.  Do the legwork now and it will pay off many times over later.  Don’t do the legwork now and you risk running a program that will not work, be continually questioned, or be dropped after a year as merely a failed experiment.  Please don’t let this happen to you.  Again, remember you need to keep praying!  This happens in God’s time, not yours.  :-)

The next part of phase one is getting your pastor on board.  Your priest must be fully on board for the Family Formation model to work.  There is a reason that is underlined.  The reason is that the buck stops with him.  If he isn’t on board it just won’t fly.  The first two steps of phase one (praying and talking) may take a little longer if you are waiting for your pastor to catch the vision.  In order for this to really take effect, he needs to begin preaching, teaching, talking, and praying for this to happen as well.  He need to want this program as much as you.  He needs to be convinced this is where God wants to lead the parish.  Once he begins to teach in different capacities about the Church documents on the family, some parents may even begin to ask for this kind of programming.  If you and the pastor are seen as a team with both people being on the same side, you can bring the change you seek into your parish.  The amount of people each of you can witness to and convince will be much greater.

That being said, what about transition years?  What if you pastor is soon to be replaced?  What if you have a new pastor?  Again, you need your pastor’s support.  Most new priests coming into a parish rarely change the current catechetical program.  It will be your job during his first year to help him to catch the vision, show him where the parish was at and how it has grown, explain to him the reasons for the change, show him the fruit it is bearing.  Educate him as much as you can about family catechesis and ask him to pray as well.

May God guide you in all you do.

Yours in Christ,

Matthew Brounstein

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It’s time!

Posted July 15, 2010 by Sue Klejeski
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators, Parent's Perspective

For those of you who are not from the Church of Saint Paul:

I know it’s the middle of summer and I’d hate to interrupt that for you, but as much as I really hesitate to get on the back-to-school bandwagon I do want to remind you that the deadline for registering your family or your parish for the ready-to-use option is August 1 if you want to get a full year of Family Formation materials beginning with the September Home Lesson packet.

As always, you can find the information you need on our site www.familyformation.net

As soon as you’re finished please go outside for a bike ride and make plans to barbecue something.  (You know you’ll have more fun once this is taken care of.  ;-)

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Mapping our growth!

Posted July 13, 2010 by Sue Klejeski
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators, Sue's Suggestions
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Every month as part of our core group meeting we take time to pray by name for every parish currently using Family Formation for their K-6 religious education.  The growing length of the list is always impressive, but the visual learner in me especially likes seeing it all represented on this map!  Take a few minutes to poke around and see this most current visual version of the list and please continue to pray for these and for all parishes and individual families who are praying about joining us.

If you would like more information about how to bring Family Formation to your parish, check out our web site or contact us via the sidebar.


View Larger Map

Be sure to nudge the map to see our friends in New Zealand and England!

View Family Formation Parishes in a larger map

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Phase One, Part 2

Posted July 12, 2010 by Matt Brounstein
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
Tags: ,

Hello Again Everyone,

Today we are going to pick up where we left off, phase one of transitioning your parish to using Family Formation.  After prayer, the best think you can do is talk, talk, talk! Speak to everyone and anyone who will listen about how and why you want to move in this direction.  If you yourself are totally sold on the idea, it will be easier for others to buy into it.  Ask to give a report at every committee meeting that meets at your parish regardless of its previous involvement in your education programs.  The people involved in those different areas of ministry are leaders, whether they realize it or not, and this is one of the best ways to get the word out!  Again, if you are convinced that this is the way to solve the current crisis in religious education, your excitement will be contagious!

All of this talking must be approached with care though.  You need to start to have some potentially difficult, honest, but important conversations with people.  You need to start evaluating the current way you are doing things.  Are you getting the results you want?  What happens if you keep doing what you are currently doing?  What will change?  What do you want to have change?  What do you risk happening if you change?  Are you afraid of low mass attendance?  How high is it now?  What is the difference between people in the pews who are not engaged versus people in the pews that are engaged and their faith is alive?  Are you afraid of loosing families?  Do you lose them now from first communion to confirmation?  What about after confirmation?  Is there anything wrong with setting the bar high?  Are parents reinforcing what your children learn at church or not?  Are parents being effectively evangelized at your Church?  Are they bearing spiritual fruit?  How will you get people on board who love or created the old program that you want to change?  How will you pay for this new program?  Are you going to pass on the cost to the families?  Should families pay for religious education?  Why or why not?  What does it say if families buy their kids cell phones, iPods, pay for sports but do not pay for their religious education?  (Click the link for some more Discussion Questions )

Again all of these are difficult questions and they should be answered.  At some point they will come up.  If you want to have an honest evaluation of your parish, its current situation, and what the future may hold, these things need to be discussed.  May God give you wisdom on how to bring the discussion to the parish, how to guide the discussion forward, and how to face the critics of change.

Yours in Christ,

Matthew Brounstein

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Three Phase Plan, Part 1

Posted July 8, 2010 by Matt Brounstein
Categories: DRE & Faith Formation Coordinators
Tags: ,

Hello Everyone,

This post will begin a series of posts on how to get Family Formation up and running at your parish.  This series is primarily directed to DREs and Faith Formation Coordinators since they are the ones that ultimately have to implement the program.

The first thing to realize is that in order to bring Family Formation to your parish and have it run effectively, much ground work needs to be done.  The best way to think of it is in phases.  There are three phases to implementing a change like this.  Each phase can take a number of months or over a year.  It is important not to rush anything because a transition to family catechesis is usually a major shift in thinking, talking, and acting in a parish.  This post will deal with part of phase one.

Phase One can also be called Laying the Foundation.  The first thing to do is Pray, pray, pray!  What is it that the Lord wants for your parish and families? This is the time to gather as many people as possible to pray for this vision of education to be rooted in the hearts of your parents, families, and the entire parish.  Ask those who pray the rosary before daily Mass to begin offering their rosaries for this endeavor.  Ask parents to begin praying and discerning for this program to become a reality in your parish.  You know who your prayer warriors are … use them!  In all humility, you may want to bring Family Formation to your parish but first you need see if that is where the Holy Spirit is leading your parish currently.  So many times in ministry we forget to find out what God wants before we have made up our minds as to what we want.  So today, take some time, and just pray, and of course don’t forget that prayer involves listening.  This is such a simple step but a crucial one that should not be skipped.  My advice, take at least a half hour in prayer, an hour would be better, and more biblical.  :-)   May God guide you, your parish, and your ministries.

Yours in Christ,

Matthew Brounstein

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