When our current Episcopal bishop Jeff Lee arrived in Chicago in the winter of 2007, he brought with him a deep passion for the adult catechumenate. He, like Paul Hoffman, had served a large congregation in the greater Seattle area and been deeply moved by the Christian formation of the unchurched and unbaptized. He would […]
On the Way: Starting Again
The challenge that faced us was hardly out of the ordinary: parents bringing their children to baptism, or adults coming on their own, wishing to know more intimately the faith they are about to profess, or perhaps have intermittently professed since childhood. Our particular congregation, like many others, was not really prepared to answer this […]
As I See It: Preaching With Catechumens Present
During Lent of 2014 I was invited to serve as the Sunday morning preacher at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. There was interest in the parish in the catechumenate and mystagogy (instruction in the sacraments). The Gospels in Year A of the Roman and Revised Common Lectionaries are the preferred readings if the parish […]
Customizing Your Catechumenate: Questions to Ask Before Getting Started (and After)
Our catechumenate process at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wheaton, called BASIC, has been in existence for nearly four years now. I described our approach in detail in an earlier piece for Let’s Talk called “The Adult Catechumenate and the Missional Church.” But in a nutshell, BASIC is distinctive in the following ways: It’s a two-year […]
Feed My Sheep: A Journey toward Life Together
The catechumenate presupposes something about the condition of the people entering our church buildings. It is a presupposition that gets lost between the cracks of our clamoring anxiety in conversations about dwindling church membership. The catechumenate presupposes that people are hungry. There are a number of ways of understanding where and how an adult catechumenate […]
Sprinkling the Whole Family
Sometimes we need new wineskins. When Jesus came to earth, God was doing something new and exciting. Sadly, the people had a hard time receiving this new move of God because of their old patterns of thought and religious practice. In response Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would […]
Great Conversations
How do we cultivate Christians in a culture where Christianity is once again (and for the better) a choice? How do we begin to change church structure to be highly invitational, highly relational, and to have higher expectations than previous generations had experienced the church? How do we integrate new members into a fast growing […]
A Sounding in the Ear: A Small Congregation’s Experience with the Catechumenate
People come to Immanuel Lutheran in Chicago for a variety of reasons and from diverse backgrounds: Lindsay was baptized Catholic and grew up Episcopalian—sort of. She’s an entrepreneurial young artist piecing together a living as a choreographer, dance instructor and acting educator. She’s engaged to a Missouri Synod Lutheran man. Finding a shared faith community […]
Christian Initiation at St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Evanston: An Interview with Sister Christina Fuller, osf
The St. Nicholas Catholic Church building is an imposing gothic structure on Ridge Avenue in south Evanston whose tall steeple is a visible landmark. The parish was founded by German-speaking Luxembourgers in 1887 who embraced German-speaking Catholic immigrants from Germany and Poland who lived in nearby communities. The neo-gothic structure was erected in 1904-06. St. […]