Adult faith formation focuses on stages of discipleship
New framework hopes to ensure parishes don’t ‘miss a step’ when forming disciples
Published: November 22, 2018
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The “Report on the State of Faith Formation” for the Diocese of Little Rock is available at http://bit.ly/faithformationreport. Rather than rolling out a single adult faith formation program, the report is a framework on how to understand the different needs of people in the parishes and then how to build stronger faith formation offerings.
The report is focused on adult faith formation rather than children because “whatever our goals are for our children won’t be accomplished without cooperating with their parents,” said Father Erik Pohlmeier, director of diocesan faith formation.
Beyond understanding the different levels of needs for parishioners (making, maturing and missioning), the report details the looking at the spheres of influence in a parish, more details about efforts in each level of discipleship and how to practically look at implementing a new way of thinking about faith formation.
When Jesus called his first disciples, he did not immediately send them out to evangelize. He took time to form relationships, which is the idea parishes need to follow when it comes to helping parishioners grow deeper in their faith, more active in their parish and the ability to one day be missionaries.
“In a parish setting we find the willing
Article source: https://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/5851/Adult-faith-formation-focuses-on-stages-of-discipleship