By now you know that Catholics Come Home will begin airing commercials in mid December - which means additional families with children and youth may well come to parish faith formation programs seeking to get their children in. Our answer must NOT be no, there is no room, or NO we started in September and you will have to wait until next year. People who are tentative in their faith may well go away, hearing either of these things.
Instead, we need to be creative and welcoming. Listen to what each family needs. I mean, really listen, with your heart as well as your head. Gently welcome them and assure them that you can find a way to help them integrate their children into the parish program. This may mean you set up a group or two that meets separately. It may mean you group those famlies togther to talk about faith, using an established family or catechist to moderate. It may mean moderated home study - with occasional group meetings for accountability and to provide clarity and answer questions. Do not expect parents who have been away to be able to be their child's catechist without help.
If you have ideas for how you plan to make this happen, or success stories to share about how you handled famlies with students who are "out of level" - please post them as comments here.
We realize the presence of such families in larger numbers may feel like an "interruption" in your already busy ministry life but it has often been said that our ministry IS the interruptions!
If you have ideas for how you plan to make this happen, or success stories to share about how you handled famlies with students who are "out of level" - please post them as comments here.
