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Catechumenate

Redeemer Post-Baptism Neophytes and Newly Confirmed 2019

Celebrating the Newly Baptized: The Rites of the Mystagogy Period

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How can one not love a word like Mystagogy! Prior to Lent we discussed key aspects of the Period of Enlightenment—Rituals, Prayer, Reflection, Catechesis. During Lent we will consider primary aspects of the least well known period of the catechumenate: The Period of Mystagogy. We will consider Rituals, Preaching, Catechesis, Service, and Formation and Vocation over the next five weeks.

Both the RCIA’s description of the Period of Mystagogy as well as that of Go Make Disciples provide a helpful vision of mystagogy. The RCIA describe the period as “a time for the community and the neophytes together to grow in deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery,  and in making it part of their lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the Eucharist, and doing the works of charity” (Rite of Christian Initiation, Study Edition, 151). Go Make Disciples describes it in this way: “Mystagogical reflection is guided and sustained contemplation of the church’s worship, especially its sacraments, using biblical themes, images, and stories. . . . it draws Christians to reflect on their experience in worship as an encounter with God, and then to consider the implications for behavior in daily life that reflects faith and belonging to Christ” (Go Make Disciples, 131).

Mystagogy is for the entire assembly. The experience of the neophytes (newly planted baptized) serves as the impetus and source for the sustained (and lifelong) reflection of the assembly of its participation in the paschal mystery. Thus, since the neophytes are the primary symbol there are few formal rituals during this period. The weekly divine service and the Lord’s Supper itself serve as the primary ritual context for reflecting on faith and life in light of experiencing the paschal journey with Christ through baptism, Lord’s Supper, and anointing. At the end of the period, at Pentecost, there should be some celebration of this entire journey with the neophytes and the assembly. This also could include, especially on the Day of Pentecost, a rite of affirmation of vocation. Such a rite is provided in Welcome to Christ, 58-61). In addition, a celebration at the one year anniversary of their incorporation into the body of Christ would be appropriate. Other gatherings throughout the year after their initiations, and perhaps beyond the first year, are also encouraged as desired and feasible.

There are other ways to keep the newly baptized at the center of congregational mission, attention, and reflection. During the fifty days of Easter they could sit in their own area of the church and wear a special symbol denoting that they are newly baptized, such as a cross.  They should be included in the intercessions throughout the Easter season. Some may be asked voluntarily to offer witness/testimony to their experience of incorporation into Christ, whether during the divine service or in other forums in congregational life. Every divine service could begin with a rite of remembrance or thanksgiving for baptism, either in addition to or in place of the corporate rite of general confession and absolution. This remembrance of baptism could include the ritual act of sprinkling water upon the assembly as a tangible reminder of baptism (rite of aspersion). The sacramental symbols associated with Easter (font, paschal candle, white paraments and vestments, baptismal candles and robes, alleluia banners, etc…) should have prominence throughout the fifty days.

By means of these rites and ritual accents, as Timothy O’Malley says, “the period of mystagogy is a chance to celebrate the wondrous transformation that has taken place in Christ’s Body” (Divine Blessing, 127). It is a chance to celebrate the new birth in Christ, those newly born in Christ, and all of us who have been born anew in Him.

Redeemer Post-Baptism Neophytes and Newly Confirmed 2019

Prepare to Be Baptized: The Rituals of the Period of Enlightenment

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The season of Lent ushers in a period of intentional preparation [Intense Preparation (Go Make Disciples) or Purification and Enlightenment (RCIA)] for those who are going to be baptized (the Elect) and those being confirmed and reaffirming their faith at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. This period focuses them on spiritual preparation for baptism and incorporation into the body of Christ. For the next four weeks leading to the First Sunday in Lent we will examine four primary elements of this preparation: ritual, prayer, reflection, and catechesis.

It is a period that seeks to purify desires and enlighten the elect toward the shape of the life of faith. Catechetical instruction in this period is intended to feed and support spiritual preparation. As Ronald Lewinski indicates in An Introduction to the RCIA,

The catechumens reflect on their faith and religious experience in a more intense manner. They take all that they have heard and seen, learned, prayed and shared, and they ponder it all in the depths of their hearts. Lent supports this process of interiorizing, giving it shape and direction through the Scriptures, prayers, and traditional Lenten disciplines of fasting, performing works of mercy, charity, and penance [confession and absolution for a Lutheran], and being committed to personal sacrifice (53).

Central to this spiritual preparation are the questions of faith and, through it, entry into the rule and reign of God. These questions are at the heart of the baptismal liturgy:

  • Do you desire to be baptized?
  • Do you renounce the devil, all his works, and all his ways?
  • Do you believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

This period prepares the elect to answer these questions with clarity and conviction.

There are a number of liturgical rites (as outlined by the RCIA) that facilitate this spiritual self-examination (We examined these in greater detail in a blog post series entitled, A Ritual Journey, which we posted from February 25-May 7, 2022. These are still available in our blog on FormingLutherans.org). These rites include (noting the dates of the 2022 blog posts):

  • The Rite of Election on the First Sunday in Lent (March 4)
  • The Scrutiny Rites including Exorcisms on the Third through Fifth Sundays in Lent (March 18, April 4, April 7)
  • The Presentations of the Creed (March 29) and the Lord’s Prayer to the Elect (April 18), usually at weekday celebrations of the Word following the First and Third Scrutinies
  • Penitential Rites for those already baptized who are preparing for Confirmation or Affirmation of Faith
  • Preparatory Rites on Holy Saturday which may include The Recitation of the Creed, the Ephphetha Rite (Opening of the Ears and Mouth for hearing and confessing the Word), and the Choosing of a Baptismal Name (April 29 and May 6)

Through these rites, as Lewinski observes, the Elect serve as “the primary symbol for Lent. We see in them what we ought to see happening in ourselves: a conversion that leaves us with a hunger for Eucharist and a thirst for building God’s kingdom” (54). Through these rites the Elect and the entire assembly are prepared to receive the gift of new life in Christ that comes through baptism. We hope that by examining the ritual, prayer, reflection, and catechesis that shape the period of Enlightenment we can provide guidance toward facilitating this kind of experience for your Elect during Lent.

Lent 1- Rite of Election (78)

Front and Center: Congregations that SEE their Catechumens

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In this series of posts, we have been highlighting practices that allow us to slow walk toward a robust faith formation process. One of those practices would be to make the inquirers and catechumens more transparent to the congregation. In other words, placing the inquirers, catechumens, and newly baptized more in the forefront and at the center of the congregation’s vision and life together. If a congregation’s task is the formation of its own identity as a Christian church, then making disciples is central to the church’s identity. Placing the inquirers and catechumens before the congregation keeps before their view the primary task of the congregation: to bring people—the stranger and the outsider—into relationship with Christ through engagement with his body, the church.

A congregation that wants to be intentional about its faith formation process and the journeys of those outside the Christian community through that process to life in the community has to take ownership of its own faith formation processes. For congregations who have accepted such ownership, faith formation is at the center of congregational life. It is a joint enterprise the congregation shares and mutually engages face-to-face, person-to-person. The congregation witnesses to this investment in its faith formation practices by placing the inquirers, catechumens, and newly baptized at the center of congregational life. The inquirers, catechumens, and newly baptized through their questions and the rhythm of their formation shape the nature of congregational life. They are publicly recognized in congregational life (especially through threshold-crossing rituals such as the welcome and acceptance into the catechumenate and the rite of election for baptism) and congregational resources are directed toward their participation in community life. Everyone understands that the congregation is invested in forming them toward the life of faith lived out in Christian community.

Placing the catechumens at the center of congregational life is done in a variety of ways. First, all of the rituals of the catechumenate are conducted publicly at primary worship services. For these rites the catechumens are in front of the assembly and identified personally, along with their sponsors. The congregation takes time and care with these rituals because it takes seriously the responsibility of forming inquirers, catechumens, and the newly baptized for Christian life. In addition, the catechumens are included in the Sunday prayers of the church on a weekly basis. Finally, the congregation is encouraged to interact with the catechumens and incorporate them into congregational life. There are regular opportunities to eat with them and to come to know them personally. Catechists and sponsors link them up with members in the congregation so that the inquirers, catechumens, and the newly baptized can see how the members live out their faith in their vocations and in service to their neighbors in the world. For example, if a member is involved in a foodbank ministry in the community, catechists and sponsors facilitate the inquirers, catechumens, and newly baptized walking alongside the member’s engagement with that ministry. The congregation then provides opportunities in worship to witness to such service to their neighbors and God’s work through it.

In all of these ways, a congregation can open the eyes of the assembly to the inquirers, catechumens, and newly baptized in their midst. By opening their eyes, they help the congregation to perceive its own identity as a congregation focused on making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and forming people for life within the Christian community. Placing inquirers, catechumens, and the newly baptized front and center is a way to begin slow walking toward robust faith formation.

Scrutines of Lent 2019 (2)

Congregational Transformation: Growing Deeply, Broadly, and Widely

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In Paul Hoffman’s words, the catechumenate creates a climate of expectation in the life of a congregation. That climate of expectation blossoms into the longing for personal and congregational transformation that is both deep and wide. It transforms individuals and congregations in deep ways touching on the center of their identities. It transforms in broad and wide-reaching ways, both by incorporating more into the assembly and by the myriad number of encounters that the baptized and the assembly have with strangers in the world.

Growing Deeply

Congregations engaged in faith formation patiently seek to transform the believing of newcomers and oldcomers alike. Believing entails the reorientation of one’s reality and life story toward inclusion into the story of God the Creator in His Son Christ Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Believing is a lifelong endeavor of trusting in God’s promise for the whole creation, and the individual as part of it, to bring about the restoration of the creation through his living Word. It encompass the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—within the body of believers.

Those who belong to the believing community transform not only their believing and their belonging, but also their behavior. One of the reasons that the congregations we researched ask that all newcomers walk through their catechumenate—unbaptized, profession of faith, or transfers—is because they want to shape a deep transformation that leads to the newcomer and oldcomer alike living faithfully within this community’s patterns of life.

Measuring the depth of transformation should reflect the ongoing, lifelong apprenticeship of disciples that the catechumenate seeks to foster. Such measures could include:

  • worship attendance and participation in the sacraments
  • the vitality of congregational ministries, ordained, commissioned, and lay
  • the intentionality of personal and congregational evaluation and discernment of the disciple life
  • flexibility of congregational ministries and faith formation to adapt to the congregational context
  • the involvement of laity in the faith formation process
  • commitment to one’s vocations
  • the degree of following the call to live in love by proclaiming Christ to and serving him in others
  • how often a congregation eats together

That is only a partial list. All of those measures could give an indication as to how the faith formation process is deeply transforming a congregation’s life.

Growing Broadly and Widely

The catechumenate’s impact in transforming lives and assemblies also ought to be measured by the number of persons incorporated into the assembly’s life. A well-practiced catechumenate should lead to the incorporation of more outsiders and strangers into life together. Yet even such growth is broader and wider than we might imagine. Personal and corporate encounters with the stranger in inquiry and on the edges of the catechumenate widen the catechumenate’s transformative impact. Such encounters run deep into the world surrounding the congregation as the baptized bear witness to their life together in their workplaces and play spaces, their learning communities and living communities. A community transformed by the catechumenate reaches into the world around it—both individually and corporately—with peace and justice. As Paul Hoffman indicates, “The tasks that one might do to meet the needs of others grow out of who one perceives oneself to be in Christ, and—grace being the gift that keeps on giving—the things that one does further form one as a disciple” (Faith Shaping Ministry, 87). Transformation that spreads far and wide.

In the end, faith formation is not a program, not even a set of processes or practices, but a way of life. Through its life of community and liturgy, teaching and preaching, witness and service God transforms the baptized and the community, deeply and broadly.

Lent 1- Rite of Election (98)

Forming Relationships in Christ: The Central Role of Sponsors

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Central to a compelling catechumenate is the role of adult sponsors for the catechumens. For a congregation slow-walking toward faith formation practices, developing adult sponsors for the catechumens is one of the lowest hanging fruit, a relatively easy starting place for a congregation. Catechumenates that are successful at transforming catechumens into committed participants in the Body of Christ need congregations that are actively involved in the catechumenate. The catechumenate needs to be seen as the mission of the entire congregation with every baptized member involved in one way or another. One of the easiest ways to participate in the catechumenate is to serve as a sponsor.

But what exactly do adult sponsors do? We all know about sponsors for infant candidates for baptism, but obviously adult sponsors serve in a somewhat different way. Sponsors are the primary relationship point with the congregation. Sponsors are a central facet of shaping the assembly’s hospitality toward the catechumenal newcomer. They are the primary agent for facilitating the stranger’s entrance into the Christian community, the primary point of hospitable reception. Sponsors are among the primary mentors who provide the inquirers and catechumens with an apprenticeship in the faith. They are open to facilitating the exploration that the new Christian has assumed. The sponsors are the primary ones to be sensitive to all that the church asks the catechumens to leave behind and they can be both wise and kind in their sensitivity. They can most hospitably lead the inquirers and catechumens to negotiate the change to which their encounter with God’s Word calls them. Here is authentic relationship in the flesh through faith in the God who calls us into life together.

Sponsors primary role in the catechumenate includes the following. They serve as a listening board for the catechumens. They bear witness to how a life of faith sets the agenda for Christian living in the world by bearing witness to the confrontation with sin in their own lives and with the desire to live by God’s grace. They pray with the catechumens, modeling a life of prayer and teaching them how to pray. They bear witness to the import of the Word of God in their lives and how they wrestle with the Word. They journey with the catechumens, attending worship with them and joining them in their catechumenal formation classes as possible. Lastly, they model a life of servant love to the catechumens. In essence, they live their Christian life in the open for the catechumens to see.

What then is the best way to select and train sponsors? Given the fact that they are bearing witness to and reflecting upon what the life of the Christian looks like, sponsors should be those who are committed to their life of faith—attending worship regularly and willing to reflect on their life of faith. Training might entail encouraging and informing their prayer life, reinforcing their basic catechetical knowledge, and teaching them how to give witness to formative narratives from the Scriptures that shape their own baptismal identity. Sponsors do not need lengthy, formal training. They just need to be equipped to give voice to and model their own baptismal journey, imperfect and incomplete but looking toward the wholeness of baptismal identity in Christ the Lord.

The catechumenate is an apprenticeship in the Christian faith. Sponsors serve as the primary models and relationship-building center for the catechumenal apprentices.

Mystagogy Cross

Formational Reading of Scripture: Introducing it to a Congregation

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Slow Walking Series

Last week we reflected on the reorientation of Scripture study as part of a faith formation process. Such a reorientation entails less focus on information and learning what Christians believe and a much greater focus on hearing and reflecting on the Word of God and exploring the questions about Jesus, faith, and the church that seekers and catechumens pose. This type of reading and exploration of Scripture is formational reading of Scripture. As the book Understanding Faith Formation indicates, formational reading transforms the reader by the influence of the Word of God mediated through the lived encounter with the text by the power of the Holy Spirit (94). One method of formational reading that we explored last week was the African Bible Study method, which seeks reflection that intersects the text with the life of the hearer.

As part of the general approach of the catechumenate for forming disciples who live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, formational reading aims to transform the lives of those encountering Christ in the church’s life. Formational reading is described by Understanding Faith Formation in the following ways:

  • The objective is not to cover as much material as possible
  • Formational reading is deep
  • Allows the text to master the reader
  • The reader is shaped by the text
  • Forms a humble, receptive approach to the Scriptures
  • Expects an openness to mystery (especially of God) as encountered in the text (95-96)

How might you establish such a formational reading of the Scriptures in a congregation unfamiliar with such an approach? Why is it important to establish this approach for the sake of a vibrant catechumenate? Since—as we have explored in previous blog posts—n the catechumenate the parish is the curriculum, this formational reading format needs to be at home in the congregation if it is to be experienced by seekers and catechumens as a living expression of the congregation’s faith life. One of the results of the catechumenate is that it builds community and incorporates newcomers into that community. For formational reading of the Scriptures to be part of the incorporation of newcomers it needs to have a formative place in building the community’s life. As an expression of the community’s life it is normally lay led with both trained catechists and sponsors participating in the leadership of formational Bible study. Lay catechists and sponsors first need to be formed themselves by this formational approach to reading the Scriptures.

So what might be the process for establishing such a formational approach to reading the Scriptures? It would be best to have this approach firmly embedded in congregational life prior to the start of a catechumenal process. To embed this approach start with small groups in the congregation. Familiarizing the leadership of the congregation with formational reading would be critical. Consider using formational reading with the board of elders or the church council and the leadership team of the congregation. Following upon an introduction to congregational leadership, formational Bible study could be used in one of the Sunday morning Bible studies. If there is a small group Bible study ministry in the congregation, this approach could be introduced to one or more of those weekly/monthly small group studies. Once formational reading has permeated the congregation’s experience with Scripture, then the pastor can begin training laity with exposure to this approach to serve as catechists for the weekly study of Scripture in the catechumenate. Establishing such a formational reading approach to encountering the Word of God will lead the explorers and catechumens  to fall “in love with the Scriptures” and making it a daily part of their contemplation of and encounter with Christ (Macalintal, Your Parish is the Curriculum, 75).

Redeemer Post-Baptism Neophytes and Newly Confirmed 2019

The Formation—NOT the Information—Highway

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The faith formation process (catechumenate) is a journey, a lifelong journey toward the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). It is a journey on the formation highway, not the information highway. We best leave that to Silicon Valley. Not that there is no place in faith formation for information. As we observed last week regarding the benefits of a church tour, “These goals for the seekers illustrate the dual purpose of information and formation within the catechumenal process . . . By walking through the worship space, touching the furnishings, and pointing out specifics, the tour leader’s imparting of information will be more effective than a classroom lecture.” But information serves formation. The goal and telos of the faith formation process is the transformation of those seeking relationship with God the Creator and His Son Jesus Christ.

The affirmation that the catechumenate is about personal transformation rather than solely the imparting of information is fundamental for slow walking out of an adult instruction class toward a faith formation process. Even our language of adult information betrays our understanding of what we are doing. Three characteristics are crucial toward making this shift from information to formation: 1) Faith formation facilitates conversion; 2) Faith formation centers on relationships; 3) Faith formation incorporates into community.

Faith formation facilitates conversion

               Faith formation doesn’t just inform about the Christian faith. It moves a person into a new way of life. As Welcome to Christ: An Introduction to the Catechumenate indicates, “Let us take seriously the matter of repentance and conversion. In the journey of the catechumenate, those preparing for Holy Baptism are in the process of becoming Christians….At its heart, the catechumenal process is a repenting of all that keeps us from being so joined [to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ], and a journey of conversion to a new life…Catechumens are turning from their former life and turning toward new life in Christ….[This] conversion involves the whole person—intellect, emotions, spirit, actions and more” (22-23). It is not just information about, but formation in this new life.

Faith formation centers on relationships

               Information dumping doesn’t further the building of relationships. Yet, in a faith formation process in which building relationships in the Body of Christ is a primary goal, information assumes a servant role. As Paul Hoffman says of the catechumenate, “Foundationally, it means a way of being with one another and with our God that is dialogical, relational, and drawn from the deep wells of the participants’ real-life experiences and interactions with the Holy Scriptures” (Faith Forming Faith, 33). We have to break away from the notion that our educational processes with adults (and youth too, for that matter) focus on content. They shouldn’t, unless we want them to whither on the vine. They should focus on transformation—of everyone involved.

Faith formation incorporates into community.

               Transforming everyone brings us to community. Faith formation seeks to graft into the Christian community those who encounter Christ in the community’s life and are transformed. In this journey the transformation happens both ways. As Welcome to Christ notes, “The realization grows that as the community helps to shape the identity of the catechumens, so the catechumens also shape the identity of the community. Its mission and ministry are shaped by this calling….For the community, the presence of catechumens is transformative, life-giving, and redemptive in the sense that the catechumens lead the baptized back to the place of their origin. In the water and word of Holy Baptism—as well as in the daily practice of worship, prayer, scripture, and ministry—we are the body of Christ, bearing gifts of healing and compassion for our world” (23).

The journey to life in Christ is abundantly rich. Conceiving of it as adult information robs it of this richness. It is not an information highway but a transformative journey that gives shape to the rest of one’s life and to the coming kingdom of God into which we are invited.

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Slow Walking: What Exactly IS the WAY?

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Continuing our series slow walking our way toward changing our adult faith formation practices, this week we focus on what exactly the WAY is. I will use descriptions throughout this post from Paul Hoffman’s Faith Forming Faith, the primary book anyone considering reforming their adult instruction should read before embarking on that journey. As Hoffman notes, “The WAY offers people an apprenticeship into faith in Christ, ” an apprenticeship model rather than an information download model. It engages an apprenticeship into the WAY of faith and life in Christ. This is why Phinney Ridge Lutheran in Seattle, Washington, where Hoffman was pastor for many years and developed the use of a catechumenate model for exploring the Christian faith and life, called their catechumenate the WAY. It is a process, or even better a journey, with and into the Word of God (especially through the lectionary), in relationship to everyday human life. For this reason, as Hoffman notes, this journey/way/process is both rich and messy. It is rich, because life is rich. But it is also messy, because life is messy. It is rich, because Scripture is rich.  But it is also messy, because Scripture is messy (7). Much like the story of Zacchaeus in Luke’s Gospel, the intersection of God’s grace and mercy with earthly riches and those who possess them, politics and human engagement with it, and life in human community where motivations and relationships are not sin-free, is a very rich and messy affair. This is no less true in our day and in our relationships with one another and the unbaptized than was the case in Zacchaeus’ day.

The WAY has stages (based on the ancient catechumenate) that structure a person’s journey through it: Inquiry, Catechumenate, Baptismal Preparation, and Baptismal Living (Mystagogy). These stages simply provide leaders a guide for the journey. But people move through it in uniquely singular ways. The priority here is to oversee and facilitate their journey on the WAY to the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And that happens by building Gospel and Christ-centered relationships between those inquiring about Christianity and the community of those who bear witness to the one who is the Way.

While the WAY is certainly focused on the transformation of the lives of those inquiring, it even more fundamentally seeks to transform the Christian community itself, in the WAY newcomers are planted at the center of congregational life and purpose. The established members of the congregation all turn their attention toward bringing these newcomers into the assembly and commit to do whatever it takes to provide a path for them to enter into Christ in the assembly. Planting newcomers at the center embeds the dying and rising pattern as the central way of understanding the shape of a congregation’s life. This process is about congregational transformation, not some program for welcoming new members. And this simply flows from our watershed baptismal event because from that day on the people of God in Christ are never not in formation until our baptism is completed in our death. We are constantly dying and rising, both as individuals and as congregations. Death and resurrection is the pattern of the WAY, and of congregational life. And the WAY enacts that transformation in congregational self-understanding and life. As Hoffman notes, “The WAY’s gift is first and foremost the assurance that baptism is incorporation into a community of Christ. This community continues to struggle, doubt, question, and discern how the ancient words of Scripture and the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus among us equip us for witness in the world” (14).

The WAY transforms both those inquiring about the Christian faith and the assembly that is tending to their inquiry because it flows from the baptismal spring. As Hoffman indicates in his second book, Faith Shaping Ministry,

“Offering baptism and affirmation of baptism to newcomers in our parish as an intentional practice has transformed most, if not all, aspects of our ministry. Like water running over rock, the grounding of our faith and life in the waters of baptism has slowly but irrevocably shaped who we are and how our parish life is organized. And, like water running over rock, the shifts in our community of faith were gradual, every now and then punctuated by a more substantial shift like the kind that comes when rocks are washed about the creek bed after heavy rain…But here’s the goal: that every activity of parish life flow out of and back to the font” (xv-xvi).

That is the WAY, everything and everyone flowing from and back to the baptismal waters.

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Slow Walking: The Easter Vigil is Not the Place to Start!

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As announced last week, in this fall series of blog posts we aim to help pastors and other church leaders who want to change or refresh their congregation’s adult “new member class.” We believe that moving toward an adult faith formation model (reflecting the historic catechumenate practices of the church) provides the most enriching and formative approach. However, movement toward an adult faith formation model often takes time. It entails a significant shift in priorities and direction. While one might long for a quick fix to incorporating adults into the Body of Christ, a quick fix is a flash in the pan. There are no quick fixes. One quick fix might be the expectation that restoration of the Easter Vigil (see LSB Altar Book, pp. 529-51)—the early church service on Holy Saturday of the Triduum, the Great Three Days, that brought to fulfillment the catechumenal preparations of those to be baptized and confirmed—would lead to a more vigorous adult faith formation process. However, the Easter Vigil often operates on its own, independent of any catechumenate. Rather than being perceived as some form of magical wand to renew faith formation, the Easter Vigil should be perceived as the culmination of a congregation’s investment in a process of bringing new Christians to baptism. The Easter Vigil serves the catechumenate, not the other way around.

Rather, focus on the waters of baptism is what reforms a congregation’s adult membership process. Paul Hoffman describes this process of transformation at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA, where he was pastor for many years, in his book Faith Forming Faith. He writes:

“When we began the practice of forming new Christians for baptismal living, not many congregations believed that their communities of faith were congregations that could benefit from such a ministry. But the creeping tide of secularism, the growing mistrust of institutionalized faith, and the general decline of church across the country all collide to make a process of faith formation a valuable option to consider. Our catechumenal story  is the story of how, through the baptismal preparation of new Christians, we as a congregation are formed in faith and strengthened for mission in the world, over and over again” (5).

Focusing on baptism means focusing on how God makes Christians and how congregations serve as the agents for God the Creator to do this wondrous making. Rather than assuming that the Easter Vigil is a magical wand for renewing adult faith formation, Hoffman offers ideas and poses questions about the sacraments at the end of Faith Forming Faith that help determine whether baptism (and the Lord’s Supper) function as true means of grace and are the lifeblood of congregational life, ministry, and mission. Here are some of these ideas and questions:

  • A congregational Bible study on the sacraments examining current parish practice
  • Congregational prayer that God’s grace would be revealed and given through the sacraments
  • Consider present baptismal practice, especially whether and how often they are celebrated in weekly worship? And how many adults are baptized and confirmed each year?
  • Considering ways in which baptismal celebrations can be focused more on the entire assembly and each member called to responsibility as part of the baptismal body.
  • Discuss how baptism and the Lord’s Supper are forming the teaching of the congregation’s children and youth.
  • Where and how is the font used? Is it filled with water at all times? How is it used symbolically?
  • How can baptism and the eucharist be celebrated in symbolically full and enriching ways? (see pp. 88-90)

Beginning with ideas and questions such as these won’t provide a quick fix. But they will begin to shift congregational focus and self-understanding toward the renewal of adult formation and the hard work that needs to be done to realize that renewal. In the end, your Easter Vigil will thank you!

Prof Insights

Workshop Cancelled

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Our Forming Lutherans Concordia Seminary Prof Insights Summer Workshop exploring the benefits of adult catechumenal faith formation at Faith Lutheran Church in Hunstville, Texas, August 15-17 has been cancelled due to low registration. Please continue to follow FormingLutherans.org and our blog for information about future catechumenate experiences.

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