Moving right along in our week-long discussion of what you want from your parish, let’s dive into religious education, shall we?
How can your parish best aid you in your mission within your Domestic Church by educating all members of your family in the faith. What great experiences can you share from your own parish, or other good ones you’ve heard of? If you were able to make a request of your pastor in this area, what would you ask for?
Please include your comments here or feel free to email me at blog@snoringscholar.com. And if you’d really like our unending gratitude, record a one-minute video answering this question and email it to me. In order for our talk to be a good resource for those attending, your feedback is essential and greatly appreciated!
I would love to see programs available for all members of the family at the same time… Mom & Dad attend a Bible study or Faith-Sharing group, while teens are in the Youth Group, Middle Schoolers and Elementary School kids in a class, preschoolers/kindergartners learning that Jesus loves them, and toddlers lovingly cared for by some “grandmas” in the community. There are a few parishes in our Archdiocese doing this – quite successfully – but I’ve had no luck convincing my pastor to give it a shot… even just baby stepping by offering some sort of adult programming during Monday night PSR would be a nice start.
Jen, I love these ideas! Thanks so much for sharing them!
I agree with Jen that it would be so much easier to get adults to come if their kids were coming to (or vice versa) however that may be challenging when you need adults to run kids programs…..I came from a church with nothing for over grade 2 to a church with lots of possibilities………one gap I noticed in religious education is the older adult who is embarrassed that after a life time of coming to church do not really know the answers and are afraid to ask
Kath, in our small parish, getting babysitting or child opportunities at the same time is nearly impossible. However, after years of observing it, I think the biggest hurdle in my parish is the resistance from people who organize things. I try not to see it as an anti-family move, because it’s mostly a “busy with other things and can’t take on one more thing” situation.