Helping Catholic Parish Ministers unlock their ministry and defeat burnout forever. ❤️🔥
Ministry Planning Worksheet for a Clear Path of Discipleship
We've set out at our parish to communicate and implement a parish vision and strategy from womb to tomb. Our mission: To build a Church of missionary disciples in Grapevine, Texas. Our strategy: to use a clear path of discipleship to walk people through the stages of Encounter, Grow, and Serve. (This is a simple articulation of the catechumenal model, or the evangelization process).
I created a worksheet to help our ministry leaders plan and evaluate around a clear path of discipleship.
We've set out at our parish to communicate and implement a parish vision and strategy from womb to tomb.
Our mission: To build a Church of missionary disciples in Grapevine, Texas.
Our strategy: To use a clear path of discipleship to walk people through the stages of Encounter, Grow, and Serve.
(This is a simple articulation of the catechumenal model, or the evangelization process).
One challenge is making sure all of our ministries are balanced - meaning they are intentional at each stage of this clear path of discipleship. First, all of our ministry coordinators, volunteers, and parents should be aware of a clear path of discipleship. Then all of our leaders and coordinators of ministries (think youth ministry, adult ministry, young adult, mom's ministry, etc) should be planning their efforts around the clear path of discipleship. They can also evaluate where they are weak or strong and what areas to be working and praying on. Finally, the clear path of discipleship should be communicated regularly. This helps people walk others along the path in a customized way, and also helps people know what well best help them where they are at.
I've used something like this before; you can see early versions of this two years ago when I was trying to think of a way to aritculate an evangelistic model for youth ministry. I was also inspired by a version created by Eric Gallager of Discipleship Focused Youth Ministry to create one for our own specific needs, context, and language. Feel free to download the pdf below and create your own version based on your situation.
If you use something like this to train volunteers or your ministry team, let me know what you learn!
Downloadable Worksheet
Clear Path of Discipleship Ministry Planning Worksheet.pdf