Adult Faith Formation

One of the Church’s main missions is to help the faithful of all ages to grow in human and Christian maturity, and strengthen their love and relationship with Jesus Christ. Consequently, ongoing faith formation will embrace all the faith dimensions of an adult life—for example, understanding and communicating the faith, skills needed for personal growth, the experience of family life, relationships, public service, and concern for the common good.

Three major goals guide and direct efforts in adult faith formation:

1. Invite and Enable Ongoing Conversion to Jesus in Holiness of Life.

In response to God’s call to holiness, our faith and life as adult disciples are grounded in developing a personal relationship with Jesus, “the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:69, Mk 1:24). As its first goal, faith formation helps adults “to acquire an attitude of conversion to the Lord.” This attitude fosters a baptismal spirituality for adults. It leads them to recognize and repent of sin, to seek reconciliation through the sacraments, and to embrace the invitation and challenge of their faith in Jesus. It means putting on the mind of Christ, trusting in the Father’s love, obeying God’s will, seeking holiness of life, and growing in love for others. Deepening personal prayer is a significant way of growth in holiness in daily life.

2. Promote and Support Active Membership in the Christian Community.

As adult believers, we learn and live our faith as active members of the Catholic Church. Our response to God’s call to community “reveals itself concretely by a visible entry into a community of believers . . . a community which itself is a sign of transformation, a sign of newness of life: it is the [Catholic] Church, the visible sacrament of salvation.”

Accordingly, faith formation helps adults make “a conscious and firm decision to live the gift and choice of faith through membership in the [Catholic] Christian community,” accepting “co-responsibility for the community’s mission and internal life.” Adults not only receive the ministries of the Christian community, they also contribute to its life and mission through the generous stewardship of their gifts.

3. Call and Prepare Adults to Act as Disciples in Mission to the World.  

The Church and its adult faithful have a mission in and to the world: to share the message of Christ to renew and to transform the social and temporal order. This dual calling to evangelization and justice is integral to the identity of the lay faithful; all are called to it in baptism. Accordingly, faith formation seeks to help each adult believer become “more willing and able to be a Christian disciple in the world.” As salt of the earth and light for the world (cf. Mt 5:13-16), adult disciples give witness to God’s love and caring will so that, in the power of the Spirit, they renew the face of the earth.
 

—excerpts and paraphrases from Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us: A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States

Know More About the Faith!

Topics change; most class sessions go for 6 – 8 weeks.
Contact Jenny Campbell for information.

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Christian Fatherhood Conference
Contact Chuck Denise at cfdenise@gmail.com for information.

Contact Michelle Workman at heartofmarywf@aol.com for information.

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For additional information or questions, please contact Jenny Campbell or call our office at (909) 987-9312.