Your Roadmap to a Conversion-centered Catechumenate: A Report from the Trenches

2023 Catholic Media Association First Place Award, Ministry – Catechetical

Change can be hard. As human beings we are, by nature, resistant to change, especially when we think what we have right now is just fine as it is. But God is not static. Our relationship with God is dynamic, living, breathing, and constantly evolving. How do you bring that dynamism to your initiation process? How do you transform your current catechumenate from a one-size-fits-all program to an apprenticeship process customized for each seeker? John McGlynn is here to tell you that it’s not as hard as you might think.

In this “report from the trenches” the author shows how his parish team was able to transform their process from a traditional academic model to true training in Christian life, focused on the goals of the individual seeker. Through the author’s real-world experience readers will discover how to develop their own roadmap to transform and renew their parish initiation processes.

John McGlynn is the director of adult faith formation and OCIA at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in Long Beach, California.