I work in the Diocesan Office Our job is to support and sustain quality programs at the parish level. We need pastoral planning that will help implement lifelong faith formation. |
| Dear Diocesan Director or Staff Person, Whether you're working in a large, urban area, or a smaller rural community, your job today is both joyful for you and full of challenges! Thank you for the leadership you bring. We are blessed to have a truly fantastic group of diocesan leaders in the church today! You are not only qualified and dedicated, but you're also just a lot of fun! What would we do without you? You work, of course, for the local bishop. And we know you are besieged with invitations and demands and opportunities from Catholic publishers all the time. Actually, we're pretty lucky to have such a high quality community of publishers. Their support for our ministries, in part, makes them possible. Because you work for the bishop, you have a special obligation to remain absolutely faithful to the church. For that reason, the resources we recommend and provide here are ones that are thoroughly Catholic! They are imbued with our sense of the sacramental, with our Eucharistic piety, and with the doctrines, customs, and rites of the church in mind. The materials show a love for the poor and rejected, a heart for those whose faith has grown cold, and strong support for the lay, religious and ordained staff of today's parishes. There's been a lot of talk in recent years about "whole community catechesis" and some have felt it might be a threat to our traditional child-centered approach to catechesis. In fact, though, as you will see here, at PastoralPlanning.com we always recommend that parishes build on their children's programs, rather than replace them! We hope you've read Dreams and Visions: Pastoral Planning for Lifelong Faith Formation. If not, we will be happy to send you a copy at a much-reduced price of $11.21, plus postage. Click here to send a confidential e-mail and simply request it, along with your postal address for mailing. In this book, you'll find a road map for parishes to follow providing both catechesis for children and youth, as well as for young adults and adults at every age and stage of life. And for information about scheduling a Dreams and Visions workshop, see the link below. Among these resources, you'll find some free articles which you can download and reproduce to help folks better understand lifelong faith formation in all its dimensions. And if you'd like to talk directly with some pastors in whose parishes lifelong faith formation is already underway, click here and we'll take you to a list of them. And for a glimpse at a library of works laying out the principles and practices of lifelong faith formation, click here. So once again thanks for everything you do for your diocese. It's a great pleasure to work with you and our mutual love and respect for each other means a great deal to me! Good wishes for your ministry, Bill Huebsch and the Pastoral Planning Crew |
| In the local diocese, the bishops if the authentic teacher of faith and morals... Towards this end, preaching the Gospel hold the first priority. Constitution on the Church #25 from Vatican II in Plain English |
See below for resources designed especially for you! |
| Have a Member of Our Team Visit Your Diocese We are providing dioceses with day-long workshops: Dreams and Visions for Your Parish: Pastoral Planning for Lifelong Faith Formation We tailor each and every event to your local needs and policies and we leave behind a good spirit, good energy, and some great ideas! Click here to see a general outline and notes about such a workshop. Send us a message and let's talk dates and arrangements! Click here to get started. |
| Grad Courses for You or Your Staff There are grad courses being offered in two excellent Catholic Universities which provide complete background and practical solutions for anyone working in this emerging ministry today! Contact Diane Blair at Loyola University New Orleans. Or Brian Schmisek at the University of Dallas. Click above to send them a note of inquiry. Ask for the course called "Models of Catechesis" taught by Bill Huebsch. |
| Grad Courses There is also a full graduate concentration in a degree program in another excellent Catholic College: Boston College. This program is operated under the watchful eye of Drs Tom Groome and Jane Regan. For more information, click here. Clicking here will take you to the Boston College web site. Be sure to keep this web site's address in your favorite things in order to return here easily! |
| Resources offered on this site |
Parish Vision 2009 A tool to help you do pastoral planning for lifelong formation You are invited to download this free tool designed to help you do effective pastoral planning for next year, leading to more young adult and adult faith formation in your parish. This tool includes a summary of what is needed for such planning, the actual worksheets to plan for each group of adults in the parish, and a powerful Listening Prayer process to help you know the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is one version for clustered & smaller parishes, and one for mid-size and larger parishes, along with other helpful resources. Click on the picture |
| Pastoral Planning A step-by-step guide: Dreams & Visions: Pastoral Planning for Lifelong Faith Formation by Bill Huebsch A new book which includes a chapter outlining those all-important Planning Team Meetings. Sold in bundles to save you 20% New Book! Welcome the People! Ways to Gather & Nourish Adult Catholics by Jim Smith A parish team workshop-in-a-book. Helps you create the team you want for lifelong formation. Sold in bundles to save you 20%. New book! Good News Parish Leadership Trust-Building Guidelines, Tools, Ideas by Michael Papesh This rich resource helps you form your parish team with the very same pastoral theology in which we all believe. Sold in bundles to save you 20% Training How to teach your parish about lifelong formation including excellent PowerPoint presentations to download and use, complete with presentation notes. A series of FREE articles Reproduce these to put in your bulletin or to use for team & committee training. They're all in plain English! Into the Fields: Catechist & Ministry Formation Create a "religious community" with formation, prayer, & study right in the midst of your parish. This is the engine of lifelong faith formation, the foundation in your parish. Implementation How to start and sustain faith sharing throughout the parish using the Question of the Week With free prayer sheets and suggestions for training and use. A guide for using Growing Faith A powerful resource for doing adult faith formation in the parish. It's the Catechism in plain English! También es disponible en español. Communal Prayer for Parish Councils & other groups to accompany faith sharing. You can download and use these in 5 minutes! Rooted in the Second Vatican Council. Outlines for adult or intergenerational Faith Gatherings linked to your children's textbook series. Outlines for adult Bible Studies which are in plain English! Download each session and get all you need in one item. Complete plans for Parish Based Retreats in several practical scheduling formats. |