8 Cent Rosaries

Today I’ll be meeting with Kathleen (Director of Membership) and Lisa (Director of Children’s Ministry) to discuss the discipleship path we want people to take in our church.  It’s a meeting answering the question, “What habits do we want people to develop while they are here?”  It’s a loaded question that one meeting won’t solve; however, I have faith that it’s going to really make some headway. 
I’ve talked about the habits we want to develop with the students, and I’ll admit which habits to develop didn’t come from me, it came from Doug Fields (author of Purpose Driven Youth Ministry).  All I did was take this concept and mold it to our student ministry.  And the more I work with it, the more I’m finding what resources and steps work best with our church and our students. 
I know I tend to get criticism that we don’t teach enough “Catholicism”.  I’m not entirely sure what they mean by that, but what I think it means is that we aren’t teaching the kids the rosary, standard prayers, adoration, catechism, etc.  And I thought back to where I learned most of that stuff and it really came down to my family.  My grandmother taught me the rosary, my mom taught me my prayers and they brought me to opportunities where adoration and other forms of worship happened.  So does this means I can just say to parents, “I learned from my mom, so you should teach your kids?”
No, but the responsibility shouldn’t fall solely on me or the student ministry.  What should happen is we as a ministry should figure out how spiritual habit development can happen at home.  How can we encourage family faith formation?  That’s something that needs to come from all the ministries and the message.  It’s something where we need ministers who are doing this at home already to share with their family and friends.
A student ministry can also provide resources that will guide a student and their family in their faith journey.  Even though you can Google rosary and order a billion for 8 cents each online how do you know if you are getting the right one?  It’s like exercise equipment…you don’t want to get ripped off by the cheap bible (I guess a cheap bible is one that’s missing words or something?).  So I’m hoping in today’s meeting we can not only discuss the habits we want to develop, but how to pass out the resources and encourage parents to bring the faith formation home.