The many obstacles to becoming an evangelizing parish can be daunting, but equipping ministry offers an alternative approach that a parish can embrace. Equipping ministry is not a program, but a new way of approaching all aspects of what a parish does, based in a key scripture passage. Ephesians 4 offers a compelling mission statement for church leaders. The first portion begins by identifying ecclesial ministers and their role:

The gifts [God] gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, — (Eph. 4:11-12a NRSV)

God grants gifts and calls individuals to work within the church. The gifts and roles for ecclesial ministry are diverse ones, but their purpose is the same: equipping the rest of the faithful—the saints—for their work of ministry in the world.¹ The term "equip" can mean simply preparation, but also connotes giving someone the tools they need to succeed in their work. The second part of the passage describes the purpose of those called to ministry in the world:

for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. (Eph. 4:12b-13 NRSV)

The ultimate goal of all Christians is the work of evangelization, to increase the church's membership with all living their lives in a Christ-like manner.² If ecclesial ministers wish to measure their success, they should look to how well the laity is succeeding in these goals.

However, this view of church is not commonly put into practice in our parishes today. Sue Mallory laments:

How can this Bible passage that so obviously describes the church receive so little genuine attention? The passage may get preached often enough, but how often does a local church actually seek to define and shape herself according to Paul's outline?³

Our churches would be structured very differently if they took seriously the need to equip its members to evangelize the world.

Equipping ministry begins with inviting people into the church and educating them about what they are called to do, but it does not end there. An equipping church also helps its members discern their personal call, gives them tools to succeed in it, and supports them as they live it out. We will next briefly consider several elements that make up equipping ministry, and then explore how the cross-cutting directives of formation and discernment apply to these elements.

Elements of Equipping Ministry

In The Equipping Church Guidebook, Sue Mallory and Brad Smith present six essential elements for an equipping ministry system. Their view of equipping ministry is predominantly focused on call and vocation, but I will expand on it to include a broader application of stewardship. The elements are:

• Assimilation: How do I understand and become part of the church?

• Biblical foundations: What is the biblical basis for service?

• Discovery: Who am I and what do I need to live my call?

• Matching and placement: What ministry opportunities best fit my gifts and interests?

• Growth: How do I get ongoing training in ministry?

• Recognition and reflection: How do I sustain my ministry and grow spiritually? ⁴

These elements can be met in a large variety of ways—some of which will be mentioned—but our main purpose here is to consider them as goals a parish can embrace.

The first element of assimilation connects individuals and families to the parish and equipping process. It includes outreach to attract new members, follow-up with visitors, and a process for incorporating new members. These aspects do not necessarily have to be fulfilled through some centralized process, as invitations and initial contact usually come through individuals. For those who are not already Christian or fully initiated Catholics, this element would include preparation for and celebration of sacramental initiation, such as R.C.I.A. Assimilation ensures that members understand their role in the world and the role the parish plays.

For our purposes, the second element of biblical foundations can be expanded to also include foundations from our tradition. This element is essentially one of catechesis—educating about the basics of our faith—which fundamentally includes evangelization. While we commonly think of children being catechized, adults must also be catechized—in a manner appropriate for their level of maturity. Foundations should certainly include proper coverage of the themes of stewardship, Sabbath economics, and personal call, as presented in the previous chapter.

The third equipping element is discovery, the first step in applying a general understanding of discipleship to a person's individual life. It is a coming to terms with who one is: who am I? what are my gifts? what are my challenges? what do I need to live my call? There are a variety of ways this element may be fulfilled, including gift assessment inventories, interview processes, small group processes, and spiritual direction. However, discovery need not be overly structured and should certainly not be seen as a one-time assessment, but rather as an ongoing responsibility of a Christian. An equipping parish will support its members in doing this work.

Matching and placement is the fourth element, in which members respond to the gifts they have discovered in the previous step. The name of this element betrays this system's bias toward call, and refers primarily to connecting a person's gifts to ministry opportunities either inside or outside the church. Under this model, it would also include orientation and follow-up. It may also mean connecting a person to others with similar gifts and interests. However, the intent of this model can also be applied to the other challenges of evangelization and discipleship. How else can we support our members—individually—to take action in response to their many gifts and live the values of the gospel? This is primarily work of discernment, which we will consider later.

The fifth element of growth recognizes that once a person has chosen to take action he or she still needs to be equipped, and that should happen over time. Professionals who study for years to receive degrees and practice an occupation continually pursue professional development as they work. Growth is just as important for those practicing discipleship. Ongoing learning—formation beyond initial catechesis—is one aspect of growth. This formation can apply to specific occupations (e.g. parenting or health care), ministry in daily life issues (e.g. political or economic), and faith issues (e.g. scripture or how to share one's faith). This element also includes affirmation, feedback, and evaluation, all tools used in the professional world to help employees understand what they are doing well or need to change so they can grow.

The final equipping element is recognition and reflection. This element includes acknowledgment and celebration when one is making a significant change, such as accepting a new vocation or changing occupations. Reflection is an evaluative process that should occur at these times of change, but should also be ongoing while one is living out a vocation.

These six elements provide a solid basis for offering Christians the tools they need to evangelize. We will next explore more deeply formation and discernment, aspects of equipping ministry that run through these elements.

Formation

Formation is an indispensable part of most—if not all—of the six essential equipping elements. This makes sense when we consider the priority given to formation in Church documents and how they connect it to mission. Lay formation constitutes the entire fifth chapter of Christifideles Laici, Pope John Paul's document on the vocation and mission of the laity. He writes:

In this dialogue between God who offers his gifts, and the person who is called to exercise responsibility, there comes the possibility, indeed the necessity, of a total and ongoing formation of the lay faithful, as the Synod Fathers have rightly emphasized in much of their work.⁵

The fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one's vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it so as to fulfill one's mission.⁶

The General Directory for Catechesis, a document prescribed by Vatican II, also connects formation to evangelization and equipping ministry, stating that catechesis

seeks to equip the disciples of Jesus to be present as Christians in society through their professional, cultural and social lives.—This task of evangelization originates, for the lay faithful, in the sacraments of Christian initiation and in the secular character of their vocation.⁷

The same document finds that current education for this purpose "seems weak and inadequate" and frequently gives it "only marginal and inconsistent attention."⁸ Formation is essential to evangelization, but our parishes are not currently providing it adequately.

One reason current formation is not supporting evangelization effectively is a minimal focus on adults. Inspired by the GDC document, the recent "Whole Community Catechesis" movement promotes an intergenerational approach that is integrated into parish life—a promising strategy if it can be put into practice. Catholic pastoral publishers have recently begun promoting materials for WCC, which sees faith formation as a life-long process, rather than one focused on children and teenagers. Harcourt, Resources For Christian Living (RCL), and Twenty-Third Publications all have significant focus on WCC.

Formation for evangelization cannot be effective unless it is woven into all aspects of parish life. In Toward an Adult Church: A Vision of Faith Formation, Jane E. Regan makes a case for parishes to become "learning communities," rather than relegate faith formation and evangelization to programs:

In much the same way that being an evangelizing community is not primarily something a parish does but something a parish is, being a community that fosters adult faith is not primarily specific programs that a parish offers but the understanding of lifelong learning that permeates the entire faith community⁹

She explicates a vision for parish that invites people to transformative learning through critical reflection and ongoing conversation. This is a basic process for theological reflection, similar to those developed by a number of other authors.¹⁰ Regan argues that adult formation will not be effective unless the parish community is committed to this learning and allowing it to happen in the "very life and rhythm of the parish."¹¹

Whether formation is isolated to specific programs or applied across a broader spectrum of parish life, it is always organized under some structure that orders and/or prioritizes different themes. The chosen structure and emphases have a major influence on effectiveness at promoting evangelization. Printed materials provided by religious education publishing companies are usually organized around teaching doctrinal details (sometimes using the structure of the Catechism), and a growing number follow the three-year lectionary cycle. Neither of these approaches is ideal for helping adults learn how to apply their faith to the many aspects of daily life. Doctrinal approaches tend to give disproportionate emphasis to theological concepts with minimal applicability to everyday issues. A lectionary-based approach can treat readings in isolation and only touches on a subset of scripture—particularly if only the Sunday readings are accessed.

How might formation look differently if it is driven by the lay call to witness and share the gospel? In Ministry in Daily Life: A Practical Guide for Congregations, William E. Diehl describes a number of creative ways to approach formation geared toward evangelization. His Lutheran church founded a learning center to teach courses organized into four arenas of ministry in daily life. The courses showed biblical and theological connections to practical daily life topics. Example courses include:

• Ministry in Family: "Work and Family," "Family Communications," "Death in the Family," "His, Hers, and Ours" (children)

• Ministry in Occupation: "Christian Ethics in Business," "Jesus as Supervisor," "Ministry in ____" (occupational area)

• Ministry in Community: "Christians with Public Responsibility," "Local Volunteerism," "Environmental Stewardship," "Regional Planning"

• Ministry in Church: topics such as church social statements, stewardship, church growth.¹²

Diehl also tells of the "Monday Connection," a 7:00am, one hour Monday morning gathering at a restaurant where a real-life work ethics case study was distributed and discussed over breakfast.¹³

The typical model of faith formation found in Catholic parishes that impacts a small number of adults, is isolated from parish life, and has limited applicability to evangelization is so ingrained that it will take significant effort to change. Formation needs to be re-imagined so that parishioners can truly be equipped to succeed in their ministry to the world.

Discernment

Discernment—a process for making decisions in line with God's will for us—is also a key part of many of the six essential equipping elements. It is not enough to formulate gospel values theoretically or what our call should be; we must struggle with how they apply to our daily lives and then actually apply them! Some may associate discernment with significant and infrequent decisions, but it applies perhaps more importantly to the smaller, frequent decisions we make that define the kind of persons we are and are becoming.

One way a parish can support its members in discernment is teaching approaches to discernment from the Church's tradition. St. Ignatius of Loyola offers one model in his Spiritual Exercises in which one prays for indifference and guidance, lists advantages and disadvantages, and seeks confirmation from God after coming to a decision. Over 700 people have experienced the Spiritual Exercises at St. Joseph Parish in Alameda through a "retreat in daily life" offered in weekly meetings over the course of a year, enabling them to apply this model to their own lives. This, as well as other forms of prayer and discernment tools can all be offered to parishioners to equip them in the decisions they will make.

However, a parish should go beyond teaching methods and continue to help their members through their ongoing discernment. Priests, religious, and some lay ecclesial ministers take spiritual direction for granted, but few lay members of the church are even aware of this important ministry. Parishes should promote this practice—meeting with a professional who helps a person see God working in his or her life—for all its members and offer it for free. St. Mary Parish in Colt's Neck, NJ paid for a parishioner to receive professional training in spiritual direction, and then hired that person to offer the service full-time at the parish without cost to members.¹⁴ One director may not enough to support all members in most parishes, but it's a start.

Another means of supporting discernment in a more applied way is facilitating small groups of parishioners that allow members to work through daily life issues. The book Listening Hearts: Discerning God's Call in Community offers one format, drawing on scripture, Christian writers, and the Quaker tradition.¹⁵ It suggests a model of gathering a group of people in the midst of making an important life decision, giving each person a dedicated meeting to share their situation, be asked questions, and be the focus of prayer. Small, intentional communities can also provide ongoing support to Christians as they consider both large and small decisions. However, Maureen R. O'Brien warns that common characteristics of these groups—lack of diversity and an internal focus—can make them counterproductive in encouraging public witness:

Small Christian communities, for all the benefits they offer to members in face-to-face contact and support, can struggle with implementing the social agenda that many of them avow. The temptation can be simply to bring other community members into the "private" sphere and celebrate what they can offer to one another, rather than envisioning the community as an opportunity to reach out toward the public. Related to this is the small community's tendency toward homogeneity, especially if self-chosen rather than organized through a larger congregation; diversity is not encouraged. And in the very middle-class character of such groups, the sense of unlimited choice as to the group's direction can itself be paralyzing. The question must be asked, then: Are the efforts by white, educated, middle-class North Americans to form supportive groups serving to gather our energies for social change, or actually dissipating them?¹⁶

While small groups have great potential for supporting parishioners in gospel-based discernment, simply gathering people together is not enough. Just as on the macro level parishes as a whole have a tendency to turn inward, on the micro level individuals and small groups can have the same tendency.

In promoting discernment, a parish goes a step further than promoting gospel values as generalities, and helps its members connect the dots between the gospel and their lives. Providing tools for discernment is an essential part of the equipping process. Next, we will see how equipping ministry and the call to evangelize can be incorporated into the corporate action of a parish.

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