Resources - Faith Based Conversation Group
In our parishes there are lots of
lonely people, who are hungry for someone to talk to about the God stuff in
their lives who won't think they are crazy. At the same time there are also
plenty of people in our parishes who could become everyday evangelists with a
small amount of training and encouragement. Faith based conversation groups are
one way of serving both needs.
Bringing up faith matters in conversation doesn't come naturally to most people and you need a fair amount of confidence/holy boldness to even try.
This need to grow in confidence is important. If we start by saying 'God bless you' to family members when saying goodbye in person or on the phone, soon enough it becomes easy and natural to say that to friends, and eventually for it to naturally slip out with strangers.
Likewise we need practice in talking out loud about faith matters in a safe conducive environment. We need to hear ourselves talk about God and discover that it wasn't as hard as we first thought, and that it really is something we could possibly do outside that safe conducive environment. The same goes for getting the confidence to talk to someone down the street and after hearing that one of their loved ones is in hospital, and to then have the further confidence to ask if it's OK and then if given the green light to briefly pray out loud for that hospitalised loved one-or whatever other need was mentioned in that conversation.
There are lots of people who have faith based questions and who don't know who they can safely share those questions with. And yet as soon as you are able to talk with someone about the things that really matter, eg. prayer, experiences of God, dealing with pain and grief, you have forged a life-long friendship. For many of us the people in our lives we can talk about these things with are very few.
So here is a way to run a monthly group on a Saturday morning for about an hour.
The catch is that all of your existing parish friends are already quite at home with talking about faith matters. They don't need it, and they won't come. So you have to be alert for those parishioners on the periphery that God brings across your path and invite them. Most of them already have good faith foundations and get to Sunday Mass regularly, they just haven't had the opportunity for that flame of faith to catch fire though talking about faith matters and getting inspired by hearing about what God has been doing in the lives of others.
This is the plan for how to run the hour:
Bringing up faith matters in conversation doesn't come naturally to most people and you need a fair amount of confidence/holy boldness to even try.
This need to grow in confidence is important. If we start by saying 'God bless you' to family members when saying goodbye in person or on the phone, soon enough it becomes easy and natural to say that to friends, and eventually for it to naturally slip out with strangers.
Likewise we need practice in talking out loud about faith matters in a safe conducive environment. We need to hear ourselves talk about God and discover that it wasn't as hard as we first thought, and that it really is something we could possibly do outside that safe conducive environment. The same goes for getting the confidence to talk to someone down the street and after hearing that one of their loved ones is in hospital, and to then have the further confidence to ask if it's OK and then if given the green light to briefly pray out loud for that hospitalised loved one-or whatever other need was mentioned in that conversation.
There are lots of people who have faith based questions and who don't know who they can safely share those questions with. And yet as soon as you are able to talk with someone about the things that really matter, eg. prayer, experiences of God, dealing with pain and grief, you have forged a life-long friendship. For many of us the people in our lives we can talk about these things with are very few.
So here is a way to run a monthly group on a Saturday morning for about an hour.
The catch is that all of your existing parish friends are already quite at home with talking about faith matters. They don't need it, and they won't come. So you have to be alert for those parishioners on the periphery that God brings across your path and invite them. Most of them already have good faith foundations and get to Sunday Mass regularly, they just haven't had the opportunity for that flame of faith to catch fire though talking about faith matters and getting inspired by hearing about what God has been doing in the lives of others.
This is the plan for how to run the hour:
- Set up all the morning
tea things and chairs well before it begins
- Allow 5 minutes to
gather and get settled
- The next 5 minutes is
given to prayer and introductions/explanations. Prayer being short, a prayer to
the Holy Spirit (the Veni, Sancte Spiritus/Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of
Your faithful etc) and the Hail Holy Queen.
| cmcfaithconversationprayerspdf.pdf |
- Before each session a
page of take home material is prepared with inspiration taken from the writings
of the Popes on evangelisation, ideas for initiating 'God stuff' into a
conversation, ideas for intercession etc. People get a chance to glance through
that, and if time and numbers permit there will be a short role play on introducing
matters of faith into a conversation. 10 minutes at most for this part.
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth001pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth002pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth003pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth004pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth005pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth006pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth007pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth008pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth009pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth010pdf.pdf |
| cmcfaithbasedconversationmonth011pdf.pdf |
- Then we break up into
pairs, allow 5 minutes. Grouping men with men and women with women, and
wherever possible pairing people with those they don't know very well.
- Person A in that pair
then has 10 minutes to lead the conversation naturally into areas of faith-the
aim being to talk about God, to talk about Jesus, and the 'holy grail' being to
talk about the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
- Then Person B in that
pair has a go at leading the conversation, again for 10 minutes.
- Following that is a 5
minute buzz/debrief session about how it went and what we learned about what
was helpful in introducing faith matters.
- Then there is 5
minutes for Person A to briefly pray out loud for the needs of person B in the
pair, and vice versa.
- In conclusion we pray
the prayer that begins 'Lord Jesus, we bring before You all Your baptized
people who are not practicing the Christian faith' and then the prayer of all
disciples, the Our Father.