Catechetical Leader Podcast

I agree with John's basic analysis and goals. I would suggest two further reflections on some of his points: (1) While I concur that families are critically important, how we reach out to them (families) is vitally important. Family life is currently suffering high stress, due to multiple factors. We need to approach them much more pastorally than we currently do. Coming to them through something like small christian communities may be more productive. New means of social networking may be instrumental in this. Much like the examples John provides in his presentation. Families first need support and nurture. With the collapse of family life ministry in the Catholic Church, families have become targets of reactive responses rather than support and nurture. As John suggests toward the end of the dialogue, partnering with other communities may provide us some insights in action. (2) I couldn't agree more with John's suggestion that we need to personalize the scenarios for his quartet of 'churches'. More like Paul did for the variuous first churches. In my experience, each of those four scenarios John describes are further broken down by regional and local color. We need to be attentive to these differences, just like some of us are to local dialects and sounds. Instead of being reactive, we need to build on this local color. Seems to me that should be a natural talent for a sacramental church. (I am amazed as I moved to Florida, how different the church is here!). As an aging boomer, I am personally enjoying the evolution of the church, and am only saddened that its institutional self is evolving proportionately slow to its 'people of God' self.