Human and Pastoral Formation Workshops
These workshops are to assist candidates in the formation of quality personal and professional skills for
lay ministry.
Workshop: Serving the Local Church
This workshop is designed to bring participants in the certification program together with the diocesan bishop and other personnel to focus on developing an understanding of Church government, policies, values and procedures. Candidates gain a more complete understanding of the local Church and its particular character.
Workshop: The Challenge of Professional Leadership I: Personal Skills in Ministry Leadership
This workshop will focus on enhancing personal skills necessary for successful pastoral leadership and maintaining appropriate ministerial relationships. Skills include self-care and self-expression, sensitivity and listening, and group dynamics and facilitation.
Workshop: The Challenge of Professional Leadership II: Planning and Organization in the Parish
This workshop will focus on necessary professional skills for lay ministers including developing and supervising of paid and volunteer staff, goal setting and strategic planning, and organizational change.
Workshop: Stewardship and Lay Ministry
This workshop focuses on important skills for lay ministry in the areas of stewardship and development and record keeping in the parish setting. It may be broken into two single-day workshops as follows:
- Stewardship programs and parish development
- Basic record keeping and scheduling in the parish
Workshop: Liturgical Presiding Skills
This workshop focuses on the development of liturgical presiding and preaching skills appropriate to the lay minister. The use of liturgical books, liturgical planning and the employment of parish resources as well the personal liturgical spirituality of the lay minister will be explored. The preaching component of this workshop focuses on understanding the role of the lay preacher in the liturgical assembly as well as the development of quality preaching skills outside the Eucharist. Participants will practice spontaneous prayer, presiding at a variety of prayer services, and liturgical planning.
Workshop: Special Issues in Church Ministry
This workshop focuses on three areas of ministry: social ministry, ecumenical ministry and multicultural ministry. While the workshop focuses on specific ministerial issues, grounded in documents of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the workshop is also flexible enough to meet the particular ministerial issues faced by each diocese.
Workshop: Legal and Ethical Issues in Lay Ministry
This course focuses on professional ethics for parish ministers and the function and parameters of canon law in pastoral ministry.