VIA DE CRISTO NATIONAL SECRETARIAT
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Presented by Oran D. Gough
Via de Cristo of Ohio
July 25, 1997
It was a weekend in a suburban community near a major Midwestern city. There were
about 50 men gathered in a "largish" room usually used for church dinners or larger congregation
functions. The bright Spring sunshine shot through the windows and a lazy fly circled in the
sunbeam. At each place at each table in the room, an open notebook lay. Some notebooks had a
pen resting on them. Some pens were drumming the table softly. Some pens were graving what
appeared to be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics while others created intricate geometric designs or
birds, butterflies and cartoons on the notebooks. Several notebooks supported elbows which in
turn supported the nodding heads of men valiantly struggling to remain awake, some supporting
heads whose owners had conceded the victory to Morpheus and gently slumbered as the speaker
at the front of the room talked on and on about something called environments and their
evangelization--whatever that was.
All in all, a picture all too familiar to those of us who have experienced team service and
recall the circumstances of that last day of our own Via de Cristo or Cursillo(R) weekend.
Should we be concerned?
Just how serious is it that on most weekends both the new participants and the team
experience the last day of Via de Cristo physically exhausted and mentally fatigued? What
should be the status of someone who has attended a weekend? I think we need to answer the
several important questions raised about the nature of Via de Cristo, its objectives, results, role in
the Church, role in Christian Community and validity as a means of Christian renewal.
In the four months that I have known that we would be discussing this subject this
morning, I have had an opportunity to examine my own personal motives and internal reactions
and how those have changed over the last 15 years. I still remember quite clearly my reaction
when first hearing the Cursillo(R) attacked by a mature cursillista because of all the superfluous
things on the weekend. This person specifically attacked all those warm fuzzies, the gewgaws,
brightly colored ribbons, little buttons, pendants, table favors, hand colored place mats and so on
and so on. This obnoxious person actually wanted to go back to basics. He wanted no serenade,
no stations of the cross, no wake-up singing, no festive dinner on Saturday night and no
"Broadway Musical" for the Saturday night decuria. My initial anger centered around the fact
that these warm fuzzies stripped a lot of the ice that surrounded my heart and played an important
role in my personal awakening on my weekend. Eduardo Bonnin, lay founder of the Cursillo
movement compared the weekend to a Christmas tree. "Everyone has an ornament to bring and
soon one can longer see the tree." I want to make it very clear that I am not categorically
opposed to warm fuzzies, I still recognize that the Lord uses these gifts as part of his plan to
break hearts of stone. So, if we're not going back to Weekends with a team of six or eight with
one clergy person, no music, no fancy accommodations, no interaction with community of any
kind, no festive dinner/serenade on Saturday, re-institute total isolation for the weekend
community, what are we going to do? I think most people will we agree that many of the
changes since 1944 have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. How basic is the best basic Weekend?
Perhaps we don't need to make any changes at all?
The idea is that we do need to continuously examine what we are doing in Via de Cristo,
the pre-weekend selection and qualification of participants, the movement's presentation of the
weekend and the relation of a participant's re-insertion into his or her flower pot where they are
expect to "Bloom Where They Are Planted."
One of the primary and strongest messages we have given the weekend participant is that,
"An Isolated Christian is a Paralyzed Christian." Are we culpable, then, if we offer the weekend
experience to a Christian who will return to find that there is no Fourth Day activity to support
them? Are we returning them to a congregation, many members of which will fight "tooth and
nail" to prevent the newly enthusiastic, renewed Christian from participating in any meaningful
way to the mission of their congregation?
The difficulties of re-insertion of what can be a very differently and more strongly
motivated Christian is addressed by Pastor Ron Walter in his portion of our examination of the
results of Via de Cristo as well as his solution for what can be a very difficult process.
I must admit that I, too, have been negligent. I, too, have stood by and watched as a team
in one location or time or another has allowed the message of the weekend to be so de-emphasized by extraneous activity, activities that are primarily beneficial to the team, not the
participants and neither raised my voice in protest nor taken any step to correct practices which
clearly have impaired the effectiveness of a weekend. I, too, have often said, "well even if we do
make a mistake, the Holy Spirit will fix it."
I do think that if we are following faithfully the method given us by the Holy Spirit some
half-century ago there are some expectations which are reasonable. First, the almost universal
perception of all those who experience the weekend should be that they are no longer able to
avoid individual responsibility for their actions before God. Many for the first time will perceive
God as living, real and personal a part of their lives. Their hunger for a closer relationship with
their God, and brother Jesus has been fed with a tantalizing glimpse of what it really can be like
to live in full communion with Him and the loving community which is His body.
The "Short Course in Christianity" Thursday night, Friday and Saturday has collected all
the things a mature Christian has learned since the cradle about Christianity. Fundamental facts
and ideas which for the first time have been presented as a single, unified concept and
experienced in a genuine, living Christian Community. All of this, and the instruction defining
the need for balance in our Christian walk, equal reliance on Piety, Study and Action complete
what has only been an introduction to that which is unique about Via de Cristo and Cursillo, the
Sunday messages.
Those who know me well have often said, "I'm tired of hearing what Eduardo Bonnin
had to say. Do you have to quote him again?" Well, it was to Eduardo Bonnin and his friends
the Holy Spirit entrusted this precious gift which has so enriched now millions of lives around
the world. As the lay founder of Cursillo he is entitled to forge the question to all of us about our
stewardship of that gift. At the Grand Ultreya in Detroit, Michigan three years ago, he faced the
audience and demanded that they "Show him the environments they have evangelized." That,
my brothers and sisters, is the Jackpot question. What environments have you evangelized
personally? With the members of your friendship group reunion? Your environmental group
reunion where you work?...With the others in your Ultreya and in your secretariat's area of
service?
Did the participants on your last weekend complete Sunday with a clear understanding
that the purpose of Via de Cristo is the same as that of the Church...to bring the world to Jesus
Christ. Did they return home committed to join a group reunion, committed to attend Ultreya,
committed to be Christian rather than act Christian? Did you give those precious souls our
brother Jesus entrusted to your care for three days every opportunity to understand the method;
"Make a friend, Be a friend and bring that friend to Christ," and the strategy: "The
Christianization of Environments?"
The point we need to clearly understand that we, as the Via de Cristo community do have
a responsibility before the Holy Spirit for the way we conduct our weekends. When--and only
when we have properly executed the full balanced process of Via de Cristo can we step back and
say our Lord's precious possession is in the Holy Spirit's hands and that we are not responsible
for the outcome of the Via de Cristo experience for that individual.
Properly executed includes the idea that the potential weekend participant selected is a
mature Christian who is hungry for a closer relationship with Christ. The new participant is not
experiencing serious mental, spiritual, emotional or material difficulties. The sponsor has
arranged for the participant's incorporation in a friendship group reunion and has agreed to insure
that they will support the participant closely for a sufficient time after they return. This is the
effective PRE-VIA DE CRISTO/CURSILLO(R).
Properly executed includes the effective execution of the Weekend. It includes talks that
have been properly prepared, critiqued and delivered. It is Eduardo Bonnin, once again, who
tells us that the first talk written for the weekend was the "Study and Evangelization of
Environments" and that all other talks and activities of the weekend are designed to support that
talk. I think that properly executed includes the concept that nothing has been allowed to distort
the focus of the weekend, which means that Sunday has been treated as the most important
element of the weekend and all other activities and elements have been conducted to focus on the
Sunday weekend content.
It means that their have been sufficient prayers, sacrifices, love, and warm fuzzies to
break hearts of stone and melt the most rigid of the "frozen chosen" without obscuring the vital
weekend focus. Remember, only Sunday should be truly new to a mature Christian participant.
Thursday night, Friday and Saturday consist of fundamental Christian truths which have been
taught in Sunday School, Bible Studies, and from the pulpit expressed in countless ways. It is
Sunday which shows the way to the effective execution of the "Great Commission" through the
Via de Cristo/Cursillo(R) method.
Properly executed means that each sponsor has faithfully fulfilled their obligation to their
sponsored weekender. Everyone has their story to share, and I'd like to ask you to be patient as I
share some aspects of my Cursillo(R) experience. My sponsor was a man with whom I'd had
personal difficulties at two congregations. He was one of those cur-SILLY-oh people and I was a
charter member of those chosen who following the good example of my parents and grandparents
decided to freeze myself into a proper Victorian reserve. You know me, I'm the one who always
responded with a sickly smile or shook hands at the exchange of the "peace." Either a smile or
limp handshake, certainly not both! It was Bruce's faithful execution of his sponsor
responsibilities which I truly credit with completing the "internal conversion" of this confirmed,
dedicated "pew potato" into a Christian who can express and transmit the love I have received to
others and able to center my life in Christ. He became my reunion brother and we grouped for
almost five years. He made sure I went to Ultreyas. He helped with my re-insertion into the
body of my congregation. You see the lay and clerical leaders of my congregation had all
experienced a weekend. They gladly welcomed another set of hands to assist in the
congregation's mission. This was a congregational environment that had been evangelized. The
important thing is that I am here today for two reasons: first, Sunday's message was clearly
received by me. Secondly, my sponsor faithfully helped me as I began the first tentative steps of
my renewed walk in faith. I was delighted to note when reading the National Kairos Prison
Ministry Newsletter recently that my brother, Bruce is still faithfully laboring in the Lord's
Vineyards and this month is serving as Rector of a Kairos Weekend in Florida.
Properly executed includes healthful fourth day activities, a community dedicated to
support weekends, their own secretariat's and others with prayer and sacrifice. A Via de Cristo
community ready to incorporate each new weekender and members of each congregation ready to
provide support. Do support each weekend's closing. Do write letters to let weekenders know
what efforts you are making personally in support of their weekend.
Before we conclude it is perhaps important to make sure we all really understand what
Via de Cristo,Cursillo(R), Walk to Emmaus, et al really are. We are not a school designed to
make Weekend Team "Junkies", nor are we creating a new race of "Super Christians." It was
not the intention of creating a "Church Within The Church" that motivated that small band of
Christian young men in on the Spanish Island of Majorca, a half century ago. What the Holy
Spirit gave them was a new tool. It was hopefully, a means to awaken the slumbering Christian
heart by stripping away all the excuses we use to rationalize our failures to answer the clear call
of our Lord Jesus to be his apostles and disciples. Via de Cristo and Cursillo(R) is a tool to help
us to become fully aware of the value of His sacrifice for us, to be humbly aware of our lowly
status as the sheep of His pasture, yet to be confidently aware of our status as children of the
living God and brother to our Lord and King. This tool is to make alive a faith we already
possess. The dynamics of the weekend are designed to allow us to make ourselves truly
vulnerable so that we can receive the gifts of love and the Holy Spirit. To make ourselves
vulnerable is to place that part deep inside, where we truly live and feel, at risk, to receive, the
scales and armor must be stripped away. Then the Holy Spirit takes that tiny spark ignited by our
close encounter with our brother Jesus, as He blows the spark to a flame that burns so brightly all
can see that we have changed. That we are no longer the same. Our self orientation now
becomes re-focused on Jesus and all those He loves unceasingly, without reservation. We try to
see the world and people through His eyes.
This special method and strategy came about when Bonnin and his friends realized that in
using the process one person at a time they weren't getting very far, very fast. At the rate they
were progressing their goal of Christianizing the World was going to take thousands of years. He
and his friends all believe that the method and strategy were given to them by the Holy Spirit as a
direct result of prayer. This method is designed to short-cut the one-on-one process by studying
an environment, identify its leader(s) and the structure which supports that environment and
bringing the leaders of that environment to Christ, facilitating the whole group's conversion.
The point is that we all should have a good knowledge of every possible aspect of Via de
Cristo, its dynamics, its problems and its difficulties. If your Secretariat is not providing such a
program, why not? Help get a program going. In Ohio, we have what we call "Leaders School"
which is a very comprehensive instructional program about our movement. But if you don't have
that resource, search out the information on your own. How did that line from the weekend go?
We should act like everything depends on us and pray like everything depends on Him. We need
to educate ourselves fully in all the materials made available through the NLS Distribution
Center and the foundational writings of our movement's founders. We need to support every
educational effort made by our local or the National Secretariat. Once we know what we're
doing, we need to assist others to gain that knowledge. Like the one servant who pleased his
Lord by being faithful in little things we need to pay careful and continuous attention to our
fulfillment of our Via de Cristo responsibilities and the consequences of our conduct of the
process. But whatever we do our efforts need to be saturated in love.
Let me close now with some words from the Apostle Paul. These words come from First
Corinthians, opening Chapter 13, and immediately precede some of the most frequently cited
verses in the New Testament,
"If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Ultreya!
Rev. Ronald Walter
De Colores! Yesterday, Ray gave us many, many pointers about how we can effectively
manage our movement through secretariats. Oran just gave us some excellent challenges for
putting our third day together - emphasizing the importance of following through with our
candidates/Cursillistas as they return home. I would like to take a bit different approach today. I
would like to say some things that probably will stretch a little bit (or maybe challenge a little bit)
our NLS, our individual secretariats, and most of all our pastors and congregations. It is they who
are the primary base for which all of our candidates come to a weekend.
Now I know what I am going to say today is not going to apply to all secretariats. It's not
going to apply to all pastors and congregations. However, I think that throughout our United
States and throughout the ELCA, what I say is more true than not.
Christ's transfiguration is used on the last day of many weekends to inform soon-to-be-leaving candidates that they, too -- like Peter, James and John -- must leave this mountain top
experience and re-enter their former world of family, church, and community. When Jesus led
his disciples off the mountain into the real world, back into their daily life, He didn't release
them to go and save the world on their own. Jesus realized that they were not yet ready. Another
year was spent preparing them for the work ahead. Before He ascended, the Lord made His
disciples promise that they would wait until they were empowered and commissioned (at
Pentecost by the Holy Spirit).
By the third day of the weekend, most candidates realize that, to a great degree, they have
now experienced what it means to live in the love, support, and security of a Christian
community -- if only for a short time. By the third day, many or most of them are wondering
why daily life back home cannot be like this experience. The thoughtful ones are beginning to
ask, "Am I ready to go back?" "Will I be able to use this which I have experienced back in my
environment?" "What if it's not enough?"
According to our Essentials of the Via de Cristo manual, each weekend strives to provide
tools that will encourage the candidates to maintain a Christian walk. The weekend also provides
methods which will serve as a back bone for daily life in their world. The manual also promises
that each candidate will leave the weekend with a clearer understanding of Christianity, a
powerful experience in the Christian community and a desire to be in group reunion as a means
to live and to keep faith active. In that manual, candidates are also encouraged to find their own
role (or as I would call it their own"niche") in their own Christian community -- which in most
cases refers to the Church.
The big question is "These candidates who are being commissioned on Sunday afternoon
with the charge "Christ is counting on you" - are they adequately prepared to find their own niche
or role in their own church and in their own community? Are they ready to face a church
community which often does not know what to do with these newly on-fire-for-the-Lord
members? Will further equipping and empowering be needed back in their own congregations?
Will participation in group reunions and Ultreyas be enough for them to make this sometimes
very, very difficult transition into the real world? Each weekend must guard against leaving the
candidates with the idea that they are now fully prepared to go back to their families, churches,
and communities.
Granted each returnee will be encouraged to join a reunion group and to attend the
Ultreyas faithfully. Their reunion group will serve for them the important function of creating a
small group where their faith can be supported, their effectiveness in their environments
reviewed, and where they can receive further encouragement for Christian action. The Cursillo
founders knew that small groups need a larger community for balance, stimulation, fellowship,
and common purpose. But neither reunion group nor Ultreya, I believe, has the primary goal of
the re-integration of returnees back into their own congregations and communities. In reality, the
need to recapture the weekend's warm, loving Christian community often moves returnees to
associate only with Via de Cristo folks. They forget that a true Christian group exists only as
long as it reaches out to those around them and the world. As grouping and Ultreyas become the
principal focus of their spiritual journey, their attitude may lead others to see them as a tight knit
clinch of people who have attended a Via de Cristo weekend. Spiritual growth comes from
focusing on others, not on self. Rather than focusing primarily on their own needs, God wants
them to come to know the value of ministering to others as a means of ministering to self.
We're living in a time when multitudes around us are perishing for the wont of God's
love, while 90% of the mainline churches in America today are experiencing rapidly declining
memberships. At the same time, churches are blossoming as never before in other parts of the
world. Our country now represents one of the greatest untapped mission fields in the world
today. I believe that this decline is caused by congregations that have turned inward, boxing
themselves into like-minded groups who are not making use of all of the God-given resources
available to them.
American mainline churches have forgotten the call to reach out beyond themselves. As
a result, day in and day out, lay people (including our returnees from the weekend) are given the
role of spectators. They are not allowed to use their spiritual gifts -- to renew not only the face of
the earth but also the face of their own congregation. Soon many would-be evangelists for the
Lord drop out or get involved in conflict situations in their own church. Why? Because their
own church and its leadership have failed to include them in the process of revitalizing the
church.
Nothing puts purpose and meaning into life like knowing that what one is doing is an
important part of God's plan for the world. I believe that God wants to use Via de Cristo as one
of the ways to reverse this decline of Christianity in America. It can work if Via de Cristo
remains a healthy movement within the church. A healthy movement like Via de Cristo is one
that is confident in its purpose, secure in its love of the God it serves, and certain that its primary
reason for existence is not to group, not to go to Ultreyas, nor to attend weekends, but to reach
out to those people who need to know of a gracious God and the saving presence of His son
Jesus Christ.
A healthy movement is never secure with the status quo. Measured risks must not be
viewed as opportunities to fail, but as chances to experience new and creative ways to reach
people. Gains come only through a willingness to step out boldly. Playing it safe stifles action
and lacks vision. My heartaches for the scores of churches where there is no vision -- churches
who live in the past and are content to conduct business as usual. Like new babes in the faith,
returnees have reached a very significant turning point in their life. They wish to make a new
commitment to the Lord and to the Church. What a window of opportunity for pastors and
congregations to use these excited servants who are wanting to sacrifice their time and their
energy to do so! What a time to capitalize on their desires and talents -- helping them to be all
that God created and called them to be! What an opportunity to accept each as a fellow worker --
not simply as a fresh body available, at the moment, to plug the most gaping hole. Each returnee
comes with an intense and unshakable belief that God is capable of using his/her gifts. Each
believes that he/she has been called to ministry by God and thereby expects Him to bless their
efforts. I believe that each returnee has received the best preparation that a weekend can give
with the limited time available. I believe that involvement in reunion groups and Ultreya can
help them remain committed to the promise made at the end of the third day. Christ is counting
on you. But I also believe that the main obstacle for those entering their Fourth Day may be their
own congregation and pastor's inability to assimilate them into the life and the mission of the
congregation and community.
The Lord said it best, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Therefore, ask
the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Each returnee's church needs to
provide a new window of opportunity for these eager workers to enter the harvest field. Re-entry
time with their pastor can be one of the best ways in which they can be given the permission to
reach out beyond themselves to as many others as possible.
The time is ripe for new models of ministry to be tried, tested, refined, and used in the
church. The time is ripe for a new generation of Christian leaders and servants to emerge - ready
to lead the church into a new age of growth and change. The time is ripe for the knowledge that
if one is going to do something great for God, one must be willing to face the obstacles before
him/her. Unfortunately, when the going gets tough for many of our returnees, those unable to
persevere will give up. Can we in good conscience, allow this to happen? I believe that the key
lies with the returnee's pastor. I believe that we need somehow to encourage and to assist each
returnee's pastor, along with carefully chosen leaders in the congregation who are either fully
aware of the dynamics of a Via de Cristo weekend or who have attended themselves, to help each
returnee re-enter the congregation's mission and ministry. After a weekend, new returnees need
a brief period to stabilize -- a time to catch their breath before forging ahead. Ideally, assistance
should be offered as soon as possible after the weekend as an act of support and encouragement.
This time together should be open to the rest of the congregation and to the Via de Cristo
community.
Why do I feel so strongly about suggesting something which adds to our tradition, and
may risk the claim that something extra is not essential and brings more adiaphora to the
movement.
All organizations, especially the Church, falls under the influence of the "80/20
principle." In the typical congregation 20% of the membership does 80% of the work of mission
and ministry. These same 20% typically provide 80% of the financial support and are the ones
who make up the majority of the faithful who attend worship services each Sunday. These same
faithful souls serve as the bulk of the ushers, the Altar Guild, the choir, women's and men's
organizations, the church council, and the committees of the church.
Many pastors face the difficult task of assimilating new people into this well entrenched
20% circle. For these new, excited, Spirit-filled volunteers to go to work in their own
congregation, assistance must be provided to break through a well-guarded barrier of inertia that
discourages them from entering until they have paid their dues. This time together can also be
designed to make each returnee aware of the dynamics of the congregation and to help them see
the many opportunities to find their niche. It can give them the assurance that they will not have
to make this re-entry alone. The process would look at individual gifts and where they can best
be used, such as visiting the sick or shut-ins (hospitalized or in nursing homes). Perhaps it can
be participating in a prayer ministry, or a helping hands network or teaching children or adults.
We should also make them aware of the many opportunities for outreach in their own
community, such as helping the poor, homeless, and jailed. Volunteering for Habitat for
Humanity, the hospital auxiliary, and a number of other community service agencies and support
groups. They need to know that each community service is an extension of the church's ministry
when it is done in the name of the Lord and as a member of that congregation.
Jesus spent three years with his disciples before they were prepared to be dedicated,
faithful servants, teachers, and evangelists. When ultimately sent, they were equipped to go into
the world -- baptizing and teaching in the name of the Lord.
I believe that the returnee's pastor, who is now their new spiritual director, must be the
one who assumes the responsibility to prepare them to put this new-found zeal into practice -- to
renew the face of the earth. The congregation and its leadership and, most importantly, the
pastor now have the responsibility to identify each person's gifts and talents and provide for
these gifts and talents to be used in a significant way.
With loving care, these new servants can be supported and encouraged, monitored for the
possibility of burnout, watched for any problems which the role they are asked to play may
provide. Care must be taken not to assign their warm bodies to undone tasks in the church, but
rather care should be taken to enable them to grow in their area of giftedness. Just as muscles in
the body can only develop with exercise and training, servanthood only grows stronger through
continued guidance, affirmation, and experience. I believe each returnee's pastor must be a
person of insight and vision - one who senses the importance of including all willing workers in
the congregation's work and ministry. A pastor has only 168 hours each week, and a limited
amount of energy. The only way the pastor can extend and expand his or her time and leadership
is to delegate responsibilities and ministries to others, while remembering the principle that either
you use them or you lose them. No one wants to invest their time and energy in a ship dead in
the water. Nevertheless, people will line up to follow pastors, called by God, who know where
they are going, who serve the Lord with enthusiasm and who do everything possible to get their
people to go with them.
The Via de Cristo weekend helps returnees to know their mission in life. Returnees learn
who they are and where they are headed, and why it is vital for them to get there. However, I
believe that they need additional assistance at the congregational level to help them know how
they can get there. A plan must be developed for them to achieve that goal. With the Spirit's
help, and with Via de Cristo's continued support, and with their congregation's commitment to
assist them, returnees can further grow and mature in their willingness to labor long hours, to
sacrifice personal resources, and to enter into serious prayer and study.
Without this attitude driving them, each will soon give in to the existing image of a
church whose attitude resists change, lacks vision and has lost its purpose and meaning. Unless
their attitude reflects a heart renewed and unless they are given the opportunity to use it, I believe
the entire weekend and the mission and the ministry of their church becomes a charade.
In a world filled with hurting people who do not know about a Grace-ful God, the
returnees must be given the opportunity to be part of the solution. Having been touched by the
love of Christ, it is only natural that they would want to return the favor by sharing that love with
others. But as they face less-than-desirable outcomes within their own church and community,
discouragement comes easy. Reunion groups, Ultreya meetings, and the congregation serve the
important role of helping returnees focus their newfound excitement for mission, ministry, and
service.
Real servanthood is not a spectator sport. It is a participatory, hands-on way of life.
Compelled by a calling and a desire, rather than an obligation, those who have completed a
weekend do not wish to be observers. They want to become active participants in their
congregation's ministry and they want to make a difference in their community. None want to
divorce their faith from their lifestyles; their faith is now their lifestyle. They want to take
seriously the classical Reformation doctrine of "the priesthood of all believers." They are eager
to participate -- because they want to, and because they are genuinely excited about the potential
results. They want to devote their time, money, and energy to those matters which they consider
to be important, and which fulfill their calling as servants of the Lord.
Can the Church..Can their pastor..Can we in the Via de Cristo movement do anything less
than help them reach these worthy goals? Ultreya!!
Small Groups
"Five Recommendations to Encourage
Fourth Day Pilgrims
to Stretch Beyond the Comfort Zone"
The heading they have is "Ready for service." (1)Search out pastor and ask where service is
needed. (2) A sponsor monitor - a person who contacts the sponsors after the weekend and
checks that Cursillistas are getting involved. (3) Work in synod to get recognition of Via de
Cristo. (4) Grace. (5) We all need to help the new Cursillistas.
Re: Oran's remarks: (1) The candidates need to be properly screened. (2) It was
important to keep to the basics and to follow through on all parts of the weekend. (3) To build
disciples that are reaching out. (4) To reach past the Via de Cristo community. (5) Do we need
to be concerned about how effective talks are on Sunday?
Re: Pastor Ron: The pastor and sponsor need to work together with the returning
weekenders (Hebrews 10:24-25). Appoint persons to lead people back into the church. Invite
non-Cursillistas to Ultreyas. Train sponsors. Identify spiritual gifts.
Have meetings with pastors and pilgrims to discuss their weekend to find where they can
be used. A committee to integrate pilgrims into the community. Get them into the 20% and not
into the 80%. Have coordinators with the church. Have many send-offs at home church.
Eduardo Bonnin's vision is as good today as it was years ago. They agreed that it was
important to continue to evaluate the process that we're doing it. They felt that the dynamics of
the weekend is what makes many become vulnerable to be ready for the purposes of the weekend
-- art, music, agape leading totals using all of our sense to worship, study and learn. The Holy
Spirit hits us when we let our walls down.
Pastor Ron: (1) The United States is one of the greatest mission fields open today.
(2) Pastors and the spiritual director should coordinate so that pastors individually are ready to
use the new weekenders as they return to their congregation. (3)There ought to be a follow-up
appointment between the pastor and the returning weekend participant and a letter from the
secretariat to let the pastor know how the returnees can work in the home community.
Communication from the spiritual directors of the movement to individual pastors.
(1) Pastor needs to be the enabler. (2) Mentoring system should be set up where the
returnee walks with an already plugged in person in a vital servant role. (3) People need to be
shepherded until they are settled into a reunion group. Courage comes often when they don't
have to step out alone. (4) The plan to act should come out and be nurtured by the group
reunion. (5) What are the returnee's gifts? What do they like to do? Where would they like to
grow?
Importance of follow-up on the candidates after the weekend. The role of the sponsor
should play an important part in the overall process.
Concern for specific means of re-inserting the returnee into the congregation, the
congregation's life, and its activities and mission.
Five recommendations: Commitment to follow up the week after the weekend. (Re: get-together) It is suggested to have a get together to answer questions of the returning weekenders.
We shouldn't be pushing people through the weekend process just for the sake of numbers and
count. The improper use of Via de Cristo to convert or save a person. We need to persevere
with the participant because it may take time for them to process and assimilate all the things
they encountered on the weekend.
We shouldn't be afraid to fail in our action. We are called to sow the seeds and may not
always watch them grow. We are to go back to our reunion groups for support and
encouragement. Sponsor's commitment is critical to the successful integration of a new
Cursillista. Lay people -- the other Fourth Day community members leadership -- are also
accountable for integrating new pilgrims back into their environments. Pray, pray, and then pray
some more. Depend on the Lord and the Holy spirit and not on yourself.
(1) Don't cheat the Sunday schedule. The high point of the weekend is Sunday. (2) Focus
on issues not emotionalism. (3) All team should be in a reunion group. (4) In 1998, the NLS
should schedule one of the forums on leaders training. (5) Coordinate information from
secretariats that do have care and feeding of pastors to share with those who don't, so we don't
have to re-invent the wheel.
(1) If your pastor has not attended a weekend, encourage him to go; become a gentle force
in getting him to a weekend. (2) Sit down with the pastor whether he or she has attended or not
and discuss his/her role with the people who are re-entering. (3) Have the pilgrim's and the
church leaders meet to see what they can do to support and nourish the church. (4) Choose a
liaison to the pastor and the council that will help to coordinate the energy of the pilgrims into a
constructive way in being assimilated into the existing structure of the church. (5) Have the
pilgrim stretch his or her comfort zone in that he or she will go to others not involved in Via de
Cristo and demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ that was learned in a non-threatening way. (6)
Meet with the bishop and pastors at a synod or district level to enlighten and to teach.
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