Sharing The Faith That Is In Us Workshop
As a follow up to this convention, we offer here the videos and talks as well as this Sharing The Faith That Is In Us workshop created by Bishop Scott Benhase. Canon Logue’s presentation offers the why and how of sharing faith. This workshop adds content to share from our own lives, helping each person get in touch with how God has been a part of his or her life through a series of spiritual exercises. The full PDF is online here.
An Overview
The design of this workshop trains lay leaders to lead other laity through the spiritual exercises that follow so that, when completed, the participants will have a greater competency and comfort level for sharing their faith, and thus the faith of the Church, with those outside the Church. Ideally the workshop would be divided as follows into four spiritual exercises done in small groups of 3-4 persons each:
- Experiencing separation from God
- How we have run away from God
- God’s love and acceptance of us
- Telling how our personal story connects with God’s story
Workshop Schedule
The total time for the workshop is approximately six hours. Each spiritual exercise should take about one hour with a 5-minute break built into that hour. An hour-long meal break should be factored in between the third and fourth spiritual exercise. So, for example, if the first spiritual exercise began at 9:30 a.m. a lunch break would occur at 12:30 p.m. with the fourth spiritual exercise beginning at 1:30 p.m. The workshop, using this example, would begin at 9 a.m. with introductions of the participants, a brief overview of the workshop by the leaders, and then an abbreviated form of Morning Prayer with centering prayer or other form of silent meditation as a part of it to relax the participants and set the spiritual tone of the workshop. The workshop would conclude, again using this example, at 3:00 p.m. with the preceding half hour being given over to feedback and brief evaluation of the experience from the participants. The following shows the example described above:
9:00 a.m. – Gathering, introductions, overview, morning prayer, focused meditation
9:30 a.m. – Spiritual Exercise # 1
10:30 a.m. – Spiritual Exercise # 2
11:30 a.m. – Spiritual Exercise # 3
12:30 p.m. – Lunch
1:30 p.m. – Spiritual Exercise # 4
2:30 p.m. – Evaluation, Feedback, and Closing Prayer, and
3:00 p.m. – Sending Forth
The above is just an example. Any six-hour period of time would suffice as long as the breaks, particularly the meal break, is included in the order described above. The desired outcome of this workshop, as noted above, is to help participants gain greater competence in their baptismal vows, particularly sharing how the Good News of God in Christ has changed their lives.
The full PDF of the Sharing the Faith That Is in Us material is online here.
