ACTS II EVANGELIZATION LEADERSHIP TRAINING GUIDES AVAILABLE HERE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1
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Why the Parish Small Group System
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1
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The Purpose of the Parish Small Group System
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4
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PART 2
General Format for the Small Group Home Gathering
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5
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● Format for Weeks 1, 3 and 5
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6
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● Format for Week 2
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7
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● Format for Week 4
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8
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● A fuller discussion of the format of the Small Group Home Gathering
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9
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● Song and praise
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9
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● Praying and sharing the Scriptures
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9
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● Personal testimony and witness
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10
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● Business
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10
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● Intercessory prayer
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11
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● principle One
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11
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● principle Two
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11
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● principle Three
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12
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● principle Four
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12
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● Special prayer for healing
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12
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● Times for the general format
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14
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PART 3
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The Thrust of the Parish Small Group System
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15
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The ACTS II Process and the R.C.I.A
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16
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Characteristics and Accountability of the Parish Small Group System
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18
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The Success of the Parish Small Group System
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20
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Who Can Come to the Small Group Home Gathering
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22
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Size of the Small Group
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23
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Small Group Leaders of the Small Group Home Gatherings: Who should be a small group leader?
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24
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The Vision and Goal of the ACTS II Process
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29
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Companions
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31
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APPENDIX
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Principles for Communal Scriptural Prayer in the Small Group Home Gathering
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33
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Weekly Small Group Report
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38
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Area/District Leader Evaluation of the Small Group Home Gathering
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42
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Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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46
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Bibliography
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(SAMPLE)
LEADER'S
EVANGELIZATION TRAINING GUIDE
LEADER'S
PREFACE, WHY THE PARISH SMALL GROUP SYSTEM & PURPOSE
Preface
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you ....You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that
whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another"
(John 15:12,16f).
The Lord's desire for his people is that there be a genuine concern for one another, that each person becomes
a caring, bearing, sharing person. Love is more than warm feelings that tend to disappear when inconvenient
demands are being asked. Rather, love is the deliberate decision to serve those in need.
Exodus 18:13-22
clearly shows the need for pastoral care to be shared. Both Moses and the
people were being worn out because the burden of caring for all the people was too heavy for Moses.
In our parishes today, there is a similar situation. The pastor is expected to carry the burden of all the
parish families. A crying need for capable people willing to take pastoral responsibility for their brother
and sister parishioners is being felt.
Many Catholics have become inactive because they do not experience a caring community within the parish.
Very few people reach out to those they do not know. The result is many lonely people. If a simple
introduction within the Mass is so difficult to do, how is it going to be possible for real caring to take place?
The Parish Small Group System of ACTS II is an effort to make caring for one another a reality. As more and
more parishioners are evangelized and become evangelizers, the parish will become an evangelizing community of
people who know how to care for one another, and how to reach out to those who do not know Jesus, and bring them
into this community of the Church. This is made possible through the parish small group networking system.
The responsibility of caring belongs not just to one person or to a few, but to everyone. In this, the whole
parish can "endure and be at peace"
Exodus 18:21-23.
In
Numbers 11:16-17
, we see again that one person cannot bear the burden alone. A team of
people is needed. Because it is a team effort, parishes need some organizational structure to assure that
everyone is cared for by good small group leaders.
If we reflect on the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapters one to four, we see what happened to the
disciples when the Holy Spirit came upon them on Pentecost. They were no longer afraid or concerned
for themselves. Filled with the boldness of the Holy Spirit, they reached out to the people telling them
about Jesus and caring for their needs. The numbers of those who believed in Jesus increased. And there was
no needy person among them because everyone shared what they had (
Acts 4:34f;
2:45).
The Parish Small Group System is an effort to shoulder responsibility for one another
and to relieve the pastor of the entire burden. Shared responsibility is what the Lord calls his people
to undertake. The Holy Spirit is the one who equips each for serving, for caring (
1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
Parishes will be renewed and become evangelistic in nature when the people of God are themselves evangelized
and learn to call on the Holy Spirit to inspire them to care, enable them to share, and empower them to bear
one another's burdens.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WHY THE PARISH SMALL GROUP SYSTEM
A. The need for small groups with their intimacy, mutual care, support, and discipline is absolutely essential if the Christian is to survive in a post-
Christian society.
1. A personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must be
tied to a covenant commitment to the body of Christ.
2. Believers must be ready to take some agreed responsibility for their
own lives and for the lives of their brothers and sisters in the faith.
3. Commitment to Christ, no matter how sincere, has a way of evapora-
ting with time, if not tied to and reinforced by specific commitments
and disciplines which under gird the corporate experience of the
Christian community. This kind of commitment is necessary if the
body of Christ is to live and maintain the values of the kingdom of God
within an antagonistic cultural environment.
B. Only a covenant community has the sociological strength to be a Christian
counterculture in a deteriorating hedonistic society.
C. The Parish Small Group System is heavily based on three principles that
form the foundation for its existence and success:
1. Evangelization (conversion, proclamation, community).
2. Prayer and fasting.
a) All leaders and small group members are expected to spend at
least one hour per week before the Blessed Sacrament.
b) All leaders and small group members, who are able, fast on a
weekly basis.
3. Tithing.
All leaders and small group members are expected to be stewardship
members of the parish, tithing 5% of their income to the parish and 5%
to their favorite charities (one of them is the Association).
D. There are two special small groups within the Parish Small Group System:
the Servant Group and the Coordinators' Team.
1.
The Servant Group, made up of the following people:
-the Coordinators (one of whom is the Director and another a Co-
Director),
-the Area Leaders, and a
-Secretary,
is responsible for overseeing the unfolding and well being of the Parish
Small Group System within the parish. They meet weekly to pray and
to plan.
a) The Area Leaders are men and women who have been successful
in their professions and now bring to the community and to church
ministry their expertise in business.
b) Each week the Area Leader brings to this meeting his/her feedback
from the small group leaders under his/her jurisdiction. The role
of the Area Leader is weekly visitation of the Small Group Home
Gatherings.
2.
The Coordinators: the other special small group within the Parish Small
Group System is that of the Coordinators. They oversee the ACTS II
Process which culminates in the Parish Small Group System.
a) They hold their small group meeting weekly and basically follow the
same format as all small groups with some modification.
b) The Coordinators function as a team in taking overall responsibility
for the progress and well being of ACTS II in the parish.
c) They meet as well to evaluate and report on the progress of the
ACTS II Process which they share with the Servant Group.
d) The Coordinators are accountable to the Pastor through their Director
and Co-Director.
E. Experience has shown that the Parish Small Group System does work but
those involved must be 100% committed to it. It is not a program but a "way
of life".
1. A great effort must be made to rekindle the spirit of evangelization within
our Catholic people -- a spirit that has too long been buried.
2. This spirit of evangelization needs to be recovered so that a viable living
organism, the Church, can be present on every block.
3. The 'evangelized' must become the 'evangelizers'.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE PURPOSE OF THE PARISH SMALL GROUP SYSTEM *
A. The main purpose of the Parish Small Group System is to be an evangelistic
outreach community. It's very reason for existence is to enable its members:
1. To be drawn to love the Lord Jesus Christ ever more deeply:
2. To grow in love and appreciation of one another.
3. To reach out and share Jesus with others.
4. To grow in sensitivity to the needs of others, and in one's ability to minister
to these needs within the body of Christ.
5. To grow in how to give and to receive love and support.
6. To raise up new leaders for the Church.
7. To grow in its Catholic identity as Church.
B. These purposes are read at the beginning of each weekly meeting.
* (For more on this topic, see: 6AA, Session Two, VII, The Purpose of the
Parish Small Group System; Community Handbook, Part 2, Appendix 5,
Part 1, F).
ACTS II EVANGELIZATION LEADERSHIP TRAINING GUIDES AVAILABLE HERE