I spent my whole life avoiding the principal’s office. So I was surprised to find myself facing a room of 50 principals and administrators.

The Diocese of Richmond asked me to lead a faith formation day and gave me free rein over the content and flow of the day. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

I’ve led faculty faith formation workshops many times but I had never been given a room, a microphone, and the Catholic School leadership of an entire diocese. As a parent I have weighed the value proposition of sending my children to Catholic School. As a youth minister I have seen the strengths and dealt with the deficiencies of Catholic Schools in the lives of my youth group teens. I’ve heard far too many teens argue that after 8, 10, 12 years of Catholic education, they “had given the Catholic faith a fair shake” and decided it just wasn’t for them. Parents and teachers often have a difficult time making a convincing argument in response and suddenly, the Catholic School has been used against itself. This… is crushing.

As a Parent, a Youth Minister and as a Catholic, I have an enormous desire to help our Catholic Schools not only succeed, but thrive. I was pretty excited when they handed me the mic.

Two primary targets of the day

1. Ministering to Administrators.
   This meant leading them into a time of authentic (non cheesy) reflection and prayer. Where had God moved in their lives and where was God leading them now? How has God called them to a ministry and not just a job? It’s important that we get out of “going through the motions” of a day of faith formation, and actually get into the heart of our relationship with our Father.

2. The value proposition of Catholic Faith (and Schools) & Solving Real Challenges
   This value proposition begins solving real challenges and quickly shows why a Catholic School is better positioned than any other kind of school to equip young people for their future. No STEM lab, athletic program, teacher/student ratio can hold a candle to the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Sacraments to equip a person to confront the challenges life throws at them. We should be excited about excellent academics and extracurriculars, we should be thrilled, convicted, and absolutely on fire for the reality that what students receive in the context of faith equips them forever in ways nothing else can. If we are excited about it and see the impact of these things in our own lives, it’s easy to share that excitement with parents, faculty, staff and students. If we get this right we start answering the challenges faced by many Catholic Schools - a lack of vibrant Catholic culture, staff who aren’t enthusiastic about the Catholic mission, parents who don’t “buy in” or see any difference between a Catholic School and any other school. This content isn’t new and it isn’t difficult to understand, in fact, it’s written into our baptism, it’s written into our theology, it’s written into how God is accomplishing his mission of salvation in the world, it’s written in the lives of the Disciples as they went out as Apostles- it is how God has equipped the faithful to accomplish the mission of the Church. It matters.

As with most of my events, the metric of success is when a participant comes up and shares that “This was way better, and WAY different than I had expected.” This is good and bad. Good that they had a good experience, bad that this was the first time they had heard this content delivered in such a context. I was grateful to subsequently offer faculty retreats for a number of the schools and to help equip the teachers there.

The new evangelization is a call to present the Gospel afresh with vibrant and new methods and ardor- I can’t think of anywhere it would be easier to make concrete moves towards realizing the new evangelization than in our Catholic Schools. Let’s take seriously our relationship with Christ, our ministry to the Church, and the practice of our faith. Let’s get fired up over the tangible reality of God in our lives. Let’s be awe struck that our God sees our humanity and yet calls and equips us for holiness. We are never alone and we have nothing to fear for we are His sons and daughters, and that is an unbelievably valuable gift to give our students.

If you are interested in discussing this or other topics Dan can offer your Diocese or School, contact him through the contact & booking page.