Adult Faith Formation Toolkit

Design Process

1.  Explore: An Introduction
2. Assess: Listen to Parishioners
3. Plan: Strategies
4. Review: Resources for the Content of Parish Programs
5. Dig Deeper: Additional Resources to Study This Topic 

Part 1. Explore: An Introduction

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​1. Three Goals of Adult Faith Formation, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, from their 1999 document, Our Hearts Were Burning within Us
​2. Global Trends and Adult Trends Affecting the Future of Faith Formation - report from LifelongFaith.com
​3. Adult Faith Formation Practices - from http://www.reimaginefaithformation.com/adults.html
​From research studies, current thinking and practice in adult education and learning, and contemporary theory and practice in faith formation, we can identify eight features that provide the foundations upon which to build a twenty-first century approach to adult faith formation for all of the seasons of adulthood. (From Chapter One in The Seasons of Adult Faith Formation)
  1. Adult faith formation is life-stage/generational - addressing the unique life tasks, needs, interests, and spiritual journeys of people at each stage of adulthood; and intergenerational - engaging adults in the life and events of church life and the Christian faith through participation in the intergenerational faith experiences.
  2. Adult faith formation is missional - expanding and extending the church’s presence through outreach, connection, relationship building, and engagement with adults where they live; and providing pathways for people to consider or reconsider the Christian faith, to encounter Jesus and the good news, and to live as disciples in a supportive faith community.
  3. Adult faith formation addresses the diverse  life tasks and situations, needs and interests, and spiritual and faith journeys of adults in four stages of adulthood - young adults (20s-30s), midlife adults (40s-50s), mature adults (mid 50s-mid 70s), and older adults (75+).
  4. Adult faith formation provides a variety  of content, methods, formats, and delivery systems to address the diverse life tasks and situations, needs and interests, and spiritual and faith journeys of adults in four stages of adulthood - young adults (20s-30s), midlife adults (40s-50s), mature adults (mid 50s-mid 70s), and older adults (75+). Adult faith formation provides a variety of experiences, programs, activities, resources, and social connections that are available anytime and anywhere, in physical places and online spaces. Adult faith formation incorporates seven learning environments - self-directed, mentored, at home, in small groups, in large groups, church-wide, in the community, and in the world - in online spaces and physical places, to provide a variety of ways for people to learn and grow in faith that respects their preferred styles of learning, their life situations, and their time constraints. Adult faith formation incorporates formal and informal learning.
  5. Adult faith formation recognizes that learning and growth is a process of active inquiry  with initiative residing in the adult learner, and that adults are motivated to learn as they experience needs and interests that adult learning activities will satisfy. 
  6.  Adult faith formation provides the opportunity for personalized and customized learning and faith growth, giving adults an active role in shaping their own learning and moving along their own personal trajectories of faith growth. Adults are guided by trusted mentors who find the right programs, activities, and resources to match with their learning and spiritual needs.
  7. Adult faith formation is digitally enabled - blending gathered community settings with online learning environments and utilizing the abundance of digital media and tools for learning and faith formation; and digitally connected —linking intergenerational faith community experiences, adult peer experiences and programs, and daily/home life using online and digital media.
  8. Adult faith formation intentionally nurtures communities of learning and practice around shared interests, needs, life stages, and activities.
4. Toward Effective Adult Faith Formation: Top 10 Guidelines & Top 10 Pitfalls - Loyola Press

Part 2. Assess: Listen to Parishioners

Part 3. Plan
​Option 1: SCENARIOS - At a symposium hosted by Lifelong Faith Associates in 2015, participants identified critical uncertainties facing our culture.  From this list they narrowed their focus to two:
Uncertainty #1 The response of faith communities to the increasing diversity in society (economic, ethnic/cultural, households/families, sexual/gender, spiritual, religious).  Responses can be arranged on a spectrum, where "faith communities resist diversity" is at one end and "faith communities embrace diversity" is at the other end. 
Uncertainty #2 The desire and interest of adults today in developing their spiritual life.  The desire and interest can be placed on a spectrum with "decreasing desire and interest" on one end and "increasing desire and interest" on the other.
When the two critical uncertainties are connected in a 2x2 matrix, a set of four stories—or scenarios— are created to describe how the future of adult faith formation could evolve. The scenarios express a range of possible futures and explain why the “main story” of adult faith formation will be framed by the response to these two significant uncertainties. The scenarios are not meant to be exhaustive or prescriptive—rather they are designed to be both plausible and challenging, to engage the imagination while also raising new questions about what the future of adult faith formation might look and feel like.
Step 1: READ Envisioning the Future of Faith Formation 2020 - chapter 1 in Faith Formation 2020: Designing the Future of Faith Formation - includes trends in society and their impact of the Church and how they lead to the 4 Scenarios.
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Step 2: DECIDE which scenario or scenarios best describe your congregation - for a more detailed description of each of the four scenarios, click here to view Part 5 of A Guide to Envisioning the Future of Adult Faith Formation in Lifelong Faith, Volume 9.2, Winter 2016.
PictureThe Future of Adult Faith Formation, Lifelong Faith, Winter 2016, p. 7
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Step 3: DESIGN Adult Faith Formation using the Scenarios
1. Develop a profile of your current adult faith formation programming for the scenarios you have selected. List the current activities in the appropriate scenario; some activities may be listed multiple times. Answer the question: In what ways we are currently addressing this scenario in our faith community?
2. After completing the profile, analyze how your faith community is addressing the needs of the adults and the situation of the faith community in the scenarios you have identified. Use questions such as:
  • How effectively are we responding to the challenges and opportunities of the scenario(s)?
  • Viewed through lens of the scenario(s), what are our strengths?
  • Viewed through the lens of the scenario(s), what are the areas in need of improvement or growth?
  • What have we learned about our ministries and/or programming when viewed through the lens of the scenario(s)?
3. Based on your analysis, identify the most important areas for growth, development, improvement, and/or enhancement. The areas for development can be actions that you can take to catalyze a desirable future, or to mitigate a negative one in a particular scenario. Then decide on which areas are of the highest priority to pursue in the short term (a year) or long term (2-3 years). 4. Generate a variety of ideas for addressing each growth area. Use this Guide as a resource for ideas and strategies. Ideas suggested under one scenario can be applied to other scenarios with adaptation.
​5. Select the best ideas to develop into new initiatives. Consider piloting the new initiatives with a small group of your target audience, making revisions, and then offering the new project to a wider audience. Through this piloting process, you can test the initiative and the implementation plan, get feedback from your target audience, improve the initiative, and then develop plans to reach a wider audience.
                                      -taken from p. 13, The Future of Adult Faith Formation, Lifelong Faith, Volume 9.2, Winter 2016
Option 2: SEASONS OF ADULT FAITH FORMATION - Adults have different needs, concerns and tasks that vary over the course of a lifetime.  A parish can acknowledge these differing "seasons" by offering different faith development for each one.  More people may participate because you are addressing areas of life relevant to them!
1. Read: Key Characteristics of the Seasons of Adulthood -  Appendix 2 in A Guide to Envisioning the Future of Adult Faith Formation, Lifelong Faith, Volume 9.2, Winter 2016
2. Overview of Ideas: Practices and Approaches for the Seasons of Adult Faith Formation, Lifelong Faith, Fall 2015 - This special issue provides four practice-­centered articles for each season of adulthood: young  adults, midlife adults, mature  adults, and older adults. 
3.  Adult Life Stage Faith Formation: Specific information for each season
Option 3: PERSONALIZING FAITH FORMATION - Adults prefer to learn about what is important to them.  The parish can help each person determine the direction of his/her faith development and support him/her along the journey.
  • Mapping Your Spiritual Journey - a survey and guide from Bear Creek United Methodist Parish that  helps parishioners "locate" themselves on their spiritual journey.  You can use it as a model for your own parish's survey and guide.
 Option 4: QUICK START - If you are eager to "Just do something already!"  try one of these:

Part 4. ​Review: Resources for the Content of Parish Programs

  • Strong Catholic Family Faith - This curated site is designed to assist parish and school catechetical leaders in supporting and resourcing families in their efforts to offer quality faith formation for children and families.  Catechetical leaders can glean ideas from this site to supplement current activities or to suggest specific links to families.  ​
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  • Echoes of Faith 3.0 - RCL Benzinger and the US National Conference for Catechetical Leadership have created this program to train catechists online in the content of the faith as well as how to teach, but anyone can use this program.  (Think: easy, online mini-courses in the basics of the faith.)  The modules are broken into 4 parts each, are both well-written and easy to understand and can be accessed on a smart phone.
  • Albany Catholic Digital Library - provides links to high quality, reputable, mostly free resources which can be used for personal enrichment, in designing programming or adding content to parish faith formation and Catholic school websites for children, adolescents, adults and families.
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  • The Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation -  Adult faith formation anytime and anywhere via the internet. The goal is to support the church's professional ministry of religious education and faith formation in cyberspace.  Topics span the gamut of Christian theology and spirituality.  Individuals can take courses or your parish group can take a class together.  Classes are usually 3-5 weeks long.  Participants read materials on their own, post ideas related to what they have read on the course website and respond to each others' posts.  A trained facilitator oversees the course.  The VLCFF is coordinated and sponsored by the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives (IPI) at the University of Dayton, a Catholic Marianist Institution.  The Diocese of Scranton is affiliated with the VLCFF so all Catholics within the diocese are eligible for reduced tuition.
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  • Crossroads - a program of online continuing education courses on a wide range of popular, theological and spiritual topics through Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; functions similarly to the VLCFF.

Part 5. ​Dig Deeper: Additional Resources to Study This Topic

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  • Seasons of Adult Faith Formation - edited by John Roberto.  Provides leaders with a deeper understanding of adulthood today, a vision of twenty-first century adult faith formation, and the tools and processes for designing faith formation for all the seasons of adulthood. The book’s chapters include:
  1. Faith Formation for All the Seasons of Adulthood—John Roberto
  2. The Development of Modern Adult Education and Faith Formation—Ed Gordon
  3. Young Adulthood—Kyle Oliver
  4. Midlife Adulthood—Jim Merhaut
  5. Mature Adulthood—Janet Schaeffler
  6. Older Adulthood—Dorothy Linthicum
  7. Spiritual Transformation for Adult Faith Formation—Tom Zanzig
  8. Developing Adult Faith Formation Programming—John Roberto
  9.  Designing Twenty-First Century Adult Faith Formation—John Roberto
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  • Ministry Formation Skills Workshops -  The Diocese of Scranton's Office for Parish Life offers four skills workshops/year for adults on a wide variety of ministry-related topics
  1. Foundations and Vision of Adult Learning and Faith Formation
  2. Parish as Learning Community
  3. Many Faces of Adult Learners
  4. Facilitating Adult Learning and Faith Formation
  5. Leadership Roles and Skills for Adult Learning and Faith Formation
  6. Spirituality in Adult Learning and Faith Formation
  7. Designing and Implementing Adult Learning and Faith Formation