The Role of the Catechist: Facilitating Bible Study and Prayer

I recently had a conversation with Pastor Daniel Eggold about his experience introducing an adult catechumenate at his current parish, Grace Lutheran Church in Lafayette, Indiana. Key to his vision was doing—not talking about—Christian practices. As he said, “Instead of talking about Bible study and the importance of it, we just do it; instead of talking about prayer and the importance prayer, we just do it.”  

Here’s Pastor Eggold describing the catechist as facilitator of the “doing” in the weekly gatherings while he also unfolds the sequence of catechumenal gatherings from early January through Pentecost. This video is under three minutes. You must be logged into Google drive to access it.

In this second video (one and half minutes), Pastor Eggold describes how the catechist prepares the candidates and catechumens to pray for one another.

“It’s incredibly simple,” he says, but not quick. Pastor Eggold reported on the 18-month incubation process:

• First, he said, he spent about six months reading widely about the topic, both current publications and classic texts.
• Only after immersing himself in the theology and practice of an adult catechumenate, was he ready to introduce the topic to a small group of members from the congregation.
• Their enthusiastic response was immediate, but it was another year of working together, training them for various roles, and integrating the catechumenal process with the parish calendar before the adult catechumenate started.

In next week’s blog, Pastor Eggold will explain how the catechists facilitate “just doing” Bible study in their small group.