Friends, I am letting my friend and colleague Heidi Indahl speak to that question for herself. I have heard the above question–referring to children’s faith formation–more times than I can count. In fact, it usually comes up in 80-90% of the parishes I work with. The struggles are real, and often complicated. Heidi has been working with parishes and Catholic schools in this field with the heart of a missioner, the intellect of an instructional designer, and the passion of a disciple who understands that formation and catechesis matter. She is also really funny, which helps it all go down a little more easily.
She doesn’t work inside The Mark 5:19 Project, but we work alongside in our thinking and sometimes with parishes–that is, we refer people in Church ministry to each other, depending on needs. I have basic principles I can share on preK-12 faith formation, but Heidi can and does get in the weeds if needed and brings current educational brain research and Catholic mission focus. I am excited she will be writing for us once a month. This is her own introduction to her approach to parish faith formation and the life of mission. Welcome to The Mark 5:19 Project article bank, Heidi! — Susan Windley-Daoust
I have to start my contributions to the Mark 5:19 Project pool of resources with a bit of a confession. I am an accidental catechist educator. A career path directed as much by motherhood as anything else, I took my education background and interest and skills in curriculum design into an advanced degree in Instructional Design and freelance work.
Instructional designers typically work with a subject matter expert (through a company, health care provider, the military, etc.) to provide quality educational methods and materials to their employees and clients. For example, the Mayo Clinic employs an entire team of Instructional Designers to work with various departments to ensure that research and training materials adhere to quality educational standards and clearly teach what they want to teach.
From the beginning, the majority of projects I worked on, however, fell into the broad category of parent and/or family education. Along the way, people began to look to me as a catechesis expert, which somehow turned me into a catechist educator. This is important, because Dr. Susan, Mark 5:19 Project founder, is a theologian. I am not.
I am an educator with a deep love of Jesus and a desire to help others teach about him more effectively so that all of us can know him better. I believe that the stuff of the Catholic faith entices us to deeper relationship and intimacy with Jesus, which builds stronger communities of faith to go out into the world and share Jesus better. That is what he calls us all to do and this is the specific set of skills he has given me to contribute to the mission that starts with him in the first place.
The work I now share with others in a variety of settings including the custom curriculum design where I started, is a boots on the ground expertise formed by a job title that came to me. Don’t get too wrapped up in it. My research field is the consultation meeting room. You are the real experts here.
You give me data about what happens in your catechesis classroom, the things you observe in your students, the programming challenges you come across. I cross check that with my educational background, dive into church teaching and theology wherever I need to and frequently sit down in front of Jesus and ask him if he’s still sure I’m cut out for this. I help programs look honestly at two things and then we sit down together and chart a path (design instruction, choose a curriculum, build a program, whatever you want to call it) that will put those two things together in the reality of your community.
It’s almost embarrassingly simple when I break it down to that.
In fact, I firmly believe anyone can learn to do it and that’s why I now teach others how through writing, speaking, and consulting with my Designed for Discipleship mentorship process. I’ll share more about that in another article, but in the meantime I want to give you those two things I mentioned above to think about.
- What is the point of my parish’s faith formation program? What is the goal? What are we trying to do here? This might require you to actually reflect on and define what your program even is. The big picture answer for catechesis is given to us by the church, but I encourage you to go much deeper in what that means for your community.
- Who are our students? Where do they come from? What do they like to do? What are their experiences of faith up to this point? You are not teaching a random group of students each week. They were handpicked by Jesus for your community. Quality education and effective teaching leading to authentic learning is rarely anonymous. Get to know the players.
I believe getting radically honest about these two things through prayer, reflection, discussion within the catechesis team, and your own boots-on-the-ground action research (observation of those around you) is the first step to radically transforming your faith formation classes into vibrant evangelical catechesis that launches students of all ages and backgrounds into a lifetime of discipleship.
If you are in leadership, grab a notebook or put a piece of poster paper on the wall and use sticky notes to jot down your observations and sort them into two categories- program and people. Don’t evaluate, just gather information. You are getting to know your program in a whole new way. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the pieces of information you have missed in the past.
Oh, and a bonus hint to get you started–next time you feel extra frustrated about a faith formation situation (lack of volunteers, student troubles, curriculum woes, apathetic parents, non-Mass attending families) ask yourself what that is telling you about your program or what it is telling you about your students. Those frustrations are speaking loudly, make sure you pay attention!
I’m looking forward to sharing more about the things I’ve learned about how classical Instructional Design models can benefit catechetical programming. If you have a question about anything I’ve shared here, a suggestion for a future article, or would like to learn more about working with me in a deeper capacity, please reach out by email: co********@*****************ay.com
Thank you & God bless!
Heidi Indahl, M.Ed., is a former parent educator and school program director turned catechist educator and program consultant, with an advanced degree in instructional design. She works with schools and parishes to plan, modify, and design catechesis programs for all ages within the context of local community, challenges, and goals. She focuses on pairing best-practice in brain-based learning with authentic Catholic faith through the lens of catechesis as a vital means of evangelization and discipleship. She is the author of three books.
