Parish Liaison
In the following Standard Operating Procedures, the following definitions apply:
Parish Liaison – person selected by the Regional Support Team to work with a parish receiving JOURNEY: New Life in Christ.
Parish Champion – the person at the receiving parish who has the primary responsibility for coordinating bringing the retreat to the parish. This could be a staff member or a designated lay person.
Lead Parish – a parish currently active with JOURNEY that will provide Spiritual Guides for the Mission Teams, and the bulk of the Mission Team members. Two members of the Alpha Team will serve as Spiritual Guides for Team 1.
Receiving Parish – a parish that desires to start JOURNEY: New Life in Christ and has assembled Alpha Teams.
Alpha Team – receiving parish typically discerns an Alpha Team of up to 8 men and and an Alpha Team of up to 8 women. These 16 people will play a critical role in introducing the ministry to the receiving parish, and many of them will rollover to the Continuation Committee at the receiving parish.
Spiritual Guides – people discerned to lead a team through formation. One man is discerned as Spiritual Guide for a men’s team, one woman for a women’s team.
Leave-Behind Spiritual Guide – people discerned to lead the first team at a new parish through formation (when missioning the program locally.) For a distant parish, another process is used to discern Spiritual Guides from the receiving parish.
Action Items: Prior to Scheduling Team 1 Weekends
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Mission liaison meets with parish contact and other staff members as needed to help them understand the complete JOURNEY: New Life in Christ process (retreat, formation, etc.)
Mission liaison obtains list of past liaisons from Regional Support Team and invites an experienced liaison to mentor/partner.
Mission liaison meets with parish contact for a second time to answer any questions, introduce the invitations worksheet and then work together to create a short list of potential parish team members with a focus on selecting strong leaders from different ministries within the parish.
Mission liaison provides list of potential members for parish team to the pastor for him to make personal invitations.
Mission liaison meets with parish contact a third time if necessary to ensure that all is in order.
Mission liaison will work with pastor/parish contact to discern a core team of seven men and seven women who will serve as receiving parish alpha team.
Mission liaison confirms with lead parish that the receiving parish can send seven men and seven women to upcoming retreats.
Mission liaison communicates dates of upcoming retreat to the receiving parish’s priest and alpha team and ensures they have what they need to register.
Action Items: Prior to discernment of Mission Team Spiritual Guides
Once a parish finalizes their decision to bring JOURNEY: New Life in Christ to a parish, the mission liaison works with the parish contact to achieve the following:
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Establish dates for initial Men’s and Women’s Weekends.
Ensure that rooms are booked for initials weekends, The JOURNEY Begins.
Establish dates for second weekends and ensure that rooms are booked for formation, weekends, The JOURNEY Begins, and Living a New Life in Christ. Weekends should be about six months apart for large parishes, a year apart for small parishes.
Establish a calendar for all meetings/events and share with parish contact.
Establish a timeline for completion of tasks related to Discernment of Spiritual Guides for Mission Team and Leave Behind Spiritual Guides for Teams 1, as well as inviting the mission team members and beginning formation.
Establish monthly meetings with receiving parish core team, pastor and parish contacts to review process.
Recruiting an assistant mission liaison is advised. Candidates are available from the Regional Support Team.
Mission liaison will work with lead parish who will discern Spiritual Guides and invite mission team members to begin formation.
Action Items: After discernment of Mission Team Spiritual Guides
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Regional Support Team mentor, mission liaison and mission team Spiritual Guides finalize process for inviting mission team members and discerning a mission team facilitator or physical arrangements coordinator (discerned in advance of Evening with the Holy Spirit).
Mission team Spiritual Guides receive access to www.jnlic.org and facilitator guides: Journey Signup for Parish Leaders and Facilitators
Mission liaison helps mission team Spiritual Guides identify facilitators for Evening with the Holy Spirit and Sharing Our Journey. Regional Support Team maintains a list of qualified candidates.
Mission team Spiritual Guides reserve rooms for formation meetings.
Spiritual Guides and Facilitators should focus on formation of their teams. Spiritual Guides and Facilitators can be invited to attend relevant meetings with parish contact and receiving parish core team 4 to 6 weeks prior to weekends.
Mission liaison will work with lead parish to discern Leave Behind Spiritual Guides for Teams 1. Engage them in monthly receiving parish meetings at their schedules will allow.
Use Parish Scorecard to determine if key activities have been completed. Share progress at monthly receiving parish meetings.
Pastor and/or Associate Pastor responsible for securing acceptance from 24 men and 24 women for the initial weekends.
Finalize plans for weekend tear down for men’s and women’s weekends. Mission liaison and assistants should plan to be on hand Sunday of weekend for tear down (usually about 2 p.m.) If desired, solicit one or two other volunteers from Lead Parish to assist.
Action Items: Four Weeks Prior to Men’s Weekend
Mission liaison should reach out to women’s Spiritual Guide to invite weekend facilitator or physical arrangements coordinator to participate in Sunday teardown of men’s weekend. Women’s team will leave with all materials needed for women’s weekend.
Mission liaison prepares plan to obtain list of Men’s and Women’s Attendees and shares with community for Support Letters.
Ensure that plan is finalized for rest of crew that will handle tear down on Sunday afternoon
Plans for Transition of Foot Washing supplies is established and finalized.
Mission liaison communicates with Pastor regarding preference for Team 2 Spiritual Guides, Continuation Committee members.
Reach out to Leave Behind Team 1 Spiritual Guides to ensure they have finalized their facilitators for Sharing Our Journey and Evening with the Holy Spirit. Regional Support Team maintains a list of trained facilitators.
Communicate to Leave Behind Team 1 Spiritual Guides the importance of having the Evening of Pentecost on the formation schedule. Regional Support Team maintains a list of trained facilitators.
Pray
Action Items: Two Weeks Prior to Men’s Weekend
Mission liaison or Assistant Liaison sends meeting time and place for Sunday teardown as well as address and directions to volunteers to who will help with tear down following the delivery of the weekend. Church should be left in same order it was found. It is a gift to the Mission Team if they have less tear down to do when they return from Sunday Mass.
Ensure that 24 men and 24 women have been recruited for weekend retreats.
If needed, communicate with parish contact to finalize process for handling of waiting list.
Mission liaison ensures that list of attendees is shared with JOURNEY: New Life in Christ Community (Regional Support Team as well as the Lead and supporting parishes) to solicit Support letters and additional food if needed.
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Action Items: One Week Prior to the Men’s Weekend
Review previous actions items to ensure that all has been completed.
Reach out to Team 1 Spiritual Guides to see if they have finalized meeting time for The JOURNEY Begins
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Action Items: One Week Prior to Women’s Weekend
Assist Women’s facilitator in organizing and replenishing supplies as needed.
Ensure that contents of Foot Washing Bin are washed and reassembled
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Action Items: After the weekends
Mission liaison continues as a resource for Leave Behind Spiritual Guides
Foot washing supplies are returned to Regional Support Team
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Action Items: After Team 1 Discernment
Mission liaison becomes a mentor and assists as is appropriate for needs of parish.
Mentor sits in on one or two of the weekly meetings with Spiritual Guide / Journey Leader.
Mentor helps to engage resources as is needed / make introductions (i.e. Weekend Facilitator).
Mentor works to ensure that Invitations Coordinators receive best practices materials.
Mentor works with Invitations Coordinator to ensure that entire team is engaged with invitations.
Mentor stays in touch with Spiritual Guides to ensure that all is going well.
Mentor engages Spiritual Guide and Journey Leader as needed to ensure that Spiritual Guide is focused on spiritual side of Spiritual Guide ministry not director side of ministry.
Mentor reengages Pastor or Regional Support Team for second opinion if significant challenges are encountered.
Mentor communicates with pastor regarding his preferences for Team 2 Spiritual Guides (if not already discerned).
Share practice of option to cancel “Last Supper” to allow for earlier end to weekend and enable Team 1 as well as Team 2 to enjoy Sunday dinner with families. If this decision to deviate from the manual is made, option exists to put out some leftover food if desired and have a closing ceremony which might consist of filling out comment cards and taking a team picture.
Action Items: After Team 1 weekends
Mentor engages Team 1 Spiritual Guides and Leaders designated by Pastor for 1st Continuation Committee Meeting
In initial meeting, mentor works with Continuation Committee to develop plan to extend personal invitations to all of Men’s and Women’s Team 1 to attend training sessions related to Sharing Our Journey, Evening with the Holy Spirit, Living a New Life in Christ, Spiritual Guide Best Practices and Continuation. The goal is for each parish to have at least two men and two women trained in each ministry. Training videos for these sessions can be found at www.jnlic.org under the “Facilitators” tab - “Training Videos”
Finalize structure and succession plan for Continuation Committee (see section on Continuation Committee and JOURNEY handbook part five.
Determine frequency of Continuation Committee.
Action Items: After Team 2 or 3 weekends
60 Days after the team 2 or 3 weekends, mentor engages Continuation Committee to designate someone to attend Regional Support Team meetings.
Receiving Parish Monthly Meetings
Meeting 1: 16 weeks prior to the Men’s weekend.
Discuss role of the pastor with invitations.
Ensure that the Core Team is established and invite those people to the next meetings.
Finalize the process for food sign ups and ensure that donations are sufficient to ensure that retreatants are well fed.
Ensure that 2nd JOURNEY: New Life in Christ weekend dates are finalized.
Final decision on space and rooms that will be used for the weekends. Ensure that these rooms are reserved and have a firm understanding of who has authority* to modify these reservations. Room reservations will also need to be made for Evenings of Discipleship, Evening of Pentecost, Team 2 formation meetings, and Team 2 weekends, formation, etc.
Hand out best practices for invitations
Communicate the best practice of establishing a set day/time for formation meetings for all future teams. (Sundays tend to work well for men; Mondays for women depending on individual parish calendars.) Finalize the decision and book the room. If this is left to the team to decide at or after the Evening with the Holy Spirit, dissension is likely to follow. The result is that politics can kick in and JOURNEY: New Life in Christ can be viewed as being run by a clique and retreatants may choose to opt out of formation.
Communicate best practices for scheduling space for upcoming weekends. Be very clear about what can “trump” the retreat.
*If the President of the United States daughter is getting married, who has the authority to cancel our rooms to accommodate the President? Bottom line – who all has the authority to remove our reservations from the master schedule? It is important to understand the impact of Fish Frys, weddings, etc. on Friday set up and the weekend events.
Answer questions as is appropriate.
Meeting 2: 12 Weeks prior to the Men’s weekend.
Communicate the importance of working very closely with the Pastor to assist with invitations. Invitations are the priority at this stage.
Review invitations process. This would include plans for pastoral engagement, pulpit talks, sign up process, etc.
Review invitations best practices.
Determine if Pastor is receptive to the possibility of working JOURNEY into upcoming homilies if appropriate.
Obtain closure as it relates to dates and rooms reservations for weekend and formation. Ensure all is finalized.
Communicate need to obtain contact information for parish facilities person so that weekend facilitator will have access to keys, heating and cooling information, etc. as is appropriate.
Discuss kitchen logistics and food sign up process. Communicate role of Core Team is engaging parishioners in food donations.
Help Core Team to understand that although they play a significant role with invitations and food sign ups prior to the weekends, they will not be running the weekends.
Answer questions as appropriate.
Meeting 3: 8 Weeks prior to the Men’s weekend.
Review progress on invitations, food sign ups.
All facilities issues should be resolve.
Mission Teams may have logistical questions about Masses, Reconciliation, candles, tabernacles, etc.
Remind the Core Team that they will be able to experience the weekend just like all the other retreatants.
Meeting 4: 4 Weeks prior to the Men’s weekend
Reinforce issues related to scheduling of the rooms.
Obtain answers to any unanswered questions presented at previous meeting.
Review any areas of concern
Revisit need to engage Pastor to extend one-on-one invitations to ensure that 24 men and 24 women are scheduled for weekends
Discuss need for and value of establishing waiting list when 24 men and 24 women are scheduled
Review invitations strategy and registration process as needed
Review kitchen sign up and food donations.
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