FORMATION GROUPS AND CATECHESIS
FORMATION GROUP: 1 PETER
We will be trying out something new this Fall at the Franconia-Springfield Mission called “Formation Groups.” There will be one group this Fall, though these will change and grow over time. A Formation Group offers a weekly opportunity to be formed in community, discuss the Scriptures and church tradition, eat together, participate with one another in community life, and pray together.
This Fall we will meet together on Tuesday nights to study 1 Peter together and finish with three weeks covering the creeds of the church, how to use the Book of Common Prayer, and an introduction to the sacraments and the life and mission of the church. The book of 1 Peter was written to people sojourning through a land to which they did not belong and it answers many of the questions that you and I have about how to live as Christians who do not belong to this world. In our time together we will navigate the complicated space between withdrawing from the world and assimilation to it.
Join us for our first Formation Group!
This group will be one group offered in two ways…
When: Tuesdays, Sept 22-Nov 10, 7:30-9pm
What: Discuss 1 Peter and three weeks on the Creeds, prayer, and the mission of the church. Pray together in community. Watch the week’s video on our YouTube Channel prior to meeting.
How to Join: Sign up for the group here. Join one of two ways: (1) Join the discussion in person, bring your own dinner and we will meet at a rotating home for dinner each week. (2) Join us over Zoom for the discussion of the video.
Here’s a diagram:
CATECHESIS
The need for Catechesis
How does this formation group on 1 Peter fit into the larger plan at the Franconia-Springfield Mission? The vision for this church is to become a common people in common prayer for uncommon transformation. Accomplishing this vision is not an easy or quick process. The process can be compared with our experience of food: I come from a long line of men who love to cook, and I’m no exception. None of us would be considered professional chefs by any stretch of the imagination, but I receive so much joy from spending an afternoon preparing a meal and then afterwards enjoying the meal with friends and family around the table. My favorite meals often begin cooking in the morning and continue to cook low and slow throughout the day (e.g., corned beef and cabbage, ribs, etc). It is even more fun when I plan months in advance to grow some of the food that will go into the meal. I admit that there are days when I just could not think ahead and I have to resort to fast food (this is not helped by the fact that I live across the street from a fast food restaurant).
While I’m so grateful for a quick backup plan, there is something lost in skipping meal preparation. Without the struggle of the process, whether growing the food or preparing each ingredient, the thankfulness for every aspect of the food is lost when I only experience the final product without any of the process (e.g. a burger, fries, and soda). This experience with food mirrors what often happens in our churches with spiritual formation. Because of a good desire to include as many people as quickly as possible, and to keep up appearances with the large church next door, there arises a danger of over-programming the discipleship process; the result is that we skip the process (which can be long, nebulous, and arduous) in order to manufacture an end-product. J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett describe this problem in their book, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way:
During the past century mechanization and technology have increased the pace of Western life, leaving us all wanting to do things more quickly so as to get on with whatever we see as next business. The hurrying mindset has led to the fast-food revolution, in which we wolf snacks as we go along rather than treat meals as big deals in the way our grandparents did. And out of this fast-food revolution has come the junk food predicament: we are offered, and gobble down, what quickly makes us feel full, but it isn’t a balanced diet. It doesn’t give us the vitamins we need but loads us up with unnecessary fats…Something similar seems to happen in our churches; the food we get and give in our learning and teaching, though no doubt tasty, does not nourish us as spiritual food should. Before anything else, adjustments in our diet are needed, or we shall never be lithe, virile, upright Christians—strong, resilient, and passionate for God…(9)
Life is too complicated for a 7-easy-steps-to-become-like-Jesus type of spirituality. There are, of course, moments that mark our journey in significant and profound ways through such programming, but slow growth built over time on the tradition of Jesus and the Apostles, and habits of the church, will produce the rooted type of growth in Christ that we need to weather the storms of the ever-changing world around us. As Peter Scazzero said somewhere, “God is in the business of agriculture, not manufacturing.” There is beauty in the way that our individual stories and lives in union with God weave together into a beautiful tapestry of colorful blooms.
Formation Groups and Catechesis
Formation groups are a key facet of our growth together at the Franconia-Springfield Mission because it provides a platform for catechesis (a word that might be unfamiliar). Packer and Parrett define catechesis this way:
Catechesis is the church’s ministry of grounding and growing God’s people in the Gospel and its implications for doctrine, devotion, duty, and delight. (28)
In our context, catechesis involves, at a basic level, instruction in the creeds of the church (the shape of faith), the Decalogue (the ethics of faith), the Lord’s Prayer (the prayer life of faith), and the Sacraments (empowerment for the life of faith). All that we will do aims at the transformation of God’s people, bringing them back to a deeper love of Christ. Through a regular rhythm of Scripture study, breaking bread together, participation in the communal life of the church, and prayer together, Formation Groups will become one of the building blocks in the slow journey towards becoming a common people in common prayer for uncommon transformation. We hope to see you this Fall! If you have any questions, please contact us.
Resources
Here are a few beginning resources to begin with as we go on this journey over the Fall. As we cover different topics, we will publish more bibliographies.
Catena Bible (Patristic Commentary on the Scriptures)
J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way
N.T. Wrigth, Early Christian Letters for Everyone