Stuff to think about (two new posts)

Here are the great quotes and concepts from day one:

• Christianity must be presented as a Way Of Life, rather than a system of belief.
• Christianity must counteract the Smorgasbord lifestyle that modern families face, instead of being one of the dishes on the buffet.
• REAL SIMPLE is the best selling magazine in the country right now. Why? People are hungering for a way of life.
• Ideas can be “inert”- like inert gases, they just sit there, never mix with any others, never do anything.
• The old model of Faith Formation can be described as a Banking Model. This model deposits information into the person’s head, and hopes for good dividends down the road.
• We have a presenter who is Presbyterian- today he was talking about the practice of Hospitality, and asked us to share a story of when we experienced hospt. when visiting a faith outside of our tradition. Immediately all us Catholics thought of the friendly receptions we’ve gotten from Protestant Churches- huh. Only the Lutheran among seemed to know that he meant OUTSIDE our tradition- as in, not Christian. It struck me how separate we are from our peers in the Christian community.
• “She believes that by teaching her children to sleep (well), she is teaching them to die (well).”
• One thing families say they won’t do at home is study the faith.
• Young people want to be marked deeply by their experiences. This is why we see so much tattooing, piercing, etc… How do we help young people gett hat experience from faith formation/faith? The speaker gave the example that everyone gets injured on a (good) mission trip- bearing great "battle scars" of their time in service. Just a thought...

More tomorrow. They are long, marathon days (tomorrow's 9am-9pm) packed with mind-bending stuff. I'll keep you posted.