Pilgrim - Leader's Guide: A Course for the Christian Journey

by Sharon Ely Pearson, Stephen Cottrell, Steven Croft, Paula Gooder, Robert Atwell

Overview

Pilgrim is a teaching and discipleship resource that helps inquirers and new Christians explore what it means to travel through life with Christ.

A Christian course for the twenty-first century, Pilgrim offers an approach of participation, not persuasion. Following the practice of the ancient disciplines of biblical reflection and prayer with quotes from the Christian tradition throughout the ages, Pilgrim assumes little or no knowledge of the Christian faith. Individuals or small groups on the journey of discipleship in the Episcopal tradition can use Pilgrim at any point.

There are many different aspects to helping people learn about the Christian faith. We have taken as our starting point Jesus’ summary of the commandments. We are called to offer our lives to God through loving God with all our mind, soul, strength, and heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Learning about Christian faith and growing in Christian faith is about more than what we believe. It’s also about the ways in which we pray and develop our relationship with God, about the way we live our lives and about living in God’s vision for the Church and for the world.

There are two stages of material in Pilgrim. There are four short Pilgrim books (each comprising a course of six sessions) in the Follow stage designed for those who are enquirers and very new to the faith. Then there are four short Pilgrim books (again, each comprising a six-session course) in the Grow stage designed for those who want to go further and learn more.

Pilgrim is made up of two parts, each with four courses contained in four booklets:
Follow: Do you turn to Christ? Releasing in March 2016
1. Turning to Christ
2. The Lord's Prayer
3. The Commandments
4. The Beatitudes

Grow: Will you continue in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship? Releasing October 2016
5. The Creeds
6. The Eucharist
7. The Bible
8. Church & Kingdom

Each course offers six sessions that combine a simple prayer, reflection on a biblical selection using lectio divina, an article by a modern writer, and reflection questions.

The short courses in the four Followstage books can be approached in any order. Together, we believe they offer a balanced introduction to the Christian life and journey. Our hope and prayer is that Pilgrim will help to introduce people to the Christian Way and also equip them to live their whole lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. It will help inquirers and those new to the Christian faith as well as those who are new to The Episcopal Church or Episcopalians who wish to refresh and renew their learning commitment to Christ.

The aim of the Grow stage is to help people to learn the essentials for a life of discipleship. A disciple is to be called to live in a rhythm of being with Jesus in community and to be sent to live out the Christian faith in the whole of his or her life.

Disciples need the support of other Christians and to be part of a community. We need opportunities to reflect and pray together and to explore the riches of our faith. TheGrow stage supports that process both for new Christians and for those who have been Christians for many years. Some groups who use the Grow material will be moving on from theFollow stage of Pilgrim. Some will be specially convened just for this stage.

Component descriptions:

Leader Guide
The Pilgrim Leader Guide has lots of helpful material for those who are leading any Pilgrim group. A single guide covers all eight booklets and gives an overview of the program as well as a process of how to lead a group of youth or adults in discussing the material. This is an essential tool for anyone who wishes to offer any portion of Pilgrim in a small group, whether in church, school, or home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780898699364
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/10/2016
Series:	Pilgrim
Edition description:	Leaders Gu
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Sharon Ely Pearson a retired Christian educator, editor, and author with 35-plus years of experience in Christian formation on the local, judicatory, and church-wide level. Known for her knowledge of published curricula across the church, she has written or edited numerous books. She is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary and a lifelong Episcopalian. She lives in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Stephen Cottrell is the Bishop of Reading in the Church of England. He has written or contributed to Reflections for Daily Prayer, the Emmaus discipleship course, Traveling Well, and Praying Through Life.

Steven Croft is the Bishop of Sheffield. From 2004 to 2009 he was Archbishops Missioner and Team Leader of Fresh Expressions. Former warden of Cranmer Hall, he spent 13 years in parish ministry.

Paula Gooderis a freelance writer and lecturer in biblical studies, a Reader in the Church of England, and a lay member of the General Synod. She is also a Trustee of SPCK and the Saltley Trust and an honorary Canon Theologian at Birmingham and Guildford Cathedrals. She is the author of A Way Through the Wilderness and the bestselling Lent course Lentwise, and co-author of the Pilgrim course and Love Life, Live Advent.

Robert Atwell was Vicar of Primrose Hill, London, from 1998 though 2008, when he joined the episcopate. Formerly a lecturer in patristics at Trinity College Cambridge, where he was Chaplain, for ten years. He maintains his link with the Order of St. Benedict.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry is the Episcopal Church’s 27th Presiding Bishop. He was the Bishop of North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. Bishop Curry has a national preaching and teaching ministry and is a regular on TV and radio and a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. His books include Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus; Following the Way of Jesus: Church’s Teachings for a Changing World; and Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.

Read an Excerpt

Pilgrim

Leader's Guide A Course for the Christian Journey

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By STEPHEN COTTRELL, Steven Croft, Paula Gooder, Robert Atwell, Sharon Ely Pearson

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2016 Stephen Cottrell, Steven Croft, Robert Atwell and Paula Gooder
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-89869-936-4

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CHAPTER 1

PART ONE: WELCOME TO PILGRIM

An Overview

Pilgrim is a course for the Christian journey. The aim of the course is to help people become disciples of Jesus Christ.

A pilgrim is a person on a journey. The Bible is a book full of journeys. God's people are always traveling. God's call to Abraham was to leave his own land for a great journey of faith. God's call to Moses was to lead God's people on a journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. Jesus took his first disciples on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. One of the earliest names for the people called Christians was followers of the Way.

Pilgrim is designed to help every local church to invite others to join the people of God on our great journey of faith. Its purpose is to help you to draw together a small group of people who are inquiring about Christian faith or are new to faith and to help them learn about the faith together.

This leader's guide is for clergy and church leaders who are thinking about introducing Pilgrim into the life of their church and is also a short handbook for those who will lead the groups.

Why Pilgrim?

Lifelong Christian faith formation in The Episcopal Church is lifelong growth in the knowledge, service, and love of God as followers of Christ and is informed by Scripture, tradition, and reason. As stated in the Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation, God invites all people:

• To enter into a prayerful life of worship, continuous learning, intentional outreach, advocacy, and service

• To hear the Word of God through Scripture, to honor church teachings, and continually to embrace the joy of Baptism and Eucharist, spreading the Good News of the risen Christ and minister to all

• To respond to the needs of our constantly changing communities, as Jesus calls us, in ways that reflect our diversity and cultures as we seek, wonder, and discover together

• To hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people, placing ourselves in the stories of our faith, thereby empowering us to proclaim the Gospel message.

Pilgrim has been developed to help make new disciples and strengthen the understanding of discipleship to all who choose to deepen their understanding of the Christian journey and where they are on their own faith journey.

The structure of Pilgrim

There are many different aspects to helping people learn about the Christian faith.

We have taken as our starting point Jesus' summary of the commandments. We are called to offer our lives to God through loving God with all our mind, soul, strength, and heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Learning about Christian faith and growing in Christian faith is about more than what we believe. It's also about the ways in which we pray and develop our relationship with God, about the way we live our lives, and about living in God's vision for the Church and for the world.

We offer two stages of material in Pilgrim. There are four short Pilgrimbooks (each comprising a course of six or seven sessions) in the Follow Stage, designed for those who are inquirers and very new to the faith. Then there are four short Pilgrim books (each comprising a six- session course) in the Grow Stage, designed for those who want to go further and learn more. DIrk The Leaders Hanbook_US.indd 3 12/30/15 5:05 PM

The structure of Pilgrim is set out in the diagram.

Each short course consists of six or seven sessions. The courses in the Follow Stage are designed to be led by someone who is further on in their Christian faith and who is a skilled teacher. The courses in the Grow Stage are designed so that the group can lead and guide themselves with some external help and support.

In the Follow Stage, each of the four courses is structured around one of four key texts:

• the Baptismal Covenant

• the Lord's Prayer

• the Commandments

• the Beatitudes

These four texts have been important in helping people in the early stages of their Christian journey since the earliest days of the Christian faith.

In the Grow Stage, each of the four courses is structured around a major theme of the Christian life:

• the Creeds

• the Sacraments

• the Scriptures

• living in God's Church and in God's world

Each session of each course is rooted in shared prayer. Each session begins with the group exploring the Scriptures together and continues with a more sustained reflection on the theme and opportunity for questions and discussion.

The short courses in the four Follow Stage books can be approached in any order. Together, we believe they offer a balanced introduction to the Christian life and journey. Our hope and prayer is that Pilgrim will help to introduce people to the Christian Way and also equip them to live their whole lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.

About this Leader's Guide

This guide is both an introduction to Pilgrim and a guide to using it well. The next section, Part Two: Teaching the Faith, explores some of the ideas behind the course and the principles that have guided its development. Part Three: Leading a Pilgrim Group is a more practical guide to gathering and leading a group on one or more short courses. Part Four: Pilgrim Resources offers liturgical resources, additional books to support the various topics in Pilgrim, and An Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism from the Book of Common Prayer. Finally, Part Five offers some powerful images and an understanding of the role of the teacher, the group leader, and catechist in this process of making new disciples.

CHAPTER 2

PART TWO: TEACHING THE FAITH

Catechesis

Catechesis is a word used throughout Christian history for special teaching offered to Christians who are preparing for baptism or who are newly baptized. It's an unfamiliar word to most people today but well worth learning. It is pronounced kat-e-KEY-sis.

It is Luke who first uses the term catechesis to describe the special teaching given to new Christians. Luke dedicates his gospel to Theophilus:

so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed [literally, catechized].

LUKE 1:4

In Acts, Luke introduces Apollos as someone who had been "instructed (literally, catechized) in the way of the Lord" (Acts 18:25), though he remained in need of further teaching.

Much of the New Testament, including the Gospels, was written to support this great work of catechesis, the early instruction of new disciples both before and immediately after their baptism. Many of the early creeds and formulas we know from the New Testament were also developed to support this work of teaching the faith to those who were learning it for the first time.

In the early centuries of the Christian faith, the gospel spread and the Church grew in a context that was often hostile and difficult. It was a costly thing to be a Christian. Careful preparation and support was essential both before and after baptism. The Early Church therefore developed ways of teaching the faith and making disciples centered on preparation for baptism and gave this work the name of the catechumenate. Many of the great traditions of the Christian Church began as a way of supporting those who were learning the faith for the first time. In particular, the season of Lent was originally a time of preparation for baptism at Easter, kept by the whole Church in support of the candidates. DIrk The Leaders Hanbook_US.indd 8 12/30/15 5:05 PM

The Catechism

All down the centuries, in periods of mission and growth, the Church in every tradition has always paid particular attention to the task of catechesis and to what should be taught to new Christians in the form of the different catechisms.

A catechism is a way of the Church ensuring together that new Christians learn all that they need to learn in preparation for their baptism and for a lifetime of Christian discipleship.

The Episcopal Church has its own catechism, called An Outline of the Faith. This form of teaching had been included in previous prayer books, but what is now provided in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) is a substantially expanded and revised version of these catechisms. It is reproduced at the end of this book (pp. 81–100).

The notes concerning the catechism in the 1979 prayer book state that this catechism has two intended uses. First, it is a teaching aid for clergy and lay catechists (teachers), "to give an outline for instruction," perhaps for confirmation classes or newcomers to the Episcopal Church. It cautions that the catechism is not a "complete statement of belief and practice" but rather "a point of departure for the teacher," who can use its question-and-answer format as a way of beginning a discussion on various aspects of the Christian faith and life. It poses fundamental questions that can begin a deeper conversation, such as:

• What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

• What is sin?

• What is prayer?

Many of us may remember catechism or confirmation classes from our youth in which we were expected to memorize the answers in the catechism in order to pass our "test" at confirmation. Times have changed, however, and the 1979 prayer book suggests the catechism is provided "for ease of reference" (BCP, 844), not for memorization and recitation.

The second use suggested by the prayer book concerns those who are new to the Episcopal Church, "to provide a brief summary of the Church's teaching for an inquiring stranger who picks up a Prayer Book" (BCP, 844). Since the first encounter many people have with the Episcopal Church is an occasion when they attend one of our liturgical services — baptism, marriage, burial, perhaps a Sunday Eucharist — it makes sense to include a general outline of what we believe within the covers of the first book newcomers will hold during their visit.

Other Church traditions have their own catechisms. The best known (and the longest) is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 1992, which runs to 700 pages in the standard English edition (Burns & Oates, 2000).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has four sections:

1 The Creeds (the content or object of our faith based on the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds)

2 The Sacred Liturgy (how we celebrate and communicate the faith based around worship and an exposition of seven sacraments)

3 The Christian way of life (how we live out our faith based around the Commandments)

4 Christian Prayer (how we deepen our relationship with God based around the Lord's Prayer)

Unlike An Outline of the Faith, commonly called The Catechism in The Episcopal Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is primarily intended as a guide for the whole Church in the great task of catechesis, not as a manual to be placed in the hands of those learning the faith for the first time.

Why do we need new material?

In every generation, the Church needs to reflect on this great task of catechesis and the way in which we make disciples. This is especially true in seasons of significant renewal in the life of the Church or times of change in our wider society or periods of great missionary endeavor.

Many people would argue that the present time is one when the life of The Episcopal Church needs to be renewed (and is being renewed) for the task we face. All would agree that we are living through times of great change in our society and the place of Christian faith within it. This is also a time when the Church is called to engage in God's mission, including the mission to make disciples, with fresh energy, creativity, and zeal in the power of the Holy Spirit.

However, the Church is called to reflect on our methods and resources for catechesis, especially for the sake of the people in our own generation as we invite them to follow Jesus Christ and become his disciples.

The Pilgrim Way

We have tried to develop material that is suitable for catechesis in the twenty- first century. We believe there are eleven distinctive characteristics.

Pilgrim starts at the very beginning.

Many adults, children, and young people who are open to exploring faith know very little about the faith when they begin that journey of exploration. For that reason, we need material that begins at the beginning, which assumes very little knowledge or understanding but simply a desire to learn and explore from first principles.

That means that for most people there is quite a lot to learn. We have prepared eight short courses. Four are for those starting out on the journey as inquirers and are called the Follow Stage of Pilgrim. The second four build on the first, and we have called this the Grow Stage.

A group could tackle the material in any order but it makes most sense to work through the Follow courses before the Grow material and for all groups to begin with the first course, Turning to Christ.

Pilgrim is about our whole lives.

Living as a Christian is about more than simply believing a set of doctrines. Living as a disciple is about the whole of our lives. Much of the material currently used for teaching inquirers and new believers is fundamentally shaped by the Creeds. This element in catechesis is important. However, we believe our material needs to be balanced to help new disciples to pray and develop their relationship with God; to share fully in the life of the Church; and to live out their discipleship and ministry in the world. Catechesis needs to pay due attention to each of these aspects of the Christian life.

Each of these dimensions also needs to be reflected if possible in the life of the group. This means that, when the group meets, it will not simply be for study but will be about building community, praying together as faith grows, serving together, and supporting one another in living out our discipleship.

Pilgrim focuses on following Jesus Christ.

At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father, who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever. To catechize is to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfilment in that Person.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Catechesis needs to be comprehensive but also clearly focused on equipping people to follow Jesus Christ as disciples in the whole of their lives. Catechesis is not a course in theology as an academic exercise. Catechesis is about being formed and shaped in the pattern of Christ and, in Paul's words, about Christ being formed and shaped in us (Galatians 4:19).

A correct understanding is essential but cannot be divorced from a life that is being transformed and made whole and lived according to God's call. Taking part in a Pilgrim group should lead to change both for the members of the group and for the leaders.

Pilgrim flows from the Scriptures.

Christians believe that God is revealed to us in the Scriptures and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ, God's living Word, who is himself at the very heart of the Scriptures, God's written Word.

All scripture is inspired by God [literally "God-breathed"] and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

2 TIMOTHY 3:16

Catechesis therefore needs to take the Scriptures seriously and introduce inquirers and new believers to a lifetime of engagement with the Scriptures through reading the Bible together. The primary focus of each session of Pilgrim is a group of people engaging together in reading the Bible and attending to Scripture together through careful reading of the text.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Pilgrim by STEPHEN COTTRELL, Steven Croft, Paula Gooder, Robert Atwell, Sharon Ely Pearson. Copyright © 2016 Stephen Cottrell, Steven Croft, Robert Atwell and Paula Gooder. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface by The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry, 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church vii

Part 1 Welcome to Pilgrim 1

An Overview of Pilgrim 2

About this Leader's Guide 6

Part 2 Teaching the Faith 7

Catechesis 8

The Pilgrim Way 11

An Annual Rhythm 20

Learning the Faith 25

Part 3 Leading a Pilgrim Group 31

Gathering a Group Together 32

Leading the Sessions 35

Part 4 Pilgrim Resources 47

Pilgrim Books 48

Liturgical Resources 50

Other Books and Resources 67

The Baptismal Covenant 91

The Five Marks of Mission 93

Part 5 And Finally… 95

Three Images of the Catechist 96

Notes 98