Tag: faith formation

Our faith stages: developmental growth

May 15, 2025
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Growing in our faith is meant to involve life-long growth. Our religious understanding isn’t meant to stop after completing Sunday School. Just as our growth in other aspects of life continue maturing into adulthood, so should our faith.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) says the following: adult faith formation “fosters a baptismal spirituality for adults…to embrace the invitation and challenge of an ever deepening faith in Jesus.”

On many levels, our human experience involves continuing emotional and mental development throughout our adult lives. Job training develops us for the workforce. Continuing education and book reading foster our intellectual development. Just as we learn adult levels of emotional maturity throughout our lives and train as adults for workforce competence, adult faith formation must move beyond an introductory level to mature. Our faith life can only continue to mature through intentional development.

Individuals who grow up in a faith tradition and then continue to develop their knowledge and perceptions about religion – and engagement with their faith – navigate maturing stages described by development psychologists and theologians such as James Fowler.

For those who grow up in a faith tradition, learning one’s faith tradition is experienced early in life with sacraments, attending services, learning prayers, learning basic tenet’s of one’s faith tradition. For those who come to a faith tradition later, on, faith formation happens….well, later. Teen years and/or the early twenties are often a time for faith reflection and perhaps struggle. Do I believe in and accept the faith tradition I have been raised in? Can I see a path to greater and deeper faith maturity in my current faith tradition or another tradition? For those who continue on within an organized faith tradition, the teen-to-early-adult period is also one of transition: figuring out religious meaning on new levels (what are the underlying concepts represented by the symbolism of my faith tradition?, etc.), taking a deeper level of new responsibility for one’s faith (i.e., “this faith tradition was given to me as a child, now I’m evaluating my decision about if and how to stay, how to participate.” “I was given A, B, or C religious concepts as a child….What do these concepts mean to me now? Am I seeing these concepts differently or on a new level??). beyond “taking things at face value” or just “reciting back what you’ve heard.”).

As we navigate an adult level of faith, some adults need to navigate the faith stages of youth if those stages were not navigated earlier in life. Then – if we continue to grow in faith as adults – we surrender into additional levels of understanding faith and finding our way to new levels of relationship with God (and, therefore, with one another!).

The opportunity for faith to continue to develop and mature, however, is often stunted when there is no continued connection as an adult to faith formation. Adults can be surprised – if they take time away from religion or don’t engage with “beyond Sunday” faith formation within their religious tradition – to find out that their faith tradition offers a deeper level of understanding faith on a level of “come to weekend services and take faith concepts literally.”

An adult faith is one that continues to mature developmentally – deciding to take personal responsibility for one’s faith path, thinking through the faith concepts one was taught while growing up (if one grew up in a faith tradition), surrendering to new levels of understanding of religious concepts, etc. Many individuals who live an active faith as adults engage in – and experience – such maturing faith stages. Pastors recognize parishioners who navigate through such stages. Authors such as Jane Regan write about cultivating the maturing faith of adults (check out her book, “Toward an Adult Church“).

Further, there is the need for “life-long learning” of what faith traditions have to offer. There are boundless amounts of religious content available for we lay people to lean into – and an endless amount of ways for us to learn to bring that content into our lives. I am glad to be journeying with you via this blog.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist (and is a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). Blogging is sustainable via blog readership (i.e. readers/subscribers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you subscribe to follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them and invite them to subscribe (thank you!).

Accompanying one another in our faith journeys

October 6, 2023

Our faith formation – spiritual exploration and growth in faith – is personal and at the same time communal.  It takes interaction with each other – a faith community – to learn, grow, and mature. Specific faith traditions offer spiritual insights learned over a period of time – we aren’t going to find adequate insights to grow and mature our faith on our own. Further, faith communities are often where we learn social mores that nudge us forward more than what we would glean from sitting home alone reading books (“Hey, come put your faith into action by helping at our soup kitchen,” learn about treating each well within a faith community, etc.). Friends, communities (prayer groups, faith circles, book clubs, etc.) and leaders within a faith community can help us avoid taking detours down unproductive rabbit holes.

Within that context, some individuals emerge who provide us with spiritual accompaniment: pastors, spiritual accompanists, faith mentors, spiritual directors, soul friends, and the like. 

Spiritual accompaniment is a relationship in which one individual helps facilitate another’s exploration and continued growth (maturity) in their faith journey.

Spiritual accompaniment takes innumerable forms, such as:

  • A youth minister takes a spiritually curious young person “under their wing.”
  • Someone at a parish notices that a parishioner “is at loose ends” or “looking for direction in their faith” and takes on a one–on-one faith guidance role.
  • A parishioner who is experiencing a life transition – starting college, entering the workforce, having a child, losing a loved one, retiring, etc – asks their pastor for guidance and is directed toward “Hey, X or Y person would be a good person for you to connect with at this time.”
  • An individual looking to potentially join a faith tradition – or a different denomination within a tradition – may be assigned a mentor and/or a lay minister to guide their faith inquiry.
  • A parishioner may admire a fellow parishioner who has matured in their faith and ask the person for guidance and/or “faith friendship.”
  • In various contexts, individuals exist who provide formal spiritual accompaniment (and/or spiritual directors) to individuals looking for direction in their faith. Such accompaniment often takes place when an individually formally seeks this out; during a period of questioning, doubt, or struggle; during periods of transition (life transitions, transitioning from one stage of faith to another); when a person wishes to continually hold themselves accountable in faith.

While spiritual accompaniment sometimes occurs in some kind of a formal or leadership capacity, we can also support each other – in peer or mentor capacities – in our faith journeys. There are a number of ways to support one another:

  • Participate in faith groups – book clubs, prayer groups, bible studies, etc. Support and discussion about faith happens within such groups.
  • Be welcoming to new people at church – reach out and initiate friendships.
  • Reach out to people in your faith community who seem to be at loose ends or are having difficulty – look for ways to be present and supportive.
  • Be someone in your faith community who talks about how you experience your faith. Someone may be listening for feet-on-the-ground insights about living one’s faith.
  • Consider your faith-related strengths and look for opportunities to discuss those strengths with other people. If prayer is one of your areas of interest, for example, look for opportunities to talk to people about the nuts-and-bolts of cultivating a vibrant prayer life. If you take an interest in community service (running your church’s food bank, etc.), invite people to get involved in service projects.
  • Participate in church-based programs that assist people in their faith – becoming a guide or leader in healing prayer groups, grief support groups, faith education classes, etc.
  • Have an active prayer life. In order to relate to people in faith, we need to have an active relationship with God. Prayer is a relational activity between us and God (rather than a uni-directional monologue). Prayer is essential for growing in faith.
  • Listen to people. Authentic listening is a deeply attentive activity. Hearing people makes it more possible to know “where a person is at” – making it more possible to identify how to support people. Further, being heard is an encouraging activity.
  • Recognize that faith development incorporates a whole person – spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and the context of a person’s life circumstances.
  • Offer insights or encouragement to people – this can go a long way.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages. If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog post, please share it with them (thank you!).