Growing in faith through learning and serving
Students in grade 6-8 meet weekly for Middle Ministries faith formation program at Good Shepherd Parish in Colleyville. (NTC/Annette Mendoza-Smith)
more photos from Good Shepherd and Our Lady of Mercy
Brandee Beal said she knew something was missing in her life, and she discovered what would fill the void through the religious education programs at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Keller.
Born and raised Methodist, she attended various churches but still felt a bit lost.
The Holy Spirit gave Beal a desire to study the Scriptures which, through a friend, led her to a Bible study at SEAS.
“But I’m not Catholic,” she said.
Her friend told her, “That’s okay.”
The first year was 2020, and everything was on Zoom. It was good, but her friend told her that it would be even better in person. And it was.
The program organizers and other women in the “Walking with Purpose” Bible study welcomed her with kindness and warmth. And as she began to learn more about the Bible, she also learned about the Catholic faith.
Beal said she began attending Mass every Wednesday evening, then she went to Bible study, and she concluded the evening with Adoration.
She credits “the lovely women” at her table in Bible study, Mass, and most of all Adoration with drawing her to enter the Church.
“I felt like I was missing something, and that something was the Eucharist,” she said, adding that faith formation in community was another key discovery.
She made the decision to go through RCIA in 2022.
Her husband, Joe McCullough, was a cradle Catholic but had not followed the faith as an adult. Instead, he’d attended Methodist churches with Beal and their three children, now young adults.
Along with Beal’s faith journey, her husband rediscovered his faith. Now both are active in various SEAS ministries.
Once she entered the Church, they both took Safe Environment training so they could begin serving. She’s now a table leader in both RCIA and in “Walking with Purpose.”
“One of the things I really noticed at RCIA and Bible study is I’m constantly learning,” Beal said. “We always need to be growing in our faith.”
Rapid growth in faith formation
Beal’s experience is not unusual in the Diocese of Fort Worth.
In recent years, more and more people in the region are drawn to the Catholic faith, said Jason Whitehead, Diocesan Director of Evangelization and Catechesis.
In the past, about 800 adults on average each year were baptized or made professions of faith. Last year, there were 1,544.
“Easter Vigil was really something,” Whitehead said.
He attributed the increase to both the growing population of North Texas and the increased quality of catechesis across the diocese.
In addition to people becoming Catholic, the diocese and parishes offer religious education to everyone, from young children to adults.
For adults, the St. Junipero Serra Institute and the St. Francis de Sales program offer what Whitehead calls “RCIA for Catholics,” taking them through the pillars of the Catholic faith.
“I hear it all the time,” he said. “They say, ‘I’ve been a Catholic my whole life, and I’ve never heard any of this.’”
These programs have grown from 50 students to 590. They offer classes in person and online and in English and Spanish.
As for children in the diocese, some 30,000 from preschool through high school attend religious education classes.
About 4,000 volunteers are needed to make all those classes happen.
“There’s no way we can do that with paid parish staff,” Whitehead said. “The Church absolutely depends on volunteer catechists.”
When you help teach others about the faith, you’re helping fulfill the Great Commission, he said.
“When you volunteer for the sake of serving Jesus Christ, you’re laying up treasures in heaven,” Whitehead said. “If someone wants to serve the Church, you’d be hard pressed to find a better way than serving as a volunteer catechist.”
‘I was learning as much as the children’
Ines Roach is one of those volunteer catechists. She and her husband Jason Roach teach their daughter’s sixth grade religious education class at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Arlington. Their older teenage sons also help with the class, making it a true family effort.
She said sharing her knowledge of the faith with kids and hearing how they are learning and growing have “been a blessing.”
When they get questions that are difficult, they can ask church clergy for help.
This is the fourth year that the couple has taught their daughter’s class.
“It’s been such a good experience,” Roach said. “We have several of the same kids over the years and build relationships and get to know them and their parents.”
Michal Tincup, director of religious education at St. Vincent de Paul, said volunteering can be just as much a gift to the teacher as it is to the student.
“When you teach you get just as much, if not more, than you give. It’s blessing upon blessing,” she said.
Tincup got her start in religious education by helping teach kindergartners.
“What motivated me most was I was learning as much as the children,” she said. “God helped me understand I didn’t need to know all the answers.”
After a number of years teaching a variety of ages, Tincup felt called to leave her full-time job as a landscape architect and work in ministry to direct religious education at SVDP, first for children and now for adults.
At St. Vincent de Paul, more than 250 children are regularly involved in programs, ranging from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for preschoolers and early elementary to high school youth group.
For adults, in addition to RCIA, there are several weekly Bible studies and a twice monthly “Ask me anything” with Deacon Kevin Bagley.
A new program for the whole family is Wednesday Night Bites. The parish offers an inexpensive dinner with multiple choices to appeal to kids and adults.
The idea came out of the church’s Friday Night Fish Fry during Lent. They wanted to offer a regular time of fellowship and sharing a good meal, with opportunities to attend Mass or religious education classes before or after eating.
“We wanted to make Wednesday nights a great place for families,” Tincup said.
Making lifelong disciples
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish also has plenty of classes for children and adults.
Tammy Sandoval, SEAS director of religious education, said about 1,000 children and youth have participated in classes this year.
Options for adults, in addition to the “Walking with Purpose” study, include Catholicism 101 for learning the basics of the faith, lectio divina to learn to meditate and pray over Scripture, and a class learning more about Jesus with discussions about the TV series “The Chosen.”
RCIA also is a big emphasis, Sandoval said.
She’s seeing more and more people come to the faith, often with a generational theme. The mother comes first, then spouses and adult children. And many of them, like Beal, get involved with the parish right away.
Sandoval said SEAS leaders are trying to combat the current statistic that 70 percent of people who grew up in church leave it as adults. Some of them return; some don’t.
Father James Flynn, SEAS pastor, emphasizes helping people become lifelong disciples, Sandoval said.
“How do we make them never want to leave?” she said.
Key elements of the solution are both learning about faith and serving others. Teaching faith formation combines the two.
Sandoval said, “When I volunteer in the Catechism of the Good Shepherd, I learn something every single time that strengthens my faith.”