Faith Forming Faith: Bringing New Christians to Baptism and Beyond

by Paul E. Hoffman

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2012

Overview

Hoffman’s Faith Forming Faith describes how a Lutheran congregation began a year-long process of bringing new Christians into the faith and, as a result, breathed new life into their ministry. By primarily using the practice of the Adult Catechumenate, new Christians were brought to the waters of baptism. Hoffman’s account of real life stories provides pastoral and theological insights, and serves as a great primer for pastors, leaders, and seminarians.

In this book, Paul Hoffman urges God’s people to be the church as he shares the life-changing experience of one congregation as they embarked on a journey to truly embody the way of Christ.

Key Features

• Describes how a Lutheran congregation began a year-long process of bringing new Christians into the faith
• Shares how transformation occured using the practice of the Adult Catechumenate
• Serves as a great primer for pastors, leaders, and seminarians

Contents

• The Gospel According to Kathryn
• What Is the Way
• Reaching Out by Reaching In
• Transformed Lives
• What Does This Mean?
• The Baptismal Shift: From Personal Demand to Relational Responsibility
• Parish Transformation
• Creating a Climate of Expectation
• The Great Vigil of Easter
• The Power of Passion Sunday Evening
• The Gracious Gift of Flexibility
• The Role of Lay Leaders and the Clergy in the Catechumenate
• God’s Work Alive in the World
• Appendix 1: How We Understand and Practice the Sacrament of Holy Baptism
• Appendix 2: Ideas, Questions, and Reflections for Getting Started with the Catechumenate in Your Parish
• Appendix 3: Three Faith Formation Sermons

Praise for the Print Edition

This is the book for which many of us have been waiting. In our new, post-Christendom time the critical need for faith formation–catechesis–has now been understood and accepted. But how? How to do faith formation for adults, for seekers, for a new time? Paul Hoffman’s inspiring report on ‘The WAY’ goes a long way toward answering not only the ‘why’ and ‘what,’ but also the crucial ‘how’ question. Invaluable.

—Anthony B. Robinson, president, Congregational Leadership Northwest

Paul Hoffman joyously testifies to God’s reviving breath stirring a congregation and bringing new Christians to baptism when a faith community embraces the Adult Catechumenate as the focus of its ministry. Those skeptical that an ancient way of forming Christians can work today will meet people whose lives were truly transformed as they walked with God, surrounded by God’s people, on a journey of revelation, faith, and discovery that a congregation in Seattle simply calls ‘The WAY.’

—Craig A. Satterlee, professor of homiletics, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Paul Hoffman has written a stunning book. The book describes one congregation’s bold embodiment of the ancient catechumenate–a pattern of apprenticeship forming people into faith in Jesus Christ. It offers pastors, seminarians, and congregational leaders sage council for beginning this baptismal pattern of ‘faith-forming-faith’ in their own communities, and, in doing so, sets out a gracious and vital proposal about the witness of faith in an increasingly secular society.

—Christian Scharen, codirector, Learning Pastoral Imagination Project

Product Details

• Title: Faith Forming Faith: Bringing New Christians to Baptism and Beyond
• Author: Paul E. Hoffman
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 130
• Christian Group: Lutheran
• Resource Type: Monographs
• Topic: Ministry Resources

About Paul E. Hoffman

Paul Hoffman is an author, speaker, and teacher on the topic of faith formation and its practice. Because of his work in bringing new Christians to baptism and beyond at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church in Seattle, he is a leading authority on the topic of faith formation and its practice in the church. Hoffman is the author of two previous volumes published by Cascade Books, including Faith Forming Faith (2012)