Can a recently converted person be a leader/servant?

The selection of leaders and the invitations to serve in Renewal groups and communities is a vital question for spiritual maturity and growth in the Renewal. Most important are some fundamental principles to be outlined, principles that are applicable in all nations and situations. The principles are more important than generalized answers that may not fit the vast variety of situations in which Renewal groups are arising.

Let us consider first the size and the character of Renewal groups and communities. We can consider groups of under 30 participants, those between 30 and 100, between 100 and 250, and those over 250 members. For groups of less than 30 people, formal structures are unnecessary. Often there will be no forms of admission to membership, and no commitment asked of members. In such groups, there is often a core group or team that takes responsibility. In small groups there is little difference between being a leader and serving in such roles as teaching, prayer ministry and music. A key principle is looking for persons with a servant heart, who want to serve out of love and not out of some inner psychological need. To be part of a core team does not require much experience and a person could be considered for some service in a team a year after conversion. The spirit of a person can be tested by inviting them first to do some spiritually less demanding service, such as helping with refreshments, with preparation and clean-up of the meeting place, helping with a book table or joining a greeters’ team to welcome newcomers.

With groups and communities between 30 and 100 people, some simple structure begins to be needed. It is wise to distinguish between those who are in leadership and those who serve under their leadership. In this category, it becomes more important who serves in the leadership team and to develop some pattern for initiating new members. It becomes necessary to discern who should serve in a Life in the Spirit seminar and in any prayer ministry, neither of which should include any persons with major unresolved sin patterns in their lives. Normally persons should not be chosen for a leadership team who have not demonstrated their faith-life and their reliability in other forms of service. Newly-converted persons would not normally be considered for a leadership team until at least three years after conversion.

With groups between 100 and 250 people, it is normal to have an explicit process to join the community and a planned pattern of initiation and subsequent formation. The community will have, or will seek to acquire, canonical statutes approved by the Church. If a community belongs to the Fellowship of Catholic Covenant Communities and Fellowships, they are covered by the statutes of the Fellowship. The statutes will specify how leaders are to be chosen. With communities of this size, it begins to be necessary to have specific teams for different services, all led by a person approved by the leaders to be in charge of this service, whether music, prayer ministry, children’s ministry, the Life in the Spirit seminar.

With over 250 people, the community often becomes the primary instrument of formation in the lives of its members. The community will need to provide for the pastoral care of different age groups, for the teenagers and young singles, for families and their children, and for the older members. The larger the community the greater will be the maturity required of the top leadership. Newly-converted persons would not be considered for leadership in such communities. With over 250 members, a community will normally develop forms of intermediate leadership answerable to the senior leaders. Otherwise the leaders become exhausted and can suffer “burn out”. The senior leaders need to form the intermediate leaders, gradually introducing them to bigger responsibilities.

For the selection of leaders for regional service committees, the following method has been used successfully in some countries. First, the leaders of the prayer groups are collected in a list. This list is sent to all leaders of prayer groups who can mark some leaders, after prayer and according to the specific character of leaders, which can be find in the bible (the letter to Titus, etc). Then the existing regional team invites those with the most votes for an interview, to check their personal and spiritual suitability. Then the old team selects the persons needed for the “renewal” of the old , and presents them to the leaders’ assembly. After a time of prayer any objections concerning the proposed new leaders can be brought to the old team. When there is unity over the proposals the new leaders are blessed by all the leaders.

What is the role of the priest in Renewal groups and communities? Clearly it is desirable that a priest takes part in all groups of over 100 people. The priest is their link with the local bishop and diocese. But this will depend on the availability of priests. In some places where priests have to cover large areas, the occasional participation of a priest is the most that is possible. But always there should be a deep respect for the role and the authority of the priest in Catholic communities. However, from the start, the Renewal has been a predominantly lay movement, and it is one of it’s biggest contributions to the life of the Church to have produced many wonderful lay leaders. It is preferable to have all significant decisions agreed by the whole team of leaders, together with the priest, or with the team then presenting their key decisions to the priest for discernment. It does not accord either with the theology of the Church as the Body of Christ or with the grace of the Renewal that the priest should make all the decisions by himself alone. But the input of the priest and his discernment is to be sought, particularly concerning the content of the teachings.