TRAINING IN THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR PARISHES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT
ACTS II: CONVERSION, PROCLAMATION, COMMUNITY

1. What exactly is the ACTS II Process?

   The title of the ACTS II Process, ACTS II: Conversion, Proclamation, Community, takes its name from the book in the New Testament called the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2: first the apostles (the leaders) experience conversion; they go out and proclaim Jesus; those who hear and accept Jesus undergo conversion and come into community and the process continues.

   When a parish decides to bring in the ACTS II Process, some parishioners are selected (leaders -- future coordinators) who go through the ACTS II Leadership training. Once this training is completed, the leaders -- the coordinators of the ACTS II Process -- are ready to train their parishioners in the "how to" of evangelization and the ACTS II Process unfolds step by step.

   The vision of the process is to revitalize the evangelizing church today toward conversion, proclamation, and community. This Spirit-filled process lovingly leads an individual into a personal relationship with Jesus and to giving testimony to the faith and to the love of Jesus Christ for all men and women. The Process leads to the development of small Christian communities that provide ongoing follow-up for those initially evangelized.

2. What elements are contained in the ACTS II Process that enables a person to accomplish the above?

   There are four components to the ACTS II Process: Recruitment, the ACTS II Evangelization training, Ongoing Evangelistic Outreach, and the Parish Small Group System.

3. How is the ACTS II Process started in a parish?

   A pastor decides to bring the ACTS II Process into his parish by selecting some parishioners (leaders -- future coordinators) who go through the online ACTS II Evangelization Training. Once this training is completed, the leaders -- the coordinators of the ACTS II Process -- are ready to train their parishioners in the "how to" of evangelization and the ACTS II Process unfolds step by step.

4. What are the requirements of a parishioner, a future coordinator, for the ACTS II Process?

   Bringing the ACTS II Process into one's parish is no small commitment. A person needs to decide that he or she is ready to be the catalyst in the parish for the training of their parishioners. A person makes the commitment to be one of the coordinators of the process in the parish. It then requires several steps.

   First, it is necessary to complete the online ACTS II training process as an individual! This in itself requires a large commitment. Should you decide to enroll in the online training, be sure to inform your trainer that you not only want to learn the process for yourself, but that you are also intending to be a coordinator for the process in your parish.

   To become a coordinator, you (or the pastor, or you together with the pastor) must find a minimum of three other persons in your parish who are willing to be coordinators, and willing to complete the online training with you. You will all move through the online training together. This is vitally important in order for you to achieve the maximum results of your training.

   Next, once you’ve completed the online training, we will send you the complete LEADER’S EVANGELIZATION TRAINING KIT. This kit provides comprehensive guidance for face to face training of your parishioners in the New Evangelization Process, ACTS II: Conversion, Proclamation, Community, and for the Evangelistic Outreach of the parish done by those trained.

   It will now be your responsibility to gather together parishioners in your parish who are interested in being trained in this New Evangelization Process, ACTS II. All the materials needed by the trainiees (parishioners) will be supplied to you with permission to duplicate.

   Lastly, it will be your responsibility, as one of the coordinators, to guide these parishioners through the face to face training of ACTS II.

5. What are the costs of the ACTS II Process to the parish?

   The cost to the parish would be the cost of the online training for the individuals (future coordinators) who go through the training plus the cost of the printed materials that would be sent to the parish once the online training has been completed. The printed materials enable those who have completed the online training (future coordinators) to be able to train their own parishioners in the ACTS II Process.

6. What are the benefits of the ACTS II Process?

   The answer to the need of society at every level is Jesus Christ. The ACTS II Process forms our Catholic people as evangelizers to be able to bring Jesus Christ into every level of society. It is a serious formation for life and for mission.

   By going through the ACTS II Evangelization Training in the parish, given by the parish coordinators of the ACTS II Process, parishioners acquire a zeal to bring Jesus Christ not only to those within the parish boundaries but beyond the parish into every level of society -- into the market place: the educational, political, governmental, technological, medical, recreational, and communicational levels of society -- in other words, into all aspects of societal life. This is the call of Paul VI to the universal Church in his Apostolic Exhortation, On Evangelization in the Modern World, and the call of John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter, Mission of the Redeemer, and the call of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel. This is what the ACTS II Process brings about through the formation it gives.

   Parishioners not only evangelize but they provide follow-up care for those they initially evangelize by inviting them into small Christian communities where ongoing evangelization, encouragement, support and nurturing takes place.

7. What is the fruit to the parish?

   The parish is gradually transformed into an evangelizing community through the net-working of small Christian communities whose very reason for existence is to evangelize. The parish becomes the Community of communities.

   ACTS II calls forth the leadership of the laity. Through their small Christian communities, the laity begin to take a real personal Christian care for one another as they reach out and evangelize, inviting those they initially evangelize into their small groups where ongoing evagelization takes place. The laity work in collaboration with their pastor to bring this about.

   There is an ongoing change in the mentality of the parishioners who gradually become more and more missionary in outlook and action.

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