Core Team Ministry

Effective ministries don’t just happen.  Beyond the overall vision and specific focus, they require highly motivated men and women to plan and implement the various catechetical efforts.   This is accomplished through a core team.  A core team is: a community of persons, from various backgrounds, who share a common faith, and experience a common calling to a specific ministry so as to put themselves and others not only in touch with Christ, but in communion, in intimacy with Him.  To better appreciate this definition, it is broken down into its relevant parts.

• A Community of Persons
  On many occasions throughout his pontificate, Pope John Paul II distinguished between a “collection of individuals” and a “community of persons.”   Where a collection of individual come together to accomplish a certain goal apart from one another, a community of persons mutually submit (sacrifice) themselves for the good of one another so that together they may accomplish a goal.  Understood this way, a core team is not simply a means to an end, the end being the implementation of a particular ministry.  Instead, they join together forming a family so that, by reaching out and touching others, they are also touched and transformed.
  
  
• From Various Backgrounds
  A core team requires a certain diversity of gifts and talents.   These are not only in the areas of catechesis, but in hospitality, logistics, marketing, and administration as well.  By coordinating these gifts and talents in a complementary manner, the overall ministerial effort becomes far more effective.
  
  
• Share a Common Faith
  Ministry at St. Bede is ministry in the Catholic Church.  Because of this, the minister must be a representative of the Catholic Church.  This means that he or she must be a practicing Catholic faithful to the Magisterium.
  
  
• Experience a Common Call to a Specific Ministry
  Ministry is rooted in a call from God to serve.  This call often comes as a subtle yearning to share our very selves with others through the exercise of a particular ministry.  Understood this way, God’s call finds its response in concrete action in a specific ministerial effort.
  
  
• Intimate Communion with Jesus Christ
  According to Pope John Paul II, the definitive aim of all catechesis is to put people in intimate union with Jesus Christ.  This intimacy, which is an ever-deepening process, is not simply limited to those we serve, but is something we should experience in the exercise of our ministry.  Just as we cannot touch without being touched, so too we cannot minister without being ministered.   If the calling is genuine, and the response is sincere, ministry enables is to more closely follow Jesus in our own lives.

If you sense a calling to be a member of a core team contact: Deacon Dominic Cerrato, Ph.D, Director, Adult Faith Formation at either dcerrato@bedeva.org  or (757) 229-3700.