The Church of the Magdalen in Wichita, Kansas, opened the new Magdalen Discipleship Center, which the parish hopes will encourage adults to grow not just in their faith but also in friendship.
“People are hungrier for fellowship, Catholic friendships, and opportunities to discuss our faith,” Amanda Prieto, director of evangelization and discipleship, said, according to the Diocese of Wichita. “This is a perfect opportunity to give them a place to meet that is everyone’s home. People want more, and this is a space to help facilitate that.”
The discipleship center will be a place for all kinds of activities, from formal groups to spontaneous, informal socialization, according to the church’s pastor, Father David Marstall.
“Groups can reserve it for Bible studies and such, but if people want to get together after Mass, stop in during the day, or have a place to talk when they’re here to pick up their kids, it works,” he said, according to the diocese.
Colleen Wittler, a parishioner who is part of the church’s building and design committee, said she hopes that the space will encourage people to slow down and make time and space to be in each other’s presence.
“It’s a place to linger,” she explained, according to the diocese. “People don’t linger in the gathering space unless they’re in line for donuts. We need more places where it’s inviting to pause and just be with each other.”
Father John Jirak, former pastor of The Church of Magdalen, said that the idea for the discipleship center came to him after he saw some concerning survey results. The diocese discovered that only half of high school students attending diocesan schools were attending Sunday Mass regularly.
“Showing up on Sundays is basically the first criterion to be able to play the game,” Fr. Jirak said, according to the diocese. “It’s counterintuitive, but my epiphany was that the future depends on our adults. The Church teaches that parents are the first educators for their children, and as such, the first to lead their kids in the way of faith and discipleship.”
Fr. Jirak said he believes that if the diocese is going to get children to attend Mass regularly, it will need to invest “in adults, in evangelizing and building up adult disciples, who the Church teaches are the primary educators of their children. If all we give adults are leftovers, that is all they will give us.”
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