The Intentional Accompaniment Series

1. What stood out to you from this episode? What stirred your heart?

2. Eric mentions a quote from the tv show, “The Chosen”, where Mary Magdalene talks about her experience with Jesus with Nicodemus. She says, “I was one way, and now I'm completely different. And the thing that happened in between was Him.” We all have a story similar to Mary Magdalene. We were living one life before and then through Christ, we were renewed completely. What led you to Christ? How did He change your life?

3. Our guest, Michael Hall, describes Intentional Accompaniment as such, “it may make the process less daunting because there is someone who is showing you the path that you can walk, you don’t have to figure it out on your own”. There are many huge benefits to accompaniment, for both the mentor and the mentee. Are you accompanying someone right now? How can you use your own experiences to help guide those you’re journeying with?

4. Who is someone in your life that the Holy Spirit is calling you to reach out to?

1. What are your takeaways from this episode? What stood out to you the most?

2. In his book, “Intentional Accompaniment”, Michael writes that “if [the Gospel] isn’t shared in a relationship of trust, our best intentions may not matter. Others will not be able to receive it because they don’t trust us or our intentions”. This quote rings so true especially in evangelization. If those we accompany don’t trust us, our message may be lost in translation. How can we, as leaders, build on “strengthening our trust meter” with others?

3. While discussing the stage of trust, Eric and Michael touch on the idea of “moving in the speed of [your mentee’s] trust”. Others may open up easily while others may have wounds that prevent them from opening up? Have you experienced this before? What helped you in opening up to our mentor? What helped you gained the trust of your mentee?

4. Out of the four stages of intentional accompaniment: trust, curiosity, openness, and seeking, which one do you think others have the hardest time with? Which areas do you think you struggled with in your journey with conversion? How can you use what you have learned to those around you?

1. "As an apprentice, you don't just go into a classroom and study how to be a cabinet maker or a plumber, and get thrown out into the field when you're deemed ready...There's that person who's there over your shoulder not to criticize you, but to be a support and a role model and who walks with you along the way." Michael shares about the importance and significance of having someone walk with you in your spiritual journey. When you think about your own spiritual journey, has there been moments where you felt like an "apprentice"? Who were your mentors? How have they helped you in growing in holiness and mission?

2. As we grow and mature in our Catholic faith, it is likely that we have encountered others in that are in the beginning stages of their spiritual journey that we can accompany. Who have you accompanied? What insights and lessons have you learned about God, yourself, and the person you accompanied in the process? How have you helped them in their growth? If you haven't accompanied anyone before and would like to, was there a time that you felt an opportunity of accompanying others came up in the past? How can you prepare yourself to be an accompanier in the future?

3. Our guest, Michael Hall, describes Intentional Accompaniment as such, “it may make the process less daunting because there is someone who is showing you the path that you can walk, you don’t have to figure it out on your own”. There are many huge benefits to accompaniment, for both the mentor and the mentee. Are you accompanying someone right now? How can you use your own experiences to help guide those you’re journeying with?

1. What stood out to you from this episode?

2. "When we're planning this parish event, we put the focus on what's the room gonna look like, what's the registration process going to work .. All those things are important, you don't wanna forget those things ... But at the end, you put so much focus on that, that you forget that the event is about reaching individual people". Have you ever experienced this in ministry? What steps can you take to ensure that you focus on your overall mission?

3. "We have to have a radical commitment to a one-person-at-a-time mentality. A radical commitment to one person at a time". This is a powerful statement from our guest, Michael. Accompanying others in their journey to Christ is a personal encounter. What does Radical Commitment mean to you? How can focusing on one-person-at-a-time benefit the accompanier and the one who's being accompanied?

4. "Let the Holy Spirit take the lead". What is my relationship with the Holy Spirit? How can we trust the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our own spiritual journeys and in the way that we accompany others? How can we let the Holy Spirit to take the lead in ministry and in our own lives?

1. What stood out to you from this episode?

2. "If the Lord is calling you to mission, ministry, or to a particular person, and we know that He has a plan for those people, and He has a plan for us personally; doesn't it make sense, that if He wants you to help a person to move in a direction that He wants to move, that He would let us in the plan?". Our guest, Michael, describes prophetic listening in this way. Think back when you were accompanying others (or when someone was accompanying you), have you had moments of prophetic listening with God? What happened during that encounter?

3. "If you don't take that risk, you won't ever discover how far you can take that conversation". Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever felt scared or intimidated to delve deeper in getting to know someone new? What happened? What steps can you take to ensure that you're inviting the Holy Spirit into your future conversations and encounters?

4. Think back on the four skills of prophetic listening that Michael shared: "build rapport", "survey", "zoom in" and "strengthen". Which skills do you excel at? Which skills do you find challenging? As a group, brainstorm ideas on how to build on these skills together, and what helped you in your own journey.

5. If time allows, try practicing these new skills together. Find a partner, listen to each other applying what you've learned about prophetic listening, and share feedback with one another. What have you learned from this experience/exercise?

1. What stood out to you the most from this episode?

2. Have you heard of CCO's 1-2-3-4 model before? Have you had experience to a leadership structure similar to this concept in the past? What are your thoughts on this model? How can this model help each person (1s, 2s, 3s, 4s) in the ministry/movement?

3. "Who are the next generation of missionary disciples?" How have you helped those that you have accompanied to become the next leaders? If you've witnessed those you have accompanied become leaders, share your story with the group. What did you learn from that experience? If you haven't experienced this yet, keeping in mind that the one who leads in this accompaniment is the Holy Spirit, what are your dreams for your 1s? 2s? 3s?

4. In the context of leading a program or small group, it is easy to identify the 1s, 2s, and the 4s. But where we lack is finding and identifying the 3s within our ministry. How can we help build up the 2s into future 3s? As leaders in our community, how can we intentionally help 2s (and even 1s) become future 3s one day?