Ongoing Formation
During the 1980s, as we established the People of Praise in many new locations, we spent much time and effort training new members of the community. This effort continued into the 1990s. For example, the Servant Branch Pastoral Training Days continued. The 1989 talk Deliverance: History and Practice (405) is from one such Pastoral Training Day. Also, in 1989, we held the first of what were eventually called Leaders’ Conferences for Women (LCW). Likewise, in 1991 we held the first of what were eventually called Leaders’ Conferences for Men (LCM). Three of the talks from this time period date from the first LCW: Godly Grief and Worldly Grief (401), Feminism (402) and Ecumenism in the People of Praise (403). The talk Committed and Submitted Together (408) was given at the first LCM.
Sources from this time period also include three talks that were given at community meetings: Forming Opinions and Making Judgments (404), Making Promises (407) and Be Holy! (417). One talk was from a women’s retreat, Conversation in Women’s Groups (406), and one was from a weekend for married couples, Marriage: Becoming Holy Together (409). The talk Friendship in Women’s Groups (410) came from two different women’s events.
Other 1989-1995 Events
Several notable events happened during the years 1989-1995. In September, 1989, the Publication and Action divisions were dissolved. By this time much of our time, energy, money and personnel were directed toward the work of Trinity Schools. (Trinity School opened at Greenlawn in 1981 and at River Ridge in 1987. Trinity School at Meadow View opened later, in 1998.)
On June 7, 1990, what was then called the National Service Committee (NSC), which supported the Catholic charismatic renewal, announced its decision to move the annual National Conference on the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church out of South Bend/Notre Dame. This unilaterally ended a long-standing collaboration between the National Service Committee and the People of Praise. It meant that the People of Praise no longer put on the national conference, a service we had performed, through Charismatic Renewal Services (CRS), since 1974. At the same time the NSC also announced that it was moving its office from South Bend to the Washington, D.C. area. The People of Praise had staffed this office during the time it was located in South Bend.
In April of 1992 the National Catholic Register began a series of articles on covenant communities, several of which criticized the People of Praise. The Register was doing something of an exposé on Sword of the Spirit, a network of covenant communities founded by The Word of God community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They mistakenly thought we were a similar community, although we differed from Sword of the Spirit on many very important issues.
In November of 1994, the board of governors decided to include an education goal in the set of fundamental goals that guided their planning and decision-making. This goal made it clear that the People of Praise was interested in educating children whether or not their parents were members of the community. The goal reads, “To educate young people in a true and integral Christian humanism in our schools and seminars.”
In 1994 the head coordinators (board of governors) began talking about and reviewing how the community can be a good place for a young Christian to be. One of the first things they did (December, 1994) was to invite youth ministry teams from around the community to gather at headquarters to discuss what was happening in their various locations. The talk Child Psychology and the Bible (411) came from this conference. The first and second High Country Adventures (1997 and 2001), which were gatherings in the Rockies of high-school-aged youth from around the community, were also outgrowths of the board’s conversations.
1996-2002
The 1996 Pastoral Training Institute (PTI) was “a signal event in the life of the community” and “truly anointed” (August, 1996, Vine & Branches). After it was over, the head coordinators decided to give as many of the talks as they could to as many community members as they could. This happened primarily at branch men’s and women’s retreats. Several talks about “Christ in You” are included in the sources:
- 412. The Prodigal Son
- 413. A Bold Proclamation
- 414. A Change in Perspective
- 415. The Holy Spirit
- 416. Faith
Also, Paul DeCelles talked about this PTI in MORE Lord: A Pastoral Perspective (418).
In December of 1997, men and women leaders from around the community gathered at headquarters in South Bend for a meeting specially called by the board of governors to discuss recent sightings of the Holy Spirit. At this meeting everyone had the opportunity to be prayed with for what came to be known as “MORE of the Lord.” This meeting (and similar meetings throughout the community) included some amazing healings, people falling down or resting in the Spirit, and an awareness that God was doing something new through a hunger for more of the Holy Spirit (February, 1998, Vine & Branches).
During the following spring and summer and into the fall of 1998 two things were happening. Community members were prayed with for more of the Lord and branches began to have public meetings. As the word “public” indicates, people who were not in the community, along with community members, had a chance at these meetings to be prayed with for more of the Lord and to respond to evangelistic preaching. Some of the smaller branches—for example, those with about 40 people—sometimes had as many as 175 guests at their public meetings.
Leaders from all over the community gathered at the June, 1998, Leaders’ Conference for Men to report on what they had seen God doing. This meeting had hours of testimony and was marked by exuberant prayer. There was “shouting, along with singing, crying, laughing, leaping, falling, glorifying and magnifying, praising and testifying” (August, 1998, Vine & Branches). During the meeting, Paul DeCelles commented on what was happening and described the history of what was happening, starting in 1995. This talk, MORE Lord: A Pastoral Perspective (418), is included among the sources.
In 2001, during the evening sessions of the second High Country Adventure (HCA), high-school-aged youth from around the community talked about their lives and in particular their lives in the community. A clear word from the Lord emerged out of the evening sessions—“the community has to change.”
In the fall of 2001 we held a communitywide consultation about how we as a community could accommodate the youth and provide them an opportunity to accomplish something we all see as important. In December, 2001, Paul DeCelles reported to community leaders about the HCA and the board of governors’ analysis of the situation of the high-school-aged youth in the People of Praise. As a result of the HCA, the board of governors’ analysis, the consultation and a general communitywide awareness that the Father was sending us into the world to act in Christ, as Christ, the board of governors decided to resurrect Action Divisions within the community. This decision was announced and explained at the 2002 Leaders’ Conference for Men. Several of the sources pertain to these developments:
- 420. Jesus, the One Sent
- 421. A Report on the 2001 High Country Adventure
- 422. The Situation of the Kids 2001
- 423. Announcing the New Action Divisions
- 424. Discovering Allendale
Two other talks are included in the sources. Kerry Koller gave Revolutionary Christianity (419) to the South Bend campus division and then to the whole South Bend branch. The other is a talk by Paul DeCelles entitled Our Father’s Revelation of Himself (425).
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