[00:00:00] Jim Jansen: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the EquipCast. So today I sit down with Marlo Monaco and Marlo, and I talk about conversion moments. For those of you who are building a clear path of discipleship and you're trying to figure out how do we foster conversion. and help people come to a place in their faith where they can make a decision for the Lord.

You're going to love today's conversation. We talk about how they began their Alpha program in January 2020 during COVID. Now they're on their 18th season. So many lives changed, over 700 guests, and we cover all the hard stuff. How they transitioned from just having parishioners Go through the program to now having regularly 25 percent of their guests coming from outside of the parish, non-parishioners, non-Christians, non-Catholics.

They talk about how they engage school families. She talks about the hospitality, the food, the prayer, how they made invitations. It's a great conversation. If you're at the point where you're starting to build a conversion moment in your clear path, or you built one, and something's not quite right, you’re going to love today's conversation. Take a listen. 

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

All right, everybody. Welcome to the EquipCast. This episode is part of a special series on the steps of a clear path of discipleship. Today we're going to zero in on conversion moments. A clear path of discipleship is just a parish framework designed to help people take their next steps as disciples of Jesus.

It's your plan for making and maturing disciples in your parish. Parishes, when they have a clear path, they know exactly how they connect with people, how they foster conversion, how they help people grow as disciples, and how they equip people as missionary disciples. Now, the concept is simple, but building the individual steps on the clear path doesn't happen overnight.

And so today I have Marlo Monaco here from St. Columbkille Parish, uh, here in Papillion, Nebraska. We're going to take a deep dive on conversion moments and, uh, what they did for their parish. Marlo, welcome to the EquipCast. 

[00:02:21] Marlo: Hey, thank you. I'm excited to be here. 

[00:02:23] Jim Jansen: Okay. So, Marlo, before we turn on the mics, you were, uh, geeking out a little bit doing a history lesson on Papillion, Nebraska.

Give us some context here. Like, what is St. Columbkille? Tell us about Papillion. Uh, there's some rich history there. 

[00:02:39] Marlo: Well, let's first start with the word, is it Columbkille or Columbkille? 

[00:02:43] Jim Jansen: Oh, gosh, I know. Sorry. My, my, my Irish ancestors are offended. Okay, so how do we pronounce it properly? 

[00:02:49] Marlo: I think we call it Columbkille at St. Columbkille. 

[00:02:52] Jim Jansen: Right, which is kind of like, you're kind of like, yeah, you're kind of like swallowing the B. You're swallowing the B. Okay, this is good. Columbkille. Tell us about it. 

[00:02:59] Marlo: Yeah. So, we are a parish located in downtown Papillion. We have been around since 1878, which is astounding. And it was started with 13 families, 13 households.

[00:03:13] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:03:14] Marlo: And when they built the church, which was very small, there was only 16 pews. And so, when you think about that, the idea is that they had three extra pews to invite someone else. And I love that idea of invitation.

[00:03:27] Jim Jansen: Oh, that's great. Was it always Columbkille? Yeah. That was the founding parish, 1878. 

[00:03:31] Marlo: Yeah. 

[00:03:32] Jim Jansen: Wow.

[00:03:32] Marlo: You know, actually, I think it was Sacred Heart. I think they called it Sacred Heart at the time. And then, and over time, it became St. Columbkille. 

[00:03:39] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:03:40] Marlo: 1878. And so now, St. Columbkille has from that original 13 families. We have just over 3, 800 families. 

[00:03:51] Jim Jansen: Which is, which is big. That, I mean, for Nebraska, you'd probably be top 10 parishes in the state of Nebraska for size.

[00:03:58] Marlo: I think so. Our numbers are a little over 11, 000 registered families. 

[00:04:03] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Large, very, very large suburban parish. 

[00:04:06] Marlo: We are. Yep. And we have a lot more than. 16 pews now. So, I haven't counted, but there's a lot. 

[00:04:14] Jim Jansen: Yeah, I've been, I've been there too. So, so like full disclosure, although I'm not a member of St. Columbkille parish, if something goes wrong, uh, in the Jansen family household, uh, in the morning, we end up at the noon mass at, at Columbkille. And if something goes really wrong, we end up at the, uh, the, uh, 6 PM mass or the evening mass on Sunday nights. 

[00:04:32] Marlo: Well, I do like to joke a little, I do think we have more than 3, 800 households attending St. Columbkille. Oh, for sure. I love to hear that people say, Oh, St. Columbkille, that's my church. And then I rush home and I'm like, oh, they're not registered yet. 

[00:04:45] Jim Jansen: You check the register and you're like, actually, yeah. Actually, please register. That's so, that's so funny. Okay. So, if we're honest, you all have been at the labor of building a clear path of discipleship and making disciples really before the conversation has kind of gained the momentum that it has in the last few years, certainly before the book was written. In some ways, you're kind of like helped prove the concept. Talk a little bit about what did you do for the conversion moment step at St. Columbkille? How do you foster conversion in your parish?

[00:05:21] Marlo: That is a great question. So, um, I went back, and I looked at some of my notes back to when we started the conversations and initially, we rolled out our new mission, helping everyone take their next steps to be like Jesus four years ago.

[00:05:37] Jim Jansen: And you were, you were working on it for quite a while before the, the graphics and the phrase came out.

[00:05:43] Marlo: That's right. That's right. 

[00:05:44] Jim Jansen: How long has it been total? 

[00:05:46] Marlo: Probably six and a half, close to seven years. 

[00:05:48] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:05:49] Marlo: So, you've been at this a while. It's been at, we've been at it a while. Our decision to, to run Alpha, it really started a little bit before that we recognize that there were steps that we needed to take in order to bring people in and make them feel welcome.

And it started with hospitality at every door. And we got a lot of doors at St. Columbkille. You do. We have a lot of doors. I believe that that was probably just the first step in people feeling that they were seen and known. 

[00:06:19] Jim Jansen: What brought that to your attention? And I just want to maybe offer some context.

Like, like many larger suburban parishes, the parking lot was always full. Right, the school was full, the pews were probably mostly full. At the very least, it wasn't like a crisis like some parishes where the place was half empty. What, how did you all recognize this desire? Like, okay, we have got to, we gotta, we gotta start with hospitality.

Where did that awareness come from? 

[00:06:49] Marlo: So, it's really funny. Years ago, when Chuck and I first got married, we went to St. Columbia, St. Bernadette. We love St. Bernadette. It's a wonderful parish and it's been so good to our family, to Chuck's family for so many years, but it's a small parish when you think about it.

Everybody knew us when we left and went to St. Columbkille with our, with our children and joined. Father Steve Emanuel was there, and he shared this advice with us, or just this wisdom with us, and he says, When you leave a small parish, the people will grieve the space, the pew in which you've left open. 

[00:07:31] Jim Jansen: Wow, that's really good.

[00:07:32] Marlo: But when you leave a big parish, It's more of the idea of, Ooh, there's an open pew spot. Let me sit there. And so that was probably what we had to really think about when we started this whole, this whole path is how can people become a community? How can they know their brother and sister that's sitting right next to them?

[00:07:55] Jim Jansen: Right. Because you knew what it was like to be known in a parish community. And then you walk into this. You know, really large church by any standards, mega church community, and it's not as easy to be known because there's more people. 

[00:08:09] Marlo: Yeah. 

[00:08:10] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:08:11] Marlo: And so, in that, in that realization, then we also said, how can we keep that?

How can we connect? How can we have not only with each other, but how can we also set their hearts aflame for Jesus? 

[00:08:22] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Okay. Now, where did that conviction come from? 

[00:08:25] Marlo: Well, that came from the conviction of our pastor at the time was father Dave reason and our associate pastor at the time was Father Tom Grayson.

And then they had some wicked smart people full of Jesus on their pastoral team at the time. And that was Nicole Cook and Christy Priceman. I think they've been on. Yeah. 

[00:08:47] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Nicole and I don't remember what episode, but they talked about actually the process of like, okay, how do we begin to align all the ministries, especially at a large suburban parish?

How do we, how do we begin to align that to this path that we've built? 

[00:09:01] Marlo: And that was several steps after where we're talking about today. 

[00:09:06] Jim Jansen: So yeah. So maybe it's, it's helpful. I can give just a little context here, you know, a conversion moment. Yeah. In general, it's a ministry, or you can think of it as a context for people who love the Lord and want to introduce their friend to Jesus.

It's a place where they can say, hey, come here and you can hear about Jesus. It's a place that offers a clear proclamation of the good news. It helps foster the initial conversion encounter to Jesus. Sometimes those are parish retreats. Sometimes they're programs like Curcio, things like Alpha Christ Life.

It tends to meet people from a pretty broad spectrum in their journey. Sometimes it's parishioners that have been there for a long time and just haven't ever quite made that connection where Jesus becomes their friend. Sometimes it's people who are very far away and the only reason they're willing to darken the doors of the church is because they have a friend that they trust.

A neighbor, a coworker who invites them. You all have been doing Alpha for a while now. How did that get started? What made you choose Alpha? 

[00:10:06] Marlo: Yeah. Thanks for, for that. We're actually in our 18th season and we have been running Alpha for four years, four and a half years. 

[00:10:14] Jim Jansen: So, 18 different sessions over four years. 

[00:10:17] Marlo: We made a commitment.

[00:10:18] Jim Jansen: That's amazing. 

[00:10:19] Marlo: Yeah. I mean, you know, we started Alpha really because what we realized as we were working on our new mission statement and our personal journey, which looks a lot like the clear path or just circular. But what we, what we found as a pastoral team was that we were serving mostly our community that were a little, you would say already living and loving like Jesus or deepening their love for Christ.

And so, a lot of our ministries in such. We're speaking just to that population. 

[00:10:52] Jim Jansen: Right? They were already disciples and the stuff you had was helping them be better disciples. But what about those people who aren't quite disciples yet. 

[00:11:01] Marlo: Right? And we were offering opportunities to come together socially, you know, we have free fish fries and pancake breakfasts and picnics with the priest.

There wasn't a lot of opportunities to deepen our faith there. Just really to, that was more focused on just building our community. 

[00:11:21] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:11:22] Marlo: And so, and being engaged. So what we found was we were needing a program that could reach people no matter where they were on the journey, but specifically those that were Longing for something more wanting to curious about what Jesus is and really hadn't made that full commitment yet to say, I'm all in and I want to follow Jesus.

[00:11:48] Jim Jansen: I want to give you a chance to share some stories here because I think, you know, for, I think some of our folks listening, depending on what experience they've had, they might imagine a conversion moment kind of serving just a very narrow slice. Oh, this is for people who want to learn more about Jesus.

And I think that happens. And I'm sure you have stories of people who are parishioners for many years who have a profound encounter. Some people might imagine it, uh, serving people who are farther away and just, just new to the, you know, new to the, their faith journey. You start wherever you want, but I want to hear some stories of people who've like had this experience at your parish where they're encountering Jesus in your conversion moment.

[00:12:34] Marlo: Yeah, that's wonderful. I have 700 stories. How's that? 

[00:12:38] Jim Jansen: Uh, okay. Can we narrow it down to 300? 

[00:12:43] Marlo: No, we have been blessed to open our doors to and welcome. 

[00:12:46] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Is that a real number? So over 700 guests? 

[00:12:48] Marlo: Yeah. 700 over 700. 

[00:12:50] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:12:50] Marlo: Yeah. 

[00:12:51] Jim Jansen: So, what's the average size of like an Alpha? 

[00:12:55] Marlo: So, I love it. We host anywhere between 100 to 120 each session.

[00:13:02] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:13:04] Marlo: That's team and participants. You can't have one without the other. So, we usually have between 60 to 70 participants every season. 

[00:13:14] Jim Jansen: Wow, that's huge. Okay, well, maybe and you mentioned this Can you talk a little bit because I want to hear the stories of like some of the lives have been changed, but maybe break down a little bit about like the team because there's a there's so many people serving.

There's a variety of roles. Give us just like a little overview of like what happens at Alpha and some of the roles that people are playing. Like, what are they doing to bring this this beautiful moment to life? 

[00:13:40] Marlo: We felt, and we learned and so I would be remiss if I did not say where Chuck and I took our Alpha.

All things for us started at Cabrini, uh, St. Francis Cabrini with our dear, dear friends, Father Damien and Doug and Ann Lenz with that personal invitation. And so, we had, uh, good leaders, good examples of Christ of, of how to be invitational. 

[00:14:04] Jim Jansen: Yeah. And they've been on, and they've shared their story to worth.
I don't have these numbers, these episode numbers memorized, but. I mean, they show the story of St. Francis Cabrini parish, which was right on the edge of downtown Omaha. You could kind of call it inner city or at least the, the, the feel, and it was unquestionably a dying parish. I mean, it was going away.

The numbers were all headed dramatically in the wrong direction, and they have bounced, I mean, giving, attendance, people entering the church, like everything that you would want to see. I mean, it is a, you can feel the difference when you walk into St. Francis Cabrini Parish. Uh, and for them, much of their story of what changed the culture of that parish was I mean, so many things, but part of it was like, all right, we're going to, we're going to try this Alpha thing and we're going to invite people in.

We're going to feed them. We're going to talk to them. We're going to listen to them. We're going to have some real conversations about Jesus and it, ah, who knew it worked. 

[00:15:04] Marlo: And it is. And it's true. They are real. You know, we started planning about six months before we actually launched and what we decided to do was.

Chuck and I, we met with people over coffee or took them to an intimate dinner or appetizers and drinks and we said, try Alpha. And what we did is we reached out to those that were already really engaged in the parish and we said, try Alpha somewhere else. And come back and commit to one season at St. Columbkille of being a team. 

[00:15:36] Jim Jansen: So, you spent six months basically building a team and you're like, Hey, we're going to come on, we're going to get a drink, get some appetizers. And then we're like, try this, go try this. And then just help us get it started. Help us get it started. Wow. 

[00:15:53] Marlo: And so, we started with 30 amazing yeses, and they came back, they shared what they loved about Alpha, they shared what we'd like to see a little different, and we created an Alpha that's very unique to our parish.

Sure. That fit you all. That fit us. That fit our servant hearts. Cause I would say, I always like to say St. Columbkille’s servant heart. So, we launched in January of 2020 with 30 team members and 30 participants. 

[00:16:22] Jim Jansen: January 2020, that is well timed. It was, it was well timed. Actually, I mean, it probably is well timed.

I mean, when did people really need an encounter with Jesus and a community? 

[00:16:34] Marlo: We did. And so that, that was our first Alpha season, the Alpha season was what we called it. And we landed up unfortunately having to end online, but we had gotten far enough in the, in the program, in the course that we were able to continue.

[00:16:51] Jim Jansen: Like the relationships were built enough that people wanted to come back. 

[00:16:54] Marlo: And the team that I asked just to come back one time. 

[00:16:58] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:16:58] Marlo: Some of them are still there. I mean, they just love it. So, uh, how, how wonderful is that? I feel blessed that these people feel so called to walk with others in this program, in this, in this life and in journey.

You know, you asked another question is what are, what are the positions? So, we have all these great roles within Alpha, uh, we have joke tellers and that is hilarious. 

[00:17:22] Jim Jansen: It's like an official job? 

[00:17:23] Marlo: It's an official job at St. Columbkille and we rotate it each month. 

[00:17:27] Jim Jansen: Wow. There's a part of me, like I would love to have that, except for I'd be like, Oh, there'd be a lot of pressure of like, I'm good at like smart Alec remarks, but in a specific joke, I mean, whatever, I guess I could look one up online, but that's my kind of role.

[00:17:39] Marlo: And I try to help them out. I give them jokes. 

[00:17:40] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:17:41] Marlo: I give them the jokes. 

[00:17:42] Jim Jansen: Okay. Joke tellers. 

[00:17:43] Marlo: We have a food team. We have an amazing food team and trust me, feeding 120 people a night that are gluten free or vegetarian or no oil or no tree nuts, they're pros and their servant hearts are truly. on display in the food team.

[00:18:04] Jim Jansen: And this is a huge, this is a huge ingredient, right? Food and cooking ingredients. It's part of the secret sauce of Alpha in that there's a really nice meal. 

[00:18:15] Marlo: Was there a pun intended with the secret sauce? 

[00:18:17] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Well, it was like, I was like ingredients, secret sauce. It's like, I couldn't stop myself, but yeah, there's a lot of, I mean, there's food and just a meal where people can have real conversation and get to know each other is I mean, it really is one of those things that like, it's easily overlooked.

I mean, I've heard of so many places where they're like, the meal, it'd be a lot faster just to put the video in and just like, you know, and they accidentally kill it because there's something about that very human connection that makes it work. 

[00:18:47] Marlo: That's right. That's right. So, we, we now have a lot of parents attending Alpha, which we are, Oh, thank goodness. Thank you. Thank you for all those parents that show up every Monday night. We alleviate their concerns because we have childcare. 

[00:19:02] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:19:03] Marlo: For free. 

[00:19:03] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. And they have a lot of fun. Yeah. And the kids love it. 

[00:19:07] Marlo: Yeah. Oh, the kids think they're going to Alpha. Yeah, they are. And they're experiencing, they're experiencing Alpha in the childcare every week. It's fantastic.

[00:19:15] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. Is it programming? Like, are you doing like a mini spiritual thing or just, just having fun with the kids? 

[00:19:20] Marlo: On the jungle gym? Sure. Yeah. They have a, they have a grand time on the jungle gym. Uh, they play, they color. No TV. That's, yeah. We don't have television. 

[00:19:30] Jim Jansen: How, oh, that's so good. Just my own experience, you know, I'm a father of six and we still have three little ones that we can't leave at home alone. And when a cool opportunity comes up, we want to go, but it's like, well, do we, you know, do we drop the money for a babysitter and pizza and, or just me, just you, you know, and it's like the opportunity is like, oh wow, we could both go.

Is such a gift and makes all the difference. Honestly, if we decide to come, that would tip the scales a ton. 

[00:20:06] Marlo: Yeah, it is. And we've, we've had parents tell us in the beginning that that was the reason why they were able to say yes is because we offered childcare. 

[00:20:14] Jim Jansen: Wow. Okay. Now that's a team in and itself, right? There's how many people do you have offering childcare? 

[00:20:19] Marlo: The numbers change based on the number of kids that come. Um, we usually have One to two to three. So, if we have two or three kids, we have one childcare provider. And so right now we're running five childcare providers every, every week. 

[00:20:34] Jim Jansen: Sure. Cause you get all the ratios, right? For kids ages and all that stuff. Wow. That's okay. So childcare, joke tellers, food, what else? 

[00:20:42] Marlo: Hospitality and everybody's on hospitality. When you walk into any Alpha, hopefully you're going to experience just this overwhelming welcome. And friendship and smile. And these people are going to just be ready to greet you and walk, like I said before, walk with you, joke with you, learn more about you at an Alpha.

They want to know who you are. Not what you drive, where you work, but they want to know about your day. 

[00:21:16] Jim Jansen: So, these are, these are people there. I mean, everybody does it, but some that are just, they're very intentionally paying attention to the people who come in. Well, okay. What else? 

[00:21:28] Marlo: We have a host and helper and those are the small groups.

They go in into small group now at St. Columbkille. We're very lucky. We have a, a space that allows us to break out. Um, after we eat and watch the video, and we have lots of rooms and we're in proximity to the school. So, if we have to go, we can even go into the school. So, we go into our preschool classrooms and have breakout sessions with the host and helpers.

[00:21:55] Jim Jansen: Nice. 

[00:21:56] Marlo: And yeah, they have a good time, and we have a little few other secrets that will keep up our sleeves. Okay. But, um, I would, I would be remiss if I didn't say we had emcees as well and they kind of keep the, the night running on track and. They create the vibe for the night, which is fun. 

[00:22:12] Jim Jansen: Is there a prayer team behind the scenes too? Intercessors? 

[00:22:15] Marlo: Well, now that was the secret sauce. 

[00:22:17] Jim Jansen: Oh crap. Well, is that a secret?

[00:22:19] Marlo: It is. 

[00:22:19] Jim Jansen: Okay. Do we want to keep that a secret? I feel like. 

[00:22:23] Marlo: Yeah. Well, if someone is 

[00:22:25] Jim Jansen: Sorry to let it out there. 

[00:22:26] Marlo: Yeah. You let it out, out of the bag. 

[00:22:28] Jim Jansen: Now everybody is going to evangelize effectively. Oh, I'm so sorry about that.

[00:22:33] Marlo: That's all right. 

[00:22:34] Jim Jansen: Well, no, it's huge. I mean, the reason that I bring that up, because I'm just like, I was just kind of like writing these things down. And that, like, we're talking about Alpha in particular, and there's lots of different, you know, conversion moment ministries, right? Things like Alpha Christ life, Cursillo retreats.

You know, in the high school world, tech is kind of like that. There's a lot of different versions, but they all have like these like common elements, right? Hospitality, food, some prayer team, people that are really dedicated to praying. Small groups are always a part of it. So, people, when they get the content, they get a chance to kind of process it and think about it with others.

And then all of these conversion moments always have. the gospel. Like, who is Jesus? What is he offering to you? What, what did he, what did he do for you? And what is he inviting you to? Marlo, can you talk a little bit about, like, what's the content of Alpha? Like, what, you know, what's in the videos? What are people, you know, being presented with?

[00:23:37] Marlo: You know, the, the tagline for Alpha is “Come talk about life's biggest questions”, right? 

[00:23:43] Jim Jansen: Yeah. And it's a question mark. The logo is a giant red question mark. 

[00:23:48] Marlo: Right. And each week we have, I want to say we have, there's 11 weeks with a retreat, but there is a total of 15 videos that we watch over the course of 11 weeks.

[00:24:01] Jim Jansen: And these are, by the way, they're free. They're all online. Go to YouTube, Alpha videos, and you can see them, right? 

[00:24:08] Marlo: That's the ask of Alphas to offer it for free. And so, there is a little bit of a cost associated with the food and if you're offering childcare, but somehow it always works out. People are always generous if there's a free will basket.

So, it's never been something we've had to worry about at our parish. And I've heard the same of many others. 

[00:24:26] Jim Jansen: Well, and it always tends to be proportional to in the sense that even if the parish is. investing something to pull it off. It's usually proportional to the size of the parish. So, you know, a smaller inner-city parish probably isn't going to start with, what did you say, like a hundred and some guests for, you know, 75 guests plus the, plus the team that's putting it on.

You're not going to start with that. You'll start with a smaller group. You might have 10 or 15 guests the first time you run it. 

[00:24:56] Marlo: Yeah. And so, when you come to an Alpha, you're going to the very first week is, uh, is there more to life than this? 

[00:25:03] Jim Jansen: Right. 

[00:25:04] Marlo: And I don't know about you. 

[00:25:05] Jim Jansen: Monday morning question. 

[00:25:06] Marlo: Monday morning question. And sometimes it's the during dinner time and everyone's yelling and screaming and they don't like your, your dinner. You keep thinking, is there more to life in this? 

[00:25:18] Jim Jansen: This is now you're speaking as a mom now and you're speaking as an Alpha host because they always like the dinner when they're at Alpha.

It's just sometimes, yes. Mothers, worked hard to prepare a dinner and, and don't get the immediate gratitude they deserve. 

[00:25:31] Marlo: That's right. Or the drive home. 

[00:25:33] Jim Jansen: Not in my house, but. 

[00:25:34] Marlo: Oh, of course. Yeah. Well, unfortunately I learned in my home, I, I learned to receive criticism every night at the dinner table in a very good, I always like to tell that of my team.

Yeah, I learned to criticize. I learned to receive it. 

[00:25:48] Jim Jansen: Yeah, it is. Wow. I feel like, okay, let's do like, let's, we should do another episode later. Just all on motherhood. 

[00:25:52] Marlo: Yeah. So, um, and then we just progress from there. So who is Jesus and, and then why should I pray? What about the Bible? How, how should I read the Bible forgiveness?

There's a lot of really important topics that are happening in our lives. 

[00:26:11] Jim Jansen: Well, yeah, the big questions. 

[00:26:12] Marlo: The big questions. 

[00:26:14] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:26:14] Marlo: So, we move through those over the course, and we end on what about the church? We end on what about the church? And this is the call to action. We've had the experience we've had, hopefully through Alpha, a, not only an encounter with the people in a, in a vulnerable way, but also an encounter with the Holy spirit.

[00:26:36] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Talk about that. That's really is kind of the central focus of the retreat, right? 

[00:26:40] Marlo: That is. And, and the latter, the back half of the program. 

[00:26:45] Jim Jansen: Talk a little bit about the retreat. Like what happens on the retreat? 

[00:26:49] Marlo: It's a day away. It could be five hours, six hours, or it could be a full weekend, depending on each.

At St. Columbkille, we run our retreat in the morning and early afternoon. So about seven hours and it's just packed with more food, quiet time, unplugged time for a period of an hour, walking around, small group time. And there might be a few surprises in the day too that really just move the hearts of people and really come into a greater awareness of where, where God is present for them in that moment. In that room. Yeah. With those people. 

[00:27:32] Jim Jansen: That's great. I've heard someone, uh, Andy Dicke on our team, and I think he's actually quoting some, like someone actually from Alpha, but that, you know, that sometimes people think of Alpha as a course or a class and, and that you, you can kind of flip it on its head.

It's like, it's a retreat with seven weeks of preparation and three weeks of follow up. That's right. Yeah. That's absolutely true. There's just this beautiful moment there where people often have a very powerful encounter with the Lord, but particularly The, the Holy Spirit, which, you know, for many of us, I mean, the Holy Spirit is kind of like the redheaded stepchild of the Trinity.

It's like, Oh, we know about him. But knowing him personally is sometimes a later development in our, in our spiritual lives. 

[00:28:15] Marlo: It is. And I think when we get to the retreat, we learn firsthand that all you have to do is call upon the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Just like they say in the Bible, it's true. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:25] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. 

[00:28:26] Marlo: We find, we find scripture comes alive through Alpha. 

[00:28:28] Jim Jansen: Yeah. I mean, in some ways it's particularly Acts of the Apostles. It's like, Oh, it's a lie. That's right. Tell us some stories. I mean, you've seen so many people, 700 guests now. Yeah. Share some stories. 

[00:28:44] Marlo: Yeah. I do have, I do have some great ones.

I'll start with a great friend of mine. I don't want to call. I'm just going to say I'm a great friend of mine. 

[00:28:53] Jim Jansen: You can do a pseudonym. 

[00:28:54] Marlo: I can do a pseudonym. Jim. No. Hey, I know this guy. I know this guy, Paul, and he was born and raised Catholic. And he fell away when he was about 18 years old, got married, had kids, never took his children to church once, and probably ran into some pretty bad things over his time.

He showed up, he was invited to Alpha by some people in his apartment and they were parishioners, and they invited him, and he had just moved here. He came and over the course of, of the 11 weeks, he decided to come back into communion with the Catholic church and not just in a little way. This guy got up Palm Sunday and proclaimed to everybody that he was going to go to confession the next day so that he could receive Jesus on Easter.

It was amazing. That's probably one of my favorite stories. Yeah. 

[00:29:54] Jim Jansen: And just invited by, you know, parishioners, but people in his apartment complex, he's new, which I, I love. It's like, I mean, again, it's great when evangelization is the fruit of long friendships, but it's also great when we recognize people.

Yeah. Who are new and maybe, maybe open to an invitation and man, what great fruit. 

[00:30:17] Marlo: And did I say it had been 50 years since he had been out of the church? It had been 50 years. 

[00:30:21] Jim Jansen: Wow. No, actually I was still imagining him like two years older than 18 when he left. So, wow. So, he had been gone for 50 years. 

[00:30:29] Marlo: 50 years.

[00:30:30] Jim Jansen: Yeah. That leaves a mark. 

[00:30:31] Marlo: Another person, Becca. She raised her children Catholic, but she. Never felt a connection with Jesus. She just felt like this is something I have to do, and we'd come to church every week. And, and then all of a sudden, um, she encounters the Holy Spirit, and she lets, she lets the Holy Spirit into her heart.

And. She is now not only a team member in Alpha, but she is helping with religious ed and she'll come twice on the weekend. One time is to go into liturgy of the word. And the second time is so that she can enjoy and just be her own worship, her own worship. Wow. 

[00:31:11] Jim Jansen: Yeah, that's good. You know, and that's, I mean, you know, we have to be careful, like we want to evangelize people because It's what Jesus wants, right?

You know, he's hanging on the cross. He is thirsting for souls. You know, he says I thirst, so we evangelize, and we use something like Alpha or whatever, because it's what the Lord wants. But when people encounter Jesus, they tend to serve. They tend to come back. They tend to give. And so much of like, you know, I love like so much of like what we feel the pain of in the church right now, it's always the same people doing everything.

How come people aren't interested in all of the stuff that we feel the solution to that is making disciples again, introducing people to Jesus. 

[00:32:02] Marlo: That's right. 

[00:32:03] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:32:03] Marlo: So, I got a couple of, of other really fun stories. Uh, there was a, a woman and I'm getting really bad at like coming up with pseudo names cause I know them so much.

Lisa. Lisa. I know a woman by the name of Lisa, and she came to Alpha, never had been Catholic in her life and she wasn't really sure about coming, but she knew, she knew who Jesus was, but she, that was just about it. Not really proclaimed to be Christian, but she knew who Jesus was. She came to Alpha, she got in a great small group and over the course of the first five weeks, she was, her heart was, was slowly melting into this gooey puddle of just softness.

And after the retreat, she decided that she wanted to become Catholic. And there was a woman in her small group that was feeling really lonely, and her husband had died. And she really wasn't sure what, what God had in store for her anymore. She felt alone. She offered to be Lisa's sponsor. And now what happened was, again, I'm going back to the Holy Spirit, the spirit blew new life into Lisa.

And also, into her sponsor who was alone and didn't feel anybody cared about her. And now they're journeying through our, our program. OCIA. 

[00:33:27] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:33:28] Marlo: And I have a lot of stories. We have a young gentleman that came through, he had been in jail, has children. with someone else. And he was living with his current girlfriend, and they had a child together.

Oh, the most beautiful little girl. And they came through Alpha, and he was very nervous, did not speak until after retreat. 

[00:33:49] Jim Jansen: Wow. So not participating in the small group, enjoying the food, enjoying the food, listening, but 

[00:33:54] Marlo: not sharing one single thing. Got to week eight and he said something, and everybody was like, Oh my gosh, you have a voice.

And they all laughed about it. He came through and, uh, I can't say that he was singing about Jesus on the end, but he came to church the week after. He had never been to church. He came to church once we, after the last video. He is now going through RCA. He wants to become Catholic. 

[00:34:22] Jim Jansen: Marlo, these things are like, I think what, what really sticks out about these stories is these are not, I mean, so many of these people are like, and they decided to join the church, and they decided to join the church.

These are not people that like, Oh, you know, my fiancé, my spouse was Catholic. And I finally decided these are people like they, they were very far away from the church. There was no connection there. I mean, I think for many of us, it can feel like those people are impossible to reach. And I mean, I know that's not all the guests, but these are people like they weren't impossible to reach one invitation or whatever, a series of invitations.

This experience in a relatively short period of time has drawn them into the community, drawn them into a relationship with the Lord and their Officially deciding. It's like, Hey, I want to be Catholic. What do you attribute that to? 

[00:35:21] Marlo: Yeah, I attribute that to a, so I will, um, I'm going to answer that question and probably answer another question as well.

It's like, what kind of feedback have I gotten over the years of running Alpha? And so, the feedback that I got when we first started running Alpha was it's not Catholic. It's not, it's not for me. I'm pretty good in my faith. I don't, I don't need this. Okay. And so, my question back is, as I listen, I always thank people for that, for sharing, because it took a, an act of vulnerability to share what maybe was sitting on their heart.

[00:35:51] Jim Jansen: Right. Yeah. Why I'm holding back, why I'm not interested. 

[00:35:54] Marlo: Right. And so, what I would always say is, do you know anybody that's not a Christian? Do you have someone in your family that maybe has left the church? And if they say yes, if you know anyone... 

[00:36:08] Jim Jansen: Right? And it's pretty hard to not say yes in today's day and age. 

[00:36:10] Marlo: In today's day and age. Then Alpha is for you because now you will have experienced it and maybe have a renewed heart on fire to invite someone else that needs to hear it. And so I think that's the key is that the more people who experience Alpha then can go out and learn how to have that conversation with someone else because their heart has been re lit And Alpha, they call it, um, it's like taking the pilot light and lighting it and it goes whoosh.

[00:36:44] Jim Jansen: Yeah, turn on the gas. 

[00:36:46] Marlo: That's kind of what happens in these moments. And so, from that, what we have right now, we are seeing, and we are so blessed. 18 seasons, 25%, 20 to 25 percent of our participants now are non-Catholic, non-Christian, or just Christian. We had to get to those that are not in the pew, but we have to get the people in the pew to experience this, to go out into their neighborhoods, to go out into their work, to ask their children to come to Alpha.

[00:37:24] Jim Jansen: I mean that, that is like, I love that you share that because that's a huge. health metric, if you will, for a conversion moment. Like if your conversion moment stays just the people in your parish, it often dies pretty quickly. Like you, you have to start there oftentimes. They have to experience it, but then it has to go beyond two friends and neighbors and fallen away family members and coworkers.

How did you get people there? 

[00:37:54] Marlo: Well, I didn't, but I do think the Lord originally put something in our heart. Mine and Chuck's at St. Francis Cabrini through that, through that we learned invitation. We learned the power of invitation. And I want to say too, I probably learned how to listen. We talked about that earlier.


So one of the things that I would say might be a little different at our Alpha is that I tell team members, When you come to a new session of Alpha, like maybe you just finished, or maybe this is your fifth time helping, it's not the same because you're different. No Alpha is the same. You're never going to experience the same thing because you're different.
Yeah. And as we continue to, grow closer and taking that next step to be more like Jesus. I have to put the plug in for our mission. 

[00:38:47] Jim Jansen: Nicely done, that was so natural.

[00:38:48] Marlo: When you've never seen somebody in church and then you see them and you now see them at the store, and you see them out in the world. Your viewpoint broadens, and now you're seeing the people who are no longer Christian or who are Christian but have fallen away.

You start running into the person that used to sit in the pew, but you didn't see, you haven't seen them in a long time, and then that starts the conversations again because we're looking up. We're looking up. 

[00:39:15] Jim Jansen: Well, and I would say when you get a view to watch, again, the Lord, you know, turn on the gas for, for your life.

Or to see it happen right before your eyes over the course of 11 weeks with someone else. Well, you can't help but ask like, gosh, maybe he could do it again. Right. What he did for me, what he did for my friend, maybe he could do for my other friend. How did you make the transition? Cause this, this can be really hard to like, okay, we have to get some of our parishioners to experience it, but we also really need to get non parishioners to experience it.

Talk to us a little bit about the hard stuff, like the transitions, like building this, um, how those, those transitions happened. I mean, if we're honest, some people are thinking, well, crap, you know, we did Alpha once and now we're done, and we just couldn't get anybody the second time. And you know, whether it was Alpha or whether it was a retreat or whatever, I just want, I want to give you a chance to speak to those who feel like, yeah, we tried evangelizing and it didn't work or it did work and then it stopped working and we didn't know what the heck happened.

Talk to them a little bit. Like what? What were some of the hard parts, maybe that you all experienced as you're building it? And how did you move through them? 

[00:40:35] Marlo: Ooh, cause doesn't the evil one like to give us the hard parts, um, the challenges. They happen. And I, I remember one particular Alpha, we did everything like when COVID hit and we knew people were demanding in a way to be together, even though we couldn't.

That was a huge challenge. Like, should we stop? And I didn't know if, if online we were really achieving what we were meant to achieve, but I think there was a sense of surrender to say, I'm just going to let this keep happening. I'm going to keep training my team. And that's an important part, training your team.

And it's more than just training feed them. Feed them, even if it's pulling from the day's scripture reading, feed your team, right? 

[00:41:31] Jim Jansen: And this time you're like, yeah, feeding spiritually, eating them spiritually to, but, like... 

[00:41:36] Marlo: Your team is coming for a reason. And the more that they are fed spiritually, the more that that will pour out into others.

[00:41:43] Jim Jansen: I mean, real quick, are you talking about just like the teams gathered? And before you're doing this specific team thing, you're doing a little bit of prayer over scripture. 

[00:41:51] Marlo: No, we do. We pray before we start every Alpha. 

[00:41:54] Jim Jansen: Yeah. But this isn't like a Hail Mary, but this is like, I mean, I love the home, right?

I'd love the Hail Mary, but this is like a real listening to the Lord. So, Jesus is the one talking to all the various team members, encouraging and feeding and nourishing them with his word. 

[00:42:10] Marlo: That's right. 

[00:42:10] Jim Jansen: Yeah.

[00:42:11] Marlo: Because that's what we're there for. 

[00:42:13] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:42:13] Marlo: We're there for Jesus. 

[00:42:14] Jim Jansen: What else? What are some of the hard things that you guys had to deal with?

I mean, starting during COVID was no small... 

[00:42:21] Marlo: Starting during COVID was pretty hard. There was two points is how do we break into the school to the school families. Right? That was a hard moment because for a long time, our population of Alpha was primarily 55 and older for the first several seasons. And getting to the point where we were able to reach the school families that took a long time but guess how we did it.

The teachers went through Alpha. 

[00:42:48] Jim Jansen: Wow. 

[00:42:48] Marlo: And we offered a teacher Alpha.

[00:42:49] Jim Jansen: I was like, I was like, please answer that question. 

[00:42:51] Marlo: Yeah. 

[00:42:52] Jim Jansen: Childcare and the teachers went through. 

[00:42:55] Marlo: Teachers went through. And we, we did theirs, um, we led, I led that Alpha season during, for a full year. That was a full year Alpha, but it worked because then the teachers went back into their classroom the next year.

And when they're meeting with parents, there's like, have you tried Alpha? And that was, that was a big piece. 

[00:43:16] Jim Jansen: Your kid's doing well in math, and I have some homework for you. 

[00:43:19] Marlo: That's right. The other way that we got over that hurdle as well as diversifying our group. So, I'll mention two, one was we also started, I started speaking at sacramental prep meetings for parents and encouraging and inviting them to come and to our religious ed parents.

We don't get a lot, but we get those that are really longing. And then the other one was offering age specific Alphas. Again, like St. Francis Cabrini, we found some fruit in offering, uh, young adult Alphas and we ran, we usually run those in the summer. Good and bad. Uh, those, those were challenges too, because who would rather be indoors when you can be outdoors in the summer?

Sure. But we are getting better and we're learning and that, I think that's the most important thing is that we're learning. And so now we offer. young adult Alpha at the same time as regular Alpha, but we have breakouts just for our young adults with young adult leaders. 

[00:44:21] Jim Jansen: That's part of it. I mean, again, right.

Secret clinical, uh, parishioner showing up. I think it was one of the days, something went wrong in the morning. So, I'm there for the noon mass and it was one of the recent, uh, guests from the young adult Alpha was giving his testimony in mass making an invitation. I mean, it just knocked my socks off because it's like, wow, look at that.

There's a, there's a 20 something guy in church and oh, he's telling his story all about how Jesus changed his life as he came to this and he's inviting others to take, I mean, it was, it was really beautiful. 

[00:44:56] Marlo: It was, you know, we have seen so many of our young adult community stop taking drugs. We have seen them go to reconciliation.

We have seen them decide to not get married in the beautiful outdoor barn, but to get married in the church. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. In fact, I'm going to one of those weddings. 

[00:45:20] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:45:20] Marlo: Yeah. 

[00:45:21] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. 

[00:45:21] Marlo: And Alpha isn't what changes lives, right? I need to make sure I say that. Jesus changes our lives when we decide to say yes to him, and we allow the Holy Spirit to enter into our hearts.

[00:45:36] Jim Jansen: Yeah, but you create a context, not unlike the one that he created for himself, right? Like, you know, for Jesus to change lives, he often did it over meals and just simple conversations. And so, you create this context. where people can let him in. I mean, he's always there. There's something about food and thinking about a significant question.

One of my favorite anecdotes, right? Jesus, I mean, he did miracles, and he preached, and he told stories, but the most common thing that he did recorded in scripture, you know what it is? Broke bread. Broke bread and asked questions. And asked questions. Oh, he asked. 97 questions. 

[00:46:19] Marlo: 97. He asked more questions than he did gave answers.

Oh yeah. Which I think is. A life lesson that I'm always working on. 

[00:46:26] Jim Jansen: But that's part of like the, that's part of the secret sauce, right? Again, that it's like. He's breaking bread. He's gathering people together in small groups. And yeah, he had huge crowds too, but a lot of what Jesus did, you see those, those same patterns and methods showing up in Alpha, right?

Where it's a meal and it's, it's a, a question that draws people to think a little bit deeper than just the day-to-day monotony. And, uh, turns out it still works. Okay. I know this is, this is an area of passion for you, so I want to give you a chance to talk about what comes after, after Alpha. Yeah. 

[00:47:07] Marlo: So, remember I said at St. Columbkille at the time. Um, before Alpha, we were really ministering to those that had already said, I am going to love and follow Jesus, right? So Alpha was something that really focused on that front half of this, of our personal journey. But what we found was people wanted to keep meeting. They didn't want to stop after 11 weeks.

Yeah. They're like, what's next? Where am I going? And so, we have timed our Alphas in a way that. Fall Alpha ends and we're offering now Advent program. 
So, you can come and then in the spring we end right before Easter. So come to masses and, and take part of that. But more importantly, we have. Again, you know, God bless St.

Francis Cabrini and my dear friends. I always have to give them a call out, but Chuck and I by invitation joined small group there and we were struck at how deeply we have come to love those that we walk with in a, in a way that helps us grow on our faith journey. 

[00:48:18] Jim Jansen: Yeah. You can feel it now as you're.

[00:48:20] Marlo: Yeah. Along with pastoral team, we created small groups at St. Columbkille called on the journey. And when we first started this program, we were like, okay, if 150 people sign up for a monthly small group in their home where they share food and do some Lectio and watch a quick video in small group, maybe 150 people will sign up.

We had four. We have 39 small groups, and we are now saying, well, we better create content for year two. So 

[00:49:03] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:49:04] Marlo: That's where we're at. We will reopen for the next season. On the journey in January, and we'll start forming new small groups so that come April, they'll be ready to go. And I, I'm going to pray for another 150, but I hope I'm delighted with 800.

Yeah. The 400 will continue and then right. 

[00:49:28] Jim Jansen: And then new ones. And that's so, it's so good because I mean, you know, any conversion moment, no matter how good it is, it's, it's not enough, but people need community, especially in very large parishes, having a smaller community that you can connect, connect with.

But people need community and new disciples, especially, I mean, it's funny how many people was like, Oh, I've been Catholic all my life and I never really learned how to pray in a conversational way. But especially those people you're talking about, you know, the, the 25 percent non parishioners, non-Catholics, non-Christian, they, They need some help learning how to pray, learning how to live a sacramental liturgical life, learning, okay, I believe that he's God, but okay, learning what Jesus actually taught.


And there's something about small groups that it's just, it's so flexible, right? You know, it doesn't, you don't need a big facility, you know, it's just a couple of people's schedules. And I mean, as you, I can testify to my own life. I mean, you could feel it. You have the gratitude. In your voice, as you talk about the effect a small group had in your life, they change people's lives, and they help us grow and mature.

[00:50:45] Marlo: We are, Chuck and I are so lucky. We have a small group with St. Columbkille are on the journey and I love to tell the story. There's a couple of others like this as well. We have a couple in their twenties that have two small kids, and their faith is amazing to witness. And then we have a single dad who is.

Everything that he is, is, is, is for his kids and bringing them closer to Jesus. We have two other people that not married, um, singles in their forties and then we have a couple in their sixties, and it is the most delightful multi-generational small group. 
[00:51:26] Jim Jansen: Multi-generational, multi vocational like that.

[00:51:29] Marlo: It's fantastic. 

[00:51:30] Jim Jansen: I mean, that's one of the other, yeah, elements of these things that what, what a clear path tends to do these moments where people are, you know, conversion moment like Alpha and then small groups is it tends to, we start to look more like the church. And by that, I mean, you start to see relationships built across generations, across vocations, across like the socioeconomic backgrounds.

And it turns out, it's like, oh, when, when we have Jesus in common, we have the most important part of our life in common, and the other stuff that sometimes divides us or keeps us just in our own little niches, that stuff fade, fades away. It really does. Marlo, our time is like totally flown here. I want to give you an opportunity here just to encourage.

Some people who are like, okay, they're just, they want to get started. They want to kind of build a conversion moment or maybe they started, and it was like, or it was a little hard to suffer a little bit of encouragement, maybe a little bit, uh, kind of closing advice for them. 

[00:52:35] Marlo: Yeah. So, I would say don't stop.

I think any conversion engine program is meant to continue forward. Like keep doing it. Don't stop. I want to share really quick is, you know, right now we could be pretty down on ourselves that we've made all these horrible mistakes, um, leading up to this moment where we weren't, maybe we weren't hospitable enough.

Maybe our. Again, these are excuses, or our pastors didn't preach well enough, or the person in the pew was always there and I had no place to sit. Those are all excuses, right? People have left, but we remain, many of us remain in the pew and we are the ones that God is calling now to change and not to change for bad, but to change for good.

It's upon us to welcome the stranger, to feed those that are hungry and invite them back to be Christ for others. The liturgy will remain the liturgy as beautiful and timeless as it is, but if we are changing, people will notice. If we are inviting, they will come and it's all God's plan. All of this. Yeah.

So don't give up on whatever the program is. Keep doing it. Be prepared for when the challenges come and know that God will provide. 

[00:54:15] Jim Jansen: Amen. Marlo, thank you. 

[00:54:17] Marlo: Thank you. 

[00:54:18] Jim Jansen: God bless. God bless. Amen. All right, you all, you know, somebody who needs to hear this, if nothing else, just the last 10 seconds, right? Just that God's going to provide.

Don't give up. Um, so when you are safely at your destination, when you can, uh, hit stop, you know, don't try and share it with your friend while you're driving. When you get to your destination, let the Lord tap you on the shoulder, tell you who needs to hear this and share it out with a friend. Thanks everybody.

Thanks for listening to the equip cast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equip you to be fruitful in your mission. Stay connected with us by going to equip.archomaha.org. God bless and see you next time.