[00:00:00] Jim Jansen: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast. So today I sit down with Father Jim Keiter and Jake Olson as part of a special series talking about how to build a clear path of discipleship. We talk about the communication phase, and it's a fantastic conversation where I want you to notice for, for these folks.
sharing the gospel and talking about their parish's plan to make and mature disciples their clear path. It's almost the same thing for them. It's a fantastic conversation. Great inspiration for those of you who are ready to begin communicating about your clear path. Take a listen. Everybody. Welcome to the equip cast 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 how to build a clear path of discipleship. Today we're going to zero in on the communication phase. As context, a clear path is a parish framework designed to help people take their next steps as disciples of Jesus.
It's your plan for making and maturing disciples. Parishes that 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. The concept is simple, but building a clear path doesn't happen overnight.
It happens in phases. There's assessment, there's discernment, implementation, communication, alignment, and expansion. And today I have with me Father Jim Keiter and Jake Olson to talk about their experience with the communication phase. Gentlemen, how you doing? 

[00:01:48] Fr. Keiter: Doing well. Thanks for having us. 

[00:01:49] Jim Jansen: You are building a clear path in kind of a unique circumstance here.
I mean, not uncommon here, but just set the context, you're, you're building a clear path. It's in a family of parishes, right? Parishes grouped together in Northeast Nebraska called our Catholic family of parishes. Tell us a little bit about your family. 

[00:02:08] Fr. Keiter: Our Catholic family actually originated with three parishes and seven churches.
On July 1st of 2019, and then this past July 1st, 2023, are seven churches, three parishes expanded to eight parishes and 12 churches. Wow. So, we, in golf terms, are a dog leg left if you go from Wyandotte, Nebraska to Brunswick, Nebraska. 

[00:02:36] Jim Jansen: That's hilarious. So, what, eight parishes, 11 or 12 sites?

[00:02:41] Fr. Keiter: 12 sites. 

[00:02:42] Jim Jansen: 12 sites. Okay. Okay. Now, Jake, you're, right, you're, you're a Nebraskan, uh, you're a little bit new to this family of parishes. What's like the one or two things people need to know to understand our Catholic family of parishes? One or two things. 

[00:02:55] Jake: Yeah, I've been in this role for just about eight months now. So, correct.
I'm pretty new. The first thing is I would say is that the parishioners that make up our Catholic family of parishes, I can honestly say that I haven't met more generous people. More kindhearted people. 
[00:03:12] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Amen. Amen. 

[00:03:14] Jake: That's the first thing. And the second thing is, I would say that we arguably have some of the most beautiful churches in the archdiocese of Omaha.

[00:03:22] Jim Jansen: Yeah, they're like little rural communities, but there's been features. I mean, you know, I, I know local features just highlighting. I mean, I think they called it, what, Cathedrals of the Plains, because they're just beautiful, beautiful churches. I've got one framed that's special, right? These are where my ancestors are from.
Uh, I've got one framed in my office here. I've got Bow Valley up on the wall. Okay, so as we kind of jump in here, you know, talking about the communication phase, you guys had done a lot of the hard work ahead of this of kind of assessing, okay, where are we at? What, what does our community need? How are we making or not making disciples?
You spent time in discernment and, and you did stuff. You built steps for your clear path. You saw lives starting to be changed, and then now you're, you're really leaning into the communication phase. I want to start maybe by asking the, the question, how did you know that it was time to start communicating more broadly and specifically about your clear path?

[00:04:24] Fr. Keiter: My leadership team and I, and through the help of an amazing parish and really focusing in on what is our, our rally cry? What's the, the one thing we need to focus on right now? And this was last fall, around September of 2023. We really came to that point of, as a leadership team, as staff, we knew and understood, if you will, this term of, of clear path and, and we're working on the pieces of that clear path that it was in place.
But outside of those two circles of influence, typical parishioner didn't understand what is a clear path. They might hear terms like we're called to be missionary disciples. But how does that intersect with a clear path was not understood. So, we, we just made it a rally cry to communicate, communicate, communicate our clear path, uh, so that people would start getting an understanding now that we have been doing that.
Um, does it mean we're, we discontinue it and go on to the next thing? Yes, we will go on to the next thing, but we're going to have to keep communicating the clear path. Yeah. I would say it's no different than people have to continually hear the good news. We have to keep communicating our clear path.

[00:05:57] Jim Jansen: Thank you. I want to, I just want to give you a chance to expand on that because I think the two of you have come into this communication phase with an awareness that like It started in many ways, you know, years ago with the first kind of grouping of parishes and that even this might be, this might be an intensive phase of communication, it really can't ever end.
Where does that come from? Like, why are you so convicted about the necessity of ongoing communication? 

[00:06:27] Fr. Keiter: I don't think you could communicate enough...

[00:06:29] Jim Jansen: amen. 

[00:06:30] Fr. Keiter: About the important things that we need to be and, and do and, and live as a parish, as a Catholic community. And if there's a single vision or mission of our Catholic parishes, it's to help people get to heaven.
And we help people get to heaven by walking with them to encounter Jesus. And as our, our vision statement for the archdiocese of Omaha describes, we have to help people encounter Jesus, be equipped to speak to disciples. Very specifically, we want to equip them as missionary disciples, fruitful disciples.
It's one thing to receive and become a disciple. It's another thing as a disciple, then to give and be fruitful. And, and Jesus makes that very clear in John's gospel. You know, this is how we glorify our father. That we bear much fruit and become his disciples. So, we're called to be fruitful disciples. And then we have to live that.
Yes. We've been able to put, you know, many pieces in place over the past years as. Uh, the beginning of our Catholic family, but now as a larger family of parishes, it's even more critical that we communicate this most important vision and mission to help people get to heaven. And we do that by forming disciples.
And so, we need a clear path to do that. 

[00:08:03] Jim Jansen: Jake, I want to give you a chance to jump in. Father just kind of alluded to the like, and now we've got more. That's, that's a result of like the pastoral planning process, you know, father's been pastor in this area of, you know, of many of these, these parishes for a while.
You're a little bit new. What, what effect did you see the pastoral planning process having? And then what does this, this communication phase offer in terms of. The needs that kind of stirs up. 

[00:08:37] Jake: Yeah. I would say first and foremost, that just with the idea of communicating as a whole, it's, you know, like I'm a married man and I know my wife loves me, but I want her to communicate that to me often.

[00:08:50] Jim Jansen: Yeah. 

[00:08:50] Jake: And. You know, any successful business out there has their mission or vision statement posted somewhere or everywhere, lest their employees forget, like, what are we doing this for? What are we out? What's our, what's our purpose? And it's the exact same thing. So, when I started this role back in May, I moved here in May and began in the beginning parts of June for our Catholic family of parishes.
What I noticed is that there was already a lot of Like Father said, some, some different puzzle pieces in place, specifically, there was small groups that were already meeting and some of them had begun expanding. Some of them were, were kind of in the beginning phases, but, you know, some of those small groups were, were a weekly Bible study.
Some of them were maybe, uh, more like a biweekly or once a month. You know, they'd watch some video content or listen to a podcast and then discuss the, the stuff there. I really realized that there was a lot of people, a lot of parishioners within the family of parishes here that were already making some kind of investment in their faith life and, and trying to grow to become a fruitful disciple.
And so. Yeah, that was the first thing that I noticed, and then the communication of our clear path really started to come from that in a lot of ways.

[00:10:09] Jim Jansen: I mean, in some ways, you were beginning to articulate to people to put names to an experience that many of them had already had, and I might add, loved and enjoyed.
They were finding it fruitful, you know, even life changing. Father, can you, can you tell us a little bit more about that? Because we're talking about this communication phase as though it's like this thing that started, you know, a couple of months ago. You've been communicating mission and vision really aggressively for a while.
I want to give you a chance maybe just to talk a little bit about the ups and downs, the challenges of that, and maybe the contrast that that is to many people's lived experience of what it means to be a good parishioner. 

[00:10:56] Fr. Keiter: There's two terms that both Amazing parish and focus have really stressed, and I've been blessed to be involved with both organizations.
They call our role as pastor, the chief evangelizing officer and chief reminding officer. 

[00:11:18] Jim Jansen: I love it. 

[00:11:19] Fr. Keiter: Meaning we have to continually remind what is our most important vision, mission that we live in a parish. Now to your question, the lived experience of many Catholic parishioners is simply fulfilling the obligation of attending mass on Sundays and holy days, Holy days.
making sure they're financially helping support the parish, maybe helping with a couple of events. Right. Set up the chairs. Yeah. You might have extremes where, Oh, I'm in a Bible study. And I say it that way because that's often the lived experience But my role as pastor, if I'm sincere and so desire my parishioners to get to heaven, then I have to walk with them on that journey, which is more than a few minimums or checkboxes.
And so not just communicating but living this. One of the beautiful things as a priest is you very quickly realize how life giving it is to help people become fruitful disciples. And actually, makes our life as priests easier and healthier. Yeah. Because people do way more than the minimum when they're on fire, when they're a fruitful disciple and, and want others to experience it.
When you experience the beauty of the good news, you naturally want to share it with someone else. Yeah. When you've experienced it in your own life, you want to share that with others. And it's just a beautiful thing. So I need my time to be the majority spent on that, not on the typical lived experience, even though yes, it's a joy to celebrate the sacraments, but the lived experience of too many brother priests is Sacraments and administration and not living the vision and the mission, forming fruitful disciples and helping people get to heaven.

[00:13:53] Jim Jansen: I know you're really convicted that you have to personally, like, live this call to mission. Just, just tell me. Real specifically, like, what does that look like? Right? What does that, what does that look like on Tuesday morning, on Thursday night? Because you're not just directing, you know, evangelization activity from your office.
You're, you're not just like, Hey, everybody, here's the plan. Go get them. You're on the field. 

[00:14:21] Fr. Keiter: Yeah, it means that I have to walk with a few people, and I use that word few if people simply understood the power of just being an authentic friend and helping two or three, four, maybe tops other people in their lifetime encounter Jesus.
And, and become that fruitful disciple, the world would change. If I want parishioners to live that with two or three others, then I have to do that myself, meaning I have to, you know, form authentic friendships and I use the word authentic because. We live in a time culture where unfortunately most relationships have an agenda.
If I use the word authentic to simply mean you just care about the person. You want the best form. You want them to get to heaven. If I get accused of that being the agenda, then so be it. But it's not a transactional relationship, agenda driven relationship. 

[00:15:35] Jim Jansen: I'm just kind of imagining what that accusation sounds like.
Father, you just want me to get to heaven. It's like, yeah, well, yes, actually. Now that you think about it. 

[00:15:44] Fr. Keiter: My closest circle of influence, obviously, is my leadership team. And then my staff. And so, I need to pour into them and walk with them in prayer. Just listening, having conversations. And, and inviting them, you know, to go deeper.
But I have about five guys in the parish, young dads. Husbands, dads that I've been walking with. So, you know, I'll text a couple of them and say, Hey, you have time for lunch today, or you can have coffee this morning. Uh, you want to get together after work and it's just continually making time to walk with them.
And it's not about always talking about the church or Jesus, but most of the time conversations end up, you know, with questions about the faith and, and being able to talk and, and share, but it's just sharing life. And so, I do that, and you can multiple ways of doing that. 

[00:16:47] Jim Jansen: There's no shortage of activity and administration and sacramental responsibility that you have in this family.
I mean, you have the distances alone to go kind of back and forth, but you're able to make time for this. I just want to, like, give Jake an opportunity here to jump in here, because Jake, I know you've taken some of the kind of coordinating responsibility for the communication. What does it do as you start to communicate to this parish about the mission, about a clear path of discipleship, as you're communicating, you know, to these family of parishes, what does it do for you to have a pastor who doesn't just believe in it, but is actually doing it himself?

[00:17:28] Jake: Well, certainly with, with Father Jim is our pastor, but I think just by relationship with Jesus as a whole, naturally has a bit of built in accountability with it. Like father has already mentioned, you know, if, if I'm going to be asking and encouraging others to do it, I dang well better be doing it myself.
But then also it's like. This is Jesus we're talking about here, right? Like, like the more I get to know him and the more I allow him to get to know me, the more I want those things to happen. It's like the more, the more love that grows. And so that's, you know, authentic friendship with others only comes from first relationship with the Lord and a deep and true intimate relationship.
And so, yeah, just communicating this clear path and, and kind of what we're doing and why we're doing this to our parishioners. has really allowed me to have This appreciation for those relationships. It's one of, one of the biggest blessings that I have as a person on, on staff here with our Catholic family of parishes and working with Father Keiter is that from day one and, and oftentimes throughout since then, I've heard him say, you know, I have to stay laser focused on discipleship as a pastor.
And even when we started, or I guess really continued intensely going after the communication phase of this clear path, both father Kider and I were like, okay, this is, this is what it's all about. This is the most important thing that we can do as a church, you know, and this is, this is kind of our, our meat and potatoes right here, so to speak.
Having the accountability, but the accountability with the love that comes from the relationship with the, with the Lord, but with, with the others as well, in those authentic friendships. It kind of is like a self-energizing kind of a thing. 

[00:19:23] Jim Jansen: Yeah, well, you know, as I listen to you guys talk, what occurs to me is, you know, because I was going to ask you the question, it's like, okay, so what was the content?
Like what did you say, you know, to educate people in your family of parishes about what a clear path is and what it looks like in, in your family? And in some ways, we've already been talking about that. You're like, well, it's about Jesus. It's about making disciples. I just want to give you a chance to, to kind of go off a little bit more about that, because In some ways, you, you are using a clear path as the way to make disciples, which is what it's supposed to be.
But there's like, it's so deep in you, you can hear your passion, that like, okay, we've got to introduce people to Jesus. We've got to personally live this investment in others to help lead people to Jesus. Talk a little bit about like, what do you actually tell people when it comes time to communicate about your clear path?
What do you say? 

[00:20:24] Jake: So, I created this, this way to communicate our clear path in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. And so, in that, in that PowerPoint, kind of the flow of it, so to speak, is I just very simply started off with definitions just to provide. Clarity to people, um, is kind of the foundation and the baseline there.
And there was just the three definitions, which I took from the archdiocese and what you and your team have, have compiled over the years. And so, the definitions I use is discipleship, the clear path, and then what is a missional community? So, establishing the baseline of those three things and how they kind of ultimately connect with one another and, and build with one another.
From there, we. Started talking about, okay, with these definitions in mind, what is our goal? What are we trying to do here? 

[00:21:14] Jim Jansen: Hmm. 

[00:21:15] Jake: I would, I would establish the goal with that. Once the goal is established, I would move into, okay, what tools do we have at our disposal? And the tools are things like the small group Bible studies, like sacraments and adoration, like conferences and retreats and mission trips and pilgrimages and all these things that help.
Someone to encounter the Lord and to grow in relationship and to become a fruitful disciple. Um, from there moved into the four pillars of a disciple, which comes straight from Acts chapter two, verse 42, kind of breaking down that verse. And then after the pillars of disciple entered into what are the, what are the 10 habits that a person who is a fruitful disciple lives?
What, like, what do they do? What does their life look like? From there, uh, we kind of took a dive into the thresholds and using that again as a tool to help encourage people to really take time to do self-reflection on, okay, today or right now in this moment, where am I at on this spectrum? Which threshold would I put myself in?
But then also, um, What about the people in my life, my spouse, my kids, my coworkers, my, whoever it might be, where are they at? And then with the tools that I had already established along with the thresholds, I kind of matched them together. Like, okay, so this tool say it's a weekly Bible study falls into these two or three thresholds, kind of these like conversion moments.
Side of the thresholds and then, okay, maybe a retreat or a pilgrimage would be more so on the, on the, you know, more active side moving further towards the right towards the fruitful missionary disciple, and then once those, all those things were established, um, we kind of just dove into what are the obstacles of standing our way, you know, what, whether it's nice that we're, we're Christians, so we therefore have an enemy, or it was also like.
Sometimes people can be a little bit lazy or can be stagnant, can be complacent. Sometimes it could just be a simple misunderstanding of what is this all about. Why are we doing this? And then from there, with all those things established, really just shared the story of two men. The first was, uh, Blessed Solanus Casey and how he lived just a very simple yet magnanimous life and is well on his way to being canonized for the Catholic church because of what a profound impact he had as a missionary disciple by.
Opening the door for people, and then the 2nd gentleman story that I shared with our parishioners is yon turn off ski and how with his living rosary groups from their living mission living as a missionary disciple and encouraging the men he invested in to do the same. We then we're blessed with.
St. Pope John Paul II from one of those groups. And so, from there, I just kind of summarize it all together. And the final kind of, uh, bullet point, so to speak, is really just ending with how much of a joy it is to live the Great Commission. 

[00:24:26] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. So, I'm just going to like state the obvious here.
That's a lot. And that's not like, right, that's not like a half page bulletin insert. So, talk a little bit about how did you begin to think about the various audiences and then the various, you know, modes and methods that you had to communicate to because nothing in there Is extraneous. If people are going to really understand the mission of your family of parishes, if they're going to find their place in it, if they're going to like, you know, participate, that's what they need all that.
How do you, how did you kind of divide up all the various groups of people that you needed to talk to? I'm just curious at the practical level. There's just so many people and so many, so much content that you want to deliver to them. How did you do it? 

[00:25:20] Fr. Keiter: My leadership team obviously is, is living, eating, and breathing this.
Yeah, but once Jake had created the, the PowerPoint presentation and he and I and, and, uh, Jimmy Chang, one of our focus missionaries and on my leadership team had gone through it and talked through and added and changed and so forth in the presentation, I then asked Jake To begin with our staff and then our joint council for the Catholic family, our Catholic family of parishes.
But then I said, it is important that we're going to all the different campuses. And invite ministry leaders, inviting prisoners to hear this. Now, at the same time, we also knew not everyone is going to come to a PowerPoint presentation. And so, we videoed the presentation. So, we can actually, we have not only the PowerPoint, but a video Jake presenting the PowerPoint.
Uh, our website that we can send the link out and watch it, you know, from the convenience of their home. But then one of the, uh, things that struck me, Jimmy Chang made the comment. He goes, we should just throw out the front cover of our bulletin that everyone's used to and put a completely different cover that just is each week, starting last November, the, the.
Weekend following Thanksgiving, um, up until just a couple weeks ago, every weekend, the, the weekend bulletin, the cover was just a full color point in the order that Jake just went through the clear path presentation each week, just on one thing. On the clear path, beginning with the goal. Oh, I love it.
Just following the PowerPoint presentation, but it was just the bulletin cover and the first week, a couple of weeks, it was actually sort of funny. People are like, where's the bulletin right there. That's not the bulletin, but there was a reason for doing that. It caught their attention. Yeah, I love it. Oh, that's so good.
In addition, you know, so we try to use different forms of media to communicate. Because everyone, you know, communicates differently and so let's hit them on all different fronts. 

[00:27:51] Jim Jansen: Well, and there's a need for repetition too. Okay, so you've got this PowerPoint, you've got it on a video, it's available on the website.
You're, you're literally going to all of the kind of key leaders, the pastoral councils, site visits, little, I mean, my word, not yours, but almost like little town hall meetings where you're doing this. Okay. Father, can you talk a little bit, you have this unique opportunity in the context of homilies. I can imagine some people feeling like, oh man, that's weird.
Last thing you want to do is talk about the parish program during homilies. But I know you've been able to work that into your preaching on, on the gospel readings. Can you talk a little bit about how you've used homilies? 

[00:28:33] Fr. Keiter: Yeah. As I said earlier, we can't hear the gospel, the good news. Enough. And I remember hearing several years ago that we should always try to bring in the good news into every homily.
And it's not that you're just repeating, you know, this is the good news. But no different than these pieces of the clear path. If we understand the good news is that we begin life in a relationship with God, our father and his son, Jesus. And we become a beloved child of God, but that relationship enters into ruins because of sin that came into the world and yet God, the father never stopped loving us and he sent his only son to conquer, to rescue us.
From sin and death, but he also, Jesus, that son of God, not only rescues us, but by the grace, the wellspring of grace, he's won in his suffering, death and resurrection, he gives us the opportunity to be recreated and then respond to that saving grace. You can tie any aspect of that good news and any homily.
And it's not that I have to go over the whole thing every time. I can take a piece of that. I could take a piece of the clear path. There might be a particular gospel where obstacles to our clear path are, you know, something I can focus in. Whereas another time it might be the thresholds. And it's not that you say, okay, where are you on this map of thresholds?
But it may be, do you remember when you just became more curious about your faith, and you started asking more questions? So, I think we have to prayerfully prepare our homilies. And the opportunities that we can always tie in aspects of that clear. 

[00:30:49] Jim Jansen: I love that. I mean, there's just this unity until it's so clear in you all that the gospel, the fundamental good news, the little slice of the gospel that we get in the readings, the mission of the parish.
It's all connected. Nothing's kind of like this, like one off, uh, for you all. I just, I just want to ask maybe a hard question here. I'm sure not. Everybody's like, Oh, wow. Great. Thanks for explaining that father. I'm all in. Uh, let's go. Like what, what resistance have you run into along the way? And how did you respond?

[00:31:26] Fr. Keiter: We're creatures of habit. So, there are people that, you know, maybe do get stuck in just, I called earlier the, the typical lived experience. 

[00:31:37] Jim Jansen: And they're comfortable there. 

[00:31:39] Fr. Keiter: Yeah, because becoming a disciple can be very uncomfortable and, and then you have doubt and fear and shame. Three big tools that the devil uses over and over.
to beat us down, if you will. As a priest, as a pastor, I recognize, yes, that's there, but I can't let that get me down. We're going to keep walking with people because we see the beautiful life lived in fruitful discipleship. And those that have accepted that invitation and we're going to keep inviting and the goal is to invite everyone.
And so, we just have to keep at it and stay at it. I would say the, the occasional father, this is stupid and so forth. Yeah, that's there, but we can't let that get us down and there's absolutely a point where you reach a moment where your number of fruitful disciples Perish reaches a point where others just say I want that.
Yeah, like the early church People are being martyred And other non-Christians would stand there and say, I want that. And then go and become Christian. Was it, they wanted martyrdom? No, something was coming off those early Christians that was a trap and what comes off fruitful disciples, that's attractive is joy. 

[00:33:21] Jim Jansen: Yeah. Well, it isn't that part of, again, more complicated in the pastoral planning process as you know, as additional parishes were welcomed into this family. But you were seeing that, like you were seeing people that were, I mean, almost like you knew you were ready for this broad communication phase because people wanted to know because they saw other people having this experience.
And you knew you were ready because people wanted you to tell them, which is very different than telling people something that they weren't, at least at some level, curious about. 

[00:33:55] Fr. Keiter: One of the things I think that also helped us communicate the clear path without necessarily talking about it, but it was communicating the good news, is Last Advent.
Each day we sent out just a little testimonial witness from a parishioner on an aspect of the good news. So, the first week focused on how we, you know, begin life in this relationship with our heavenly father. But then the next week focused on the reality of the ruins of sin and then being rescued and then our response.
But we had parishioners to share three, four, five-minute little video testimony each day. We sent out that video. Yeah, it wasn't me talking. It wasn't a PowerPoint presentation. It wasn't, you know, a homily or a bulletin cover. But it was the actual lived experience of a parishioner, just like any other parishioner.
And it was amazing to hear people afterwards saying, wow. 

[00:35:00] Jim Jansen: I'm so glad you shared that because I think we could have, this has been an awesome conversation and I can't believe how fast our time has gone, but this would be a failure if we didn't highlight like how important the personal witness is. And to get a multiplicity of, of voices, we could have easily started here, but I want to, Jake, you all developed a really beautiful mantra, just kind of like a phrase that summarizes, uh, your clear path, you know, like, like what, what you're offering for people, uh, at kind of each moment.
Can you just like summarize your, you know, what, what is that? Share that with people. And then we'll, you know, we're going to link to the, to the website, but when you have like 30 seconds, 60 seconds, how do you articulate your, your clear path? 

[00:35:47] Jake: Yeah. So, the, the mantra that we've developed is encounter, equip, evangelize.
And there's of course, many similar synonyms to doing those three things, but that, that is it is encounter, equip, evangelize. And so, yeah, the 30 to 60 second window, it's how do we take and counter equip and evangelize or even just one piece of that three part puzzle and like father was already mentioning, tie that into the gospel message to the good news or tie that into how it fits in the clear path.
And you know, everyone, everyone is at a different point. Everyone is at a different, you know, encounters, different struggles, different victories, et cetera. And that's the beautiful thing about it all is that in the encounter, in the equipping, in the evangelizing, that everyone is different, but we're all travelers on the journey to the same destination.

[00:36:41] Jim Jansen: And I love it. Like in that short little mantra, you can help people recognize. A little bit of their own spiritual journey, and then what your community of faith offers for them as their next step, whether that be a small group or deeper formation as a disciple or formation as a missionary disciple.
You're able to help people kind of recognize, Hey, where are you? Here's, here's how we can help this. This community is going to help you on this, this journey. I want to give both of you a chance here, Father, maybe you start us off and then Jake can close this up. I'm thinking about those who are listening, you know, maybe they're right on the cusp of their communication phase.
They're kind of sensing that like, okay, you know, God's doing good stuff here, but people are starting to ask, we need to start kind of telling everybody about this clear path. What final advice would you have for people who are ready to begin a communication phase on their clear path? 

[00:37:38] Fr. Keiter: The image I would use is Jesus getting into the boat with Peter and telling him to cast out into the deep.

[00:37:46] Jim Jansen: Wow.

[00:37:47] Fr. Keiter: So, use different methods of communicating, but cast into the deep. And in the end, it's about letting God be God. So, letting the Holy Spirit work, we do the casting. Um, but look at all the fish that the Lord brought to Peter. Once he just casted the net, I just think the Lord is calling us to be his instruments, but he actually does the work.
And so, communicating that clear path is casting the net. Just cast out into the deep, use different ways of, of that, of, of casting, but then let the Lord do the work. 

[00:38:33] Jim Jansen: That's fantastic. Thank you, Jake. What would you say? 

[00:38:36] Jake: I would just say we've already touched on it earlier in the show, but communication is ongoing, and you simply cannot over communicate.
And so, it's, it's just like anything else in life. We need, we need that continual reminder, regardless of where a person is at on their journey as a, as a disciple. So yeah, like father mentioned, finding different ways, different forms of communicating, but sticking to the communication. I remember early on, after I had created that PowerPoint and we kind of more or less finalized it, I told father, I said, you know, I know that me going out to these different sites and giving a PowerPoint presentation is not going to be the thing that creates fruitful missionary disciples.
But we have to tell people. We have to tell people and we have to keep telling people. 

[00:39:26] Jim Jansen: That's awesome. Thank you for the conversation. Thank you for everything you're doing. I mean, we're really, you know, this has been a theme in kind of all these conversations is like, you know, talk with people who are in parishes who've been building their clear path.
We're all kind of in this, this kind of evangelistic entrepreneurial phase where we're, we're just letting the spirit lead us kind of day by day, moment by moment, you know, figuring out how to make disciples again. Thank you. Thank you for your witness. I, it's been an inspiration and encouragement to me, and I know to so many others, so thank you.

[00:39:58] Fr. Keiter: Welcome. Thank you for the invitation. 

[00:40:00] Jim Jansen: We're going to link it to our Catholic family. We'll link to the website in the show notes here, but you know, those of you who are listening, you know, somebody who needs to hear this, there's a lot of, a lot of gems in our conversation today. So go and share it out with somebody, uh, who, you know, needs to hear it.
And thanks for listening to 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.