In July 2015 I started my first ever paid job as a Director of Faith Formation at SMOLG. I was in heaven! A beautiful historic church, downtown setting, run by Franciscans, only 400 families registered - very manageable!

I work only 20 hours a week - although I do all the ff-related activities at the church:

Children's FF
Adult Programs
Baptism Prep
RCIA

It's just RCIA,
Children's FF
Baptism Prep,
Adult FF programs..

so some days I feel like this.

But, hey - I can handle it. After all, I've been teaching tech integration for ministry for years now!

So the first thing I did was set up an interactive wiki for my FF families. We have an intergenerational program - only 6 children - so this was a great chance for the children and parents to do an at home activity together.

Truthfully, this is what I expected...

But what I got was more like this...

And this!

So I decided to follow the advice I've heard for years in FF...

Do what you can, not what you can't!

We discovered an already put-together program from Ignatian Solidarity so we signed up for that - they sent us free buttons and bingo cards.

Well attended - about 40 adults.

This was a great collaborative effort with our PV, Fr. Kevin Queally, TOR. I don't think he knew what hit him.

I got the idea from one of our Capstone projects - Tanya LeSane - who did an online study of Joy of the Gospel.

My job was to curate a WordPress blog with resources and videos for each week of study, based on the chapter themes of LS.

Fr. Kevin led the live discussion and I helped him make a brief weekly intro to the theme. He wrote a summary.

We both researched resources to post.

He ALSO invited hundreds of his closest friends, as he is the International head of the secular Franciscans! This was a huge boost to the # of online participants.

We learned some things and hope to have a 4 week study of Catholic Social Teaching this winter.

In my last parish, I was very involved in forming a DD team and working in the FB ministry.

In my new parish,

I had to ask to be added to the administrators.
I switched the parish account from a personal to an organizational page.
This year, I am just using FB to enhance what's going on in our FF ministry -

Year of Mercy
Greatest Advent Ever
Greatest Lent ever

My website page is all I have power to control, so I am just working on keeping that up to date with FF happenings.

Formatting is an issue because the template we use is pretty limited.

I also discovered that the parish had invested in the Augustine Institute package of resources - Formed.org.

These have been great for use with RCIA for the catechetical sessions.

I'm very lucky that the parish installed a full A/V system in the newly remodeled parish hall, too.

I have goals and I have a wish list, but I'm also aware that I have to work in the reality of a parish,

and within the limitations of my hours at work!

I'm hopeful, excited about continuing to use technology in my parish.

It seems like a GREAT adventure!