Training of Team Members

The life of a team member is demanding but a term of service with NET begins with an intensive five-week training program. Team members learn about:

• Personal and Communial Prayer
• Scripture and living that out with a team
  
• Catholic identity, Christian character, and team development
• Content of the Gospel message and how to share it
  
• Ministry and evangelization skills
• Yourself through the sacrament of confession made available by a Catholic Priest
  
• Most especially, you will grow in relationship with Jesus through the sacrament of the daily Eucharist

You will be in an environment that includes intensive workshops, daily Mass, weekly Adoration, reflection on the lives of the saints, Reconciliation, individual and corporate prayer and small group discussions, you will obtain a deeper understanding of your Catholic faith and given practical skills to effectively communicate that faith to others.

And, of course, you will get a chance to play some “ultimate frisbee”, dangle your feet off the lakeside dock, sing your heart out and get to know some pretty neat people called your teammates.

Two Week Schedule

During a teams ministry, each team member follows a two week schedule. The two week schedule consist of retreat informations, meal times, departure and arrival times on each day, free times, recreation times, team activities, men's and women's session information, practice times for dramas, skits, and music, team prayer time, and role assignments for retreats and other parts of the day. The day of a NET team member is pretty full, it truly teaches them what it means to live in community with other team members.

"NET Team Training" (from a Networks article - Fall 2005)

Where do you go to learn how to proclaim the Gospel to 28,000 teenagers? For the young men and women from around the world who make up our evangelization teams, you go to “NET Team Training”.

Training is the foundation that prepares the team members for a year in the trenches of youth culture, proclaiming the Gospel to teens across Canada and Ireland.

During these five weeks, spent largely at a retreat location in Plantagenet, ON, the young men and women listened to over 100 presentations covering a wide range of topics including Scripture, prayer, the Sacraments, Christian fellowship, the lives of the Saints, Marian theology, identity in Christ, and more. And that’s just the first three weeks. The teams also learn the practical evangelization skills they’ll need --­­ how to lead a retreat, how to get the attention of an audience, how to share their personal witness of faith, how to pray with someone, and more.

Morning, afternoon and night are filled with times of prayer, daily Mass, small group discussions, presentations and workshops. But of course, those who work hard also play hard. Games of soccer, “ultimate frisbee” and swimming are always available for those wanting to work up a sweat.

And so, what awaits the young volunteers at the end of training? The teams, their families and friends are invited to a special “commissioning” Mass with NET’s president, Archbishop Marcel Gervais. Then it’s off put all these new skills to use.

“I thought that the training was really impressive,” says Fr. Panikulam. “It was all very solid. Everything was based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which will make the team’s work easy to introduce into the school system, since our curriculum is based on the Catechism.”

Fr. Panikulam says that his experience at training helped him to feel more personally prepared for the upcoming school year. “We have lots of young people at our parish, but we haven’t been involving them to their full potential into the faith life of the parish. I learned at training that young people have their own culture. I learned how youth see their faith and how they think.

“I also appreciated how everything was also Scripture-based. I noticed that NET teaches its team members to tell their life stories, which the young people can relate to, and then to connect those experiences to Scripture. I thought it was excellent.”

Fr. Panikulam also had several opportunities to join into times of Eucharistic Adoration with the teams. “I had never seen such participation in Adoration. The team members didn’t seem to want it to end.” He added with a chuckle, “I had never heard that many voices all singing in a Catholic Church before!”

Please join us in praying for the teams, for safe travel and for fruitfulness in their ministry.