3 minute read
The Encounter School of Ministry: A Transformative Faith Experience
Joan Root felt like she had received strong catechesis throughout her life. In addition to an upbringing in a Catholic home, Joan now has a Master’s in Catholic Pastoral Studies and went through five years of deacon formation with her husband.
But there was something so different about going through the Encounter School.
Advertisement
“It has been a transformative experience, and I want everyone to know about this,” Joan says. “In my personal prayer life each day, I’ve learned to hear the Lord in a way I never have before. I’ve connected with Him.”
The Encounter School of Ministry exists to equip disciples in showing “the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in their sphere of influence.”
“We’re called to make disciples of all nations and we do this through manifesting Christ to the world,” Joan says. “We have the authority to do this through our Baptism.”
Today Joan is the Director of Encounter’s Lexington campus, which will begin this September, and will be the only Encounter campus in Kentucky.
For our faith community and for Joan, the origins of the Encounter School are intertwined with the Charismatic Prayer Group, which began as a small group of people praying together.
“The Holy Spirit took over, and now we have about 180 people connected to the prayer group,” Joan says. “We’ve moved into streaming it about twice a month. Much of the leadership team from the prayer group are now involved with Encounter.”
Joan Root, Director of the Lexington Campus
A prayer group member knew some people from Encounter and invited them to come and do a School of Healing. It was a wonderful experience with solid catechetical background on accessing the gifts of the Spirit.
“Sometimes people have a preconceived idea of what they think the charismatic renewal is, but it is not something just for a particular group of Catholics or Christians,” Joan says. “Accessing the gifts of the Spirit is what Christ wants for all baptized believers. It will illuminate and strengthen your life at home, at church, and work.”
Joan enrolled in the Encounter School at the campus in Cincinnati and began driving a few hours a week to attend. The program has a two-year curriculum that has been vetted by multiple theologians. Each year is divided into four quarters, with one evening class a week throughout the traditional academic year.
“We begin with worship and then the teaching for the night,” Joan says. “You can review the entire curriculum on the website. The first quarter, for example, focuses on ‘identity and transformation.’”
The COVID-19 pandemic began while Joan was finishing her first year, so the program shifted to a virtual format. Then, Joan submitted a form that she believed was a request for a team to come to Lexington to host the Encounter School.
“Actually, the form was for a director to put together a school in Lexington,” Joan says. “Now we are onboarding a local team and have been since September. This team will include Lavinia Spirito, Deacon Tim Weinmann, Debbie Graviss, Rebecca Whitney, Shawn Waddle, Robin Beard, Samuel Awuah, and Shelley Parkerson.”
The Lexington campus will be based at the Cathedral of Christ the King, and the school will begin hosting in-person classes on Sept. 14.
Joan hopes that many local people from our faith community will want to grow and understand their Baptism differently.
“It is open for anyone interested in becoming a disciple of the Lord and accessing the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” Joan says. “Come know your faith better so as to proclaim it.”
