The team training EOI is a companion session to work with the team building session. The latter focused on finding common ground regarding terminology and how our teams are organized, as well as how team meetings are run. This session built on the work done at first EOI to discuss the importance and purpose of team training.
Why do we do what we do? The purpose of team training is to help us understand and fulfill the essentials of Via de Cristo. Knowing what the essentials are frees us to operate within the parameters of the movement. We know what we must include and where we are free to modify or innovate to match our individual situations and traditions.
Via de Cristo relies upon progressions. Progressions within the weekend and progression from the pre-weekend, through the weekend, to the post-weekend. While training teams for the weekend is important, it is just as important to train the community in the why of the pre- and post-weekend strategies. In discerning who are good candidates to make a weekend. In understanding the role of the sponsor in shepherding their new cursillista into their 4th day.
Team training should be interesting and fun but also should help every member understand not only their role but the overall strategies of the weekend and how each element fits into that strategy. Experienced team members need training as much as new people, to remind of the reasons for what we do and to reinforce our objectives.
Kim shared a remembrance written by one of the first cursillistas – a man who attended the first weekend in Spain in 1944. It was inspiring to remember the roots of this movement. But it also served as an example of the kind of thing that could be used in team training to motivate and focus our teams. We need to offer the pilgrims – and the Lord – our first fruits. Good, well-planned team training is an important part of offering up those first fruits.
Reported by John Aclin
