Scouters Development Workshop

Lay Apostolate Formation for Scouters
The National Catholic Committee on Scouting® (NCCS) offers a special training course to diocesan committees who want to prepare Scouters to use Scouting as a form of youth ministry.

In recent years there has been a growing awareness that the work done in the Scouting program is true ministry. As adults we are witnessing not only to our own faith commitment, but we are also trying to help the Scout make a personal faith commitment.

Lay apostolate formation is the process by which we, as Catholic Scouters, create greater awareness of our role to "seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God." (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church-Lumen Gentium, 31). We fulfill the role of the lay apostolate through our involvement in the secular realm of the Boy Scouts of America giving us the opportunity to carry out the necessary task of evangelizing the secular world, particularly through our involvement with children and adolescents.

The Scouter Development: Lay Apostolate Formation for Scouting program is designed to help Scouters come to a better understanding of the role of religious faith in their lives. The program is designed to be experiential and not overly didactic. Through a series of guided reflections, both the individual and the group examine Scripture passages to ascertain how God is calling each to respond.

The Scouter does not have to know any specific doctrines, nor is an extensive knowledge of Scripture presumed. What is of critical importance, however, is that the Scouter be reflective and be willing to share those reflections with others.

The program has four component parts or dimensions. These are: the call to leadership, the call to holiness, the call to conversion, and the call to worship. The objective is to provide an environment in which the Scouter may come to an understanding of personal faith and then experience the confidence to share that faith in the Scouting community.

It is the committee's hope to one day implement this event. If you are a registered Catholic Adult and would like to head this effort up, please contact us.