What is the Christian Life Seminar (CLS)?
The CLS is an integrated course intended to lead Retreat participants into a renewed understanding of God’s call to them as Christians. Most sessions consist of three basic ingredients: a teaching, a group discussion, and a time for fellowship.
What are the goals of the CLS?
The CLS has two basic purposes: evangelization and spiritual renewal.
First, evangelization is to take the basic message of Christianity and proclaim it anew so that those who hear it can make a renewed commitment to God in a way that will allow them to receive a fuller experience of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
And second, spiritual renewal works in three ways:
1. For the individual, it brings a person into a stronger relationship with God by discovering and living more fully the power and gifts he/she received through the Holy Spirit;
2. For the family, it brings married couples and other family members to a renewed commitment to Christian family life and it starts to build a community of committed Christian families;
3. For the Church, it brings people within a particular parish to a fuller experience of life in the Spirit. Consequently, it strengthens and revitalizes community life in the parish.
What is the content of the CLS?
The CLS runs for a total of six (6) consecutive sessions usually held weekly or even over the weekend. The topics of the six (6) sessions are as follows:
Session 1: Jesus, The Messiah
Session 2: Called to Witness
Session 3: Repentance and Faith
Session 4: The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Session 5: Growing in the Spirit
Session 6: The Life and Mission of Missionary Families of Christ (MFC)
What is the content of each of the above teachings?
Session 1: Jesus, The Messiah speaks about God’s wanting to bring us out of the confusion and disorder that is being experienced in the modern world, and to bring us all back to Himself, more specifically to His son, Jesus Christ, to restore our fellowship and intimacy with Him. There is something seriously wrong with the situation in the world today, and behind most of the disorder and evil is Satan. Only God can bring us out of this, and He has done it by sending His own Son Jesus into the world to suffer and die for us. In Jesus we have our salvation.
Since Jesus then is central to God’s plan for us and since we as Christians carry his name, we need to understand what it means to live Christ as a living witness to Him.
Session 2 first dispels misconceptions or wrong notions about Christianity. What makes us Christians, being Called to Witness, is our love for God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul, thereby having personal relationship with Him. This is the greatest commandment, followed by loving our neighbor as ourselves.
God loves us. God sent His own Son to die for us. God has gathered us unto Himself as His people. Christianity is something that God has initiated, unilaterally and unreservedly.
In the light of all these, our proper response is in Session 3: Repentance and Faith. This is a double- action response. Repentance and faith go together. Repentance involves a turning away from sin, wrongdoing and running our own lives, and a turning to a life of obedience to God. Faith, in turn, is belief in Jesus as our personal Savior.
Session 4 will help participants to commit their lives in a serious way to Jesus. First, this involves The Gift of the Holy Spirit. This session is essentially a prayer session where the participants are prayed with for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Some would term this the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.”
Then, recognizing that the baptism in the Spirit is only a beginning, there is a need to learn more about how to grow in the life of the Spirit. Thus the participants are taught the basic means of Growing in the Spirit in Session 5. The five basic tools to growth are prayer, study, service, fellowship and the sacraments.
Finally, as the last session (Session 6) of the CLS, we look to the need for banding together with other committed Christians for mutual support, and to carry out our Christian mission. So here , we present The Life and Mission of Missionary Families of Christ. Participants are encouraged to persevere in living out actively their new life in Christ. Though the CLS has come to an end, the new life is just beginning. In order to grow, much more is needed—to learn more about the Christian life, for strength and support of others, to have an environment where one can serve God. The participants are invited to continue their journey, this time with MFC.
