These resources help parish leaders, catechists, and small groups hear the Gospel, respond to Jesus, and prepare to share him with others. Choose according to the people in front of you and the formation step they need. A group exploring faith may need a welcoming series; a team preparing to evangelize may need proclamation practice.
The kerygma is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and the invitation to respond to him. These tools serve that encounter through prayer, honest conversation, and personal accompaniment.
Before choosing a resource, return to this question: What difference has Jesus made in your life?
Recognizing the Gospel’s movements in your own story helps you speak from lived faith and listen to another person’s experience.
For younger audiences, see Proclaiming the Kerygma to Children & Youth.
Lead a Group Through the Gospel
Choose a series that fits your group’s readiness and the time your team can give to hospitality, conversation, and ongoing accompaniment.
Group series: Alpha in a Catholic Context
BY: ALPHA
Alpha creates space for people to explore faith through hospitality, talks, and honest conversation. Its eleven-week format can work online or in person, with time for guests to ask questions and share what they think. Consider it when you have people willing to invite friends and a team prepared to listen, welcome questions, and accompany participants as they explore a relationship with Jesus.
Small group series: Discovering Christ
BY: CHRISTLIFE
Discovering Christ offers seven sessions and a day retreat, combining a meal, prayer, video teaching, and small group conversation. It invites adults to explore life’s deepest questions, hear the Gospel, and encounter Jesus. The subsequent courses, Following Christ and Sharing Christ, support continued discipleship and preparation to share faith. Consider it when your parish has a team ready to accompany participants through an initial encounter and into ongoing growth.
Film & discussion series: Sycamore
BY: SYCAMORE
Sycamore combines short films with discussion about Christian faith and everyday life. Its twenty core films can be arranged into pathways for enquiry groups, OCIA, sacramental preparation, and adult formation. Choose a pathway that fits participants’ questions and readiness, with room for personal conversation and accompaniment. Core films and resources are free with registration; additional SycamorePlus courses require a subscription.
Small group series: The Rescue Project
BY: ACTS XXIX
The Rescue Project is an eight-week small group experience built around Gospel proclamation, food, conversation, and prayer. Its nine video episodes can serve people exploring Christianity and Catholics seeking a renewed encounter with Jesus. Consider it when you want the Gospel story to shape a shared experience, with time to discuss and respond personally. The videos are available free.
Small group study: CCO Discovery
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
Discovery is a six-week study that presents the Gospel simply and invites a personal response to Jesus. It is the first of five CCO faith studies and includes a leader guide with practical help for facilitating conversations. Consider it for a small group ready to explore the core Gospel message directly, with a leader who can make room for questions and accompany each participant’s response.
Support Encounter and Personal Response
Make room to receive the Gospel and respond in prayer. Use reflection tools at the pace participants need, allowing each person freedom over what they share.
Encounter reflection: Kerygma Experience
BY: DIOCESE OF GREEN BAY DEPARTMENT OF NEW EVANGELIZATION
Use this participant guide after a kerygma proclamation to help people reflect on what they have heard and experienced. Its questions support personal prayer and group conversation about the movements of the Gospel, new insights, and the help participants need to continue growing as disciples. Allow time for reflection before inviting anyone to share.
Video proclamation: Proclaiming the Kerygma
WITH: FR. JOHN RICCARDO
In this forty-five-minute talk, Fr. John Riccardo proclaims the Gospel through the reality of sin and death, Jesus’ victorious rescue, and the invitation to respond in faith. Use it for personal viewing or a facilitated gathering, allowing time afterward for quiet prayer and conversation.
Best fit: Adults, parish leadership teams, and retreat groups seeking to hear the Gospel personally before preparing to share it.
Personal response: Examination of Conscience
FROM: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
Responding to Jesus in Faith, Hope, and Love offers a prayerful examination after a Gospel experience or retreat. Use it for private prayer, Adoration, or preparation for Confession. Questions invite gratitude for grace and honesty about choices that need repentance. In a group setting, allow quiet reflection without expecting participants to share their answers.
Retreat day: Kerygma — A Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
BY: BARBARA MASON REED
This Catholic, Bible-based retreat invites participants to encounter Jesus through hearing and responding to his Word, drawing on Scripture and Church teaching. It offers an opportunity to receive the Gospel personally and renew the gifts and graces of Baptism and Confirmation. Consider it when a dedicated retreat day, with room for prayer and response, fits your community better than a weekly series.
Prepare to Proclaim
Use these tools to clarify the Gospel and practice speaking it. In an actual conversation, attend to the person’s questions, experience, and openness.
Shared understanding: Kerygma Defined
BY: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
Use this handout to establish a shared understanding of the Gospel proclamation before planning how to share it. Scripture references and quotations from Church documents and saints support prayer and reflection; the questions on the back invite team discussion. It can help leaders keep Jesus and the invitation to respond at the center of their work.
Proclamation practice: Kerygma in Your Own Words
BY: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
This four-page worksheet helps you prepare to share the Gospel with one real person in mind. Express the five movements in your own words, practice aloud with a partner, and refine your invitation. The guide also offers suggestions for continuing the relationship when someone responds, hesitates, needs time, or declines.
Gospel booklet: The Ultimate Relationship
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
The Ultimate Relationship is a short booklet for sharing the Gospel clearly and personally, with an invitation to respond to Jesus. Consider it when you want a simple aid for a conversation with someone open to hearing more. The provider’s training videos demonstrate how to use it; preparation and attentive listening remain part of the encounter.
Explore The Ultimate Relationship
Also available in Spanish and as a free digital download.
Use a Book, Podcast, or Film
These resources can support personal reflection or open a group conversation. Give participants time to connect what they read, hear, or watch with their own response to Jesus.
Book study: Under the Influence of Jesus
BY: JOE PAPROCKI
Joe Paprocki explores how a personal encounter with Christ changes everyday life and helps Catholics articulate and live their faith. Consider it for readers or a book discussion group seeking to connect what they know about Jesus with their own relationship with him. Leave room for participants to reflect on their experience and identify a response they can bring into daily life.
Podcast: The Rescue Challenge
BY: ACTS XXIX
Fr. John Riccardo leads listeners through a fourteen-day journey into the Gospel story. Daily prayer reflections invite renewed hope in Jesus and what he has done for us. Use it for individual prayer or as a shared listening practice with space to reflect together. The Rescue Challenge is also available on the Hallow app.
Film: MOST (The Bridge)
DIRECTED BY: BOBBY GARABEDIAN
This short film follows a bridge operator and his young son through a devastating choice, opening conversation about love and sacrifice. Consider it as a starting point for reflection alongside a clear proclamation of the Gospel. Preview it before a group screening: its depiction of a child’s death is emotionally intense and calls for thoughtful facilitation.
Preview the film on YouTube → · Download the MOST discussion guide →
Choose one resource that fits the next step your community needs, and plan how people will be accompanied afterward. Reassess its usefulness through their questions, responses, and growth.
Have a resource to recommend? Let us know.
Continue exploring the kerygma
Return to the Gospel proclamation, make space for personal encounter, and explore how to help others receive and respond to Jesus.
