FOCUS missionaries are inspired to share with others the joy they have received through their personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. They go out onto campuses — on the field, in the cafeteria, at the student union, etc. — to meet students in their own environment, to share time with them and to invite them into a relationship with Christ and the Catholic campus community. Missionaries always seek to grow their relationship with Christ through prayer and the sacraments.

Missionaries follow the chaplain’s pastoral leadership in partnership with the campus ministry staff. You should expect the missionaries to strive for excellence in their work with students on campus.

Missionaries are trained each summer at New Staff Training (NST), a five-week intensive preparation for all new and veteran missionaries. They are trained in all of the elements which help them be successful missionaries on campus: Scripture, prayer, leadership, discipleship, evangelization, small-group facilitation, outreach and strategy, character, vision and various other skills.

When they join FOCUS, missionaries make an initial two-year commitment to the apostolate. Our on-campus staff are open to serving anywhere in the U.S.; some missionaries are reassigned to a new campus after one year. There are various factors that go into placements and moving missionaries.

Offer Mass at convenient times. Popular Mass times are noon, 5 p.m., and 9 or 10 p.m. Keep in mind that if your staff/students are trying to pray at 8 a.m. every day, a 10 p.m. Mass may not be practical.

Offer the sacrament of reconciliation daily. Many times missionaries encounter fallen-away Catholics who then desire to come back to the Church. When confession is regularly available, it helps the missionaries in the process of restoring Catholics back to full communion with the Church.

Pray with the missionaries and all the campus ministry staff. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all of the staff and missionaries pray a holy hour at 8 a.m. In the first year, they had five students attending holy hour; by year three, between 40 – 60 were showing up every morning.

Offer spiritual direction to your students. Missionaries are not spiritual directors, even though in discipleship spiritual things do come up. Our missionaries are directed to encourage students to find spiritual directors. Over time, you might not be able to spiritually direct all the students coming through the doors, so providing a list of good spiritual directors in the area would help tremendously.

Emphasize unity. It can be easy for there to be Newman Center students and FOCUS students. If the FOCUS missionaries are just a branch of the entire Newman Center Campus Ministry, this division can be avoided. Talk to the missionaries about adopting an overarching vision for the entire campus ministry on your campus.

For any additional questions about FOCUS, missionary teams, campus investment, etc. that are not answered above, please contact us directly at [email protected].