About

New Leaven is a ministry of discipleship that promotes transformation in the everyday lives of Catholic adults. New Leaven offers a substantive answer to the question 'What's next?' following The Alpha Course, the Life in the Spirit Seminar, ChristLife, and other such "ministries of outpouring." New Leaven is for transforming the daily life of persons, married couples, and the family. It's for taking important steps that disentangle us from the ways of the world, now that we've received new power in the Holy Spirit and, hopefully, a strong desire for growing as the disciples of Jesus. Building especially on Pope St. John Paul II's teaching on the laity, Christifideles Laici, New Leaven brings a prophetic approach for overcoming what the Pope called "the separation between life and the gospel". Thus, it offers a remedy for religious sentiment that, in the end, never quite reaches the point of transforming life.
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Where did New Leaven come from?
New Leaven has been developed by Rev. Mr. Bob Ervin (a Permanent Deacon of the Archdiocese of Detroit) and Mr. Paco Gavrilides (a Professor of Homiletics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, in Detroit.) Deacon Bob and Paco both have extensive backgrounds in charismatic renewal, evangelization and Catholic formation. Paco also spent many years forming Christian communities in Central America and Spain. While Dcn. Bob and Paco are the founders of New Leaven, the ministry sprang from collaboration with Fr. John Riccardo, Pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) Parish in Plymouth, MI (…a recognized teacher on nationwide Catholic Radio) and Deacon Steve Mitchell, the National Director of Alpha in a Catholic Context. The New Leaven vision was jointly discerned by these four men in 2009 and Fr. John Riccardo committed resources from his parish to host and incubate New Leaven through the initial years of its development. A Pilot run of New Leaven was undertaken in calendar years 2012 and 2013, involving approximately 30 parishioners from two parishes-OLGC and Holy Family in Novi, MI. The first episcopal endorsement of New Leaven came in 2012, from Most Reverend Michael Byrnes, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit. In 2014 and 2015, the New Leaven pilot group launched a much larger assembly of parishioners from both parishes. Over this latter period, Our Sunday Visitor provided three separate grants for the production of professional-quality videos covering all of the talks. In 2015, the ministry became incorporated as New Leaven, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation in the State of Michigan in 2015. Employing video, print, and web-based resources, New Leaven began its propagation to other parishes in 2016.

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What was the origin of New Leaven?
New Leaven came by way of an inspiration in August, 2009. Following a fresh, in-depth study of John Paul's Apostolic Exhortation on the Laity, Christifideles Laici, the basic vision for New Leaven emerged within two months and was depicted in the diagram, below, in October, 2009." New Leaven was seen as a work of adult transformation, predicated upon the power of the Holy Spirit to lift people from the belly of the whale of modern culture, carrying them beyond their personal "Wall of favor to the Old Self" and into a "Great Work of Formation". The formative agenda is shown in a set of tiles that trace from John Paul's teaching, leading at the lower left to "Holy, Potent Leaven. It was believed that small, leavening communities would have a prophetic effect on the deflated, "Unleavened Church" causing it to rise toward its Essential Mission of evangelization. New Leaven is thus envisioned as an amalgam from charismatic renewal, papal teaching, the New Evangelization, and small-group dynamism to gain the capacity for re-evangelizing the parish and witnessing Christ before a failing, western culture.
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How does it work?
New Leaven teaches Catholic truth and wisdom in support of transformation as Christ's disciples in the modern world. It engages the small-group process to help in transforming life at home, in accord with the truth. The typical New Leaven meeting runs for 2 hrs and 15 minutes, including a pot-luck meal, a period of praise & worship, a teaching on one of 8 key subjects (i.e., family, work, relationships, time, body, money, mission and vital communion), followed by a small-group discussion. When convened as a New Leaven Assembly, several groups come together in a parish hall to join in the meal, the worship, and the teaching segment, before breaking out for small-group discussion. Typically, the New Leaven Assembly operates on a fixed, master schedule. When convened by the alternative, or "Modular" approach, individual small groups gather in someone's home or perhaps in a classroom, according to a flexible schedule that is matches the availability of the members. In either approach, the key to the transformation process is drawing upon the prompting and power of the Holy Spirit to avail specific changes in the way life is actually being lived at home. The small-group relationship grows to become a principal catalyst for progress, based upon the love, encouragement, shared wisdom, and charisms that are brought to bear upon the work of holiness.
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How does New Leaven address contemporary deficiencies recognized in the Church?
New Leaven addresses the key areas of catechesis, vocations, evangelization, and stewardship in the following ways:

Catechesis – All 20 of the talks in the New Leaven agenda combine catechesis with the pastoral guidance of transformation. The underlying principle is that Catholic teaching is boldly expressed, according to its intersection with the Key Topics of "Life at Home". New Leaven teaches that wherever life-at-home lacks correspondence to the truth, we can expect the Holy Spirit to prompt specific steps by which to reduce what JPII called, the "separation between Life and the Gospel". . 

Vocations – Transformation via New Leaven points toward our fundamental calling as the disciples of Christ. New Leaven seeks that degree of transformation that makes us seriously available for what God intends as the fruit of our lives. The spiritual empowerment that New Leaven depends upon (i.e., since it's a sequel to Alpha, ChristLife, etc,…) situates each person for listening to God and discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit. New Leaven cultivates the maturity for wanting what Jesus wants-and He wants us deeply engaged in the mission and vocation that He alone has prepared in advance.

Evangelization – In working to overcome "the separation between Life and the Gospel", New Leaven begins by proclaiming the Gospel. As its participants experience the transformation that actually does take place "at home", they become first-hand witnesses of the palpable love of Jesus Christ and the power/prompting of the Holy Spirit. Recognizing that the personal testimony of authentic witnesses is a premium means of evangelization, New Leaven participants become naturally situated for proclaiming Christ. They can indeed say to others in the parish, "Come and see", when inviting others to New Leaven. In a letter of support that he wrote for New Leaven, the Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron expressed his "genuine interest and great expectations for the fruit that New Leaven will bear as part of our efforts in the New Evangelization." Indeed, New Leaven profoundly evangelizes a few for the sake of their irrepressible witness to the many.

Stewardship – Two of New Leaven's Key Topics-time and money-are conspicuous for addressing stewardship. In both areas, New Leaven fosters an honest look at our treatment of these resources in the way we live at home. Clearly, the typical Catholic home in America is seen to be in substantial disorder, when viewed through the lens of magesterial teaching. Once the small group begins to get "in the groove" of transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit, many holy things become do-able that had long been dismissed from consideration. New Leaven has a way of helping us gain access to the grace of stewardship.
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What are the pre-requisites for entering the New Leaven Assembly?
New Leaven undertakes the work of forming intentional disciples of Christ. Since most Catholics are simply unready for the formative challenges involved, the New Leaven vision is to require that people experience either The Alpha Course, or ChristLife's Discovering Christ, or the Life in the Spirit Seminar as a necessary step of conversion and spiritual renewal prior to entering the New Leaven Assembly. At some risk of over-simplifying, we hope for the spiritually-renewed hearts that can come from such "ministries of outpouring". Each of them does offer the opportunity for a profound experience-as by a new Pentecost-that often brings a whole new desire for pleasing God and following Christ. New Leaven's approach is to appeal precisely to this condition of heart. The success of New Leaven simply depends upon people having the power of the Holy Spirit released in their lives. This is the nub of the vision-New Leaven brings a practical, joyful, and powerful means for transforming life at home, once the heart has become "opened wide to Christ", as John Paul often put it.
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How will you measure New Leaven's success?
The real success of New Leaven lies in the transformation of persons, marriages, and families such that "Life and the Gospel" become more harmoniously interwoven in the way disciples are actually living at home. Such developments can be tracked through personal testimony and anecdotes, but also through self-reported changes in the objective patterns of what New Leaven calls "Life at Home". People should be able to say, "we used to do this and now we do that." Or "we had avoided these good things in the past but now they are normal for us." Or "we used to have habits that left us unavailable for God, but now those habits are passing away." In addition to the personal marks of success, the small groups tend to flourish and continue, after the fashion that John Paul called "vital communion" in Christ. In the end, of course, success is simply sainthood.
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What would success look like, at the parish level?
The long-term impact of New Leaven on the parish depends on "the potency of the leaven" and its generous and humble "kneading" with the dough of the parish. Again, New Leaven is understood as an organic stimulus for parish renewal. To the degree that mature disciples of Christ emerge from New Leaven and complement their small-group communion with vigorous participation and leadership in parish life, they simply will have a blessed impact. As time goes on, New Leaven's effect on parish renewal should become obvious to the Pastor and parish staff. On the one hand, leavening is a mysterious process, even in the literal, baking, sense. On the other hand, the Pastor and staff should definitely be able to perceive that the parish is 'rising', with the appearance of more and more persons and families that show the distinctive fruit of zealous and inherently-contagious disciples of Christ.
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What happens to the New Leaven Parish Team and small groups, over the long run?
The anticipated status of New Leaven, itself, is a continuously-cycling parish ministry of deep, spiritual renewal within the parish. New Leaven should become "synchronized" with the parish's ministry of outpouring (Alpha, etc…) so that persons can step out of the initial experience into the "what's next?" substance offered in New Leaven. Clearly, each of these ministries requires a capable and committed team of individuals in the parish whom God has called into the discipleship mission on an on-going basis. This is not simply 'volunteer' ministry. This team is marked by maturing disciples who continue in small-group communion with one another. These persons are distinguished by a vibrant spirituality that has been grounded through the ongoing transformation of their personal and home lives, in accord with Scripture and Catholic Tradition. Their sacramental and devotional practices are complemented by the rich movement of the Holy Spirit in their small groups. Members of these groups continue to experience conversion and transformation, even as they discern and discharge their respective personal missions, according to the gifts they have been given by the Holy Spirit. The parish, for its part, cannot fail to be impacted by the leavening effect of these persons as they participate throughout parish life and share their life-reality with others.
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What Catholic endorsements has New Leaven obtained?
New Leaven enjoys the endorsements of

• Fr. John Riccardo, New Leaven's founding supervisor and collaborator,
• Fr. Bob LaCroix, Pastor of Church of the Holy Family, Novi, MI
• Most Rev. Michael Byrnes, Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit who holds a special assignment to guide New Evangelization for the archdiocese

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What is New Leaven's Legal Status?
New Leaven, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation in the State of Michigan and has been designated by the federal government as a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) organization.
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