Meet a Catechetical Leader: Jonathan F. Sullivan

Last year, Jonathan F. Sullivan and his fellow members of the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership’s technology committee discussed how great it would be to have a podcast. Members thought a podcast would be a perfect way to highlight interesting people and inform attendees about conference news. The problem was that no one knew much about setting one up, including Sullivan.

But the 33-year-old dove in anyway. He taught himself how to edit sound clips, discovered the best microphones, and soon was interviewing, making the podcast a success and a steady feature.

“That’s been an ongoing learning process for me, but a good example of what I tell people: If you don’t know how to do things, just jump in and do it,” Sullivan said.

“Just jump in and do it” might as well be Sullivan’s slogan. The Director of Catechetical Ministries for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois—who had no prior experience as a catechist—has leapt into projects, trying new approaches and becoming a major player in the Catholic technology world.

Sullivan created his own website where he blogs about his ministry at the diocese, provides resources, reviews books, and offers webinars like “9 ½ Social Media Strategies for the Church” and “Reaching Parishioners with Facebook.” (His webinars have been featured in Brandon Vogt’s new book, The Church and New Media.) Sullivan is also a contributor to the blog Catholic Tech Talk, is chairman of the NCCL’s technology committee (where he began tweet-ups too), and runs his diocese’s Facebook page.

Sullivan has taught himself since day one. Prior to college, his online experience amounted to jokingly picking fights in AOL chat rooms with a friend one night. But during his freshman year at Quincy College in Quincy, IL, Sullivan began teaching himself HTML coding, and was soon proficient enough to set up websites. He used this know-how in the admissions department of Aquinas Institute of Theology, where he was pursuing his Masters in Theology, and then as the school’s Director of Instructional Technology, where he further expanded his Web prowess by building apps, scripting, and redesigning Aquinas’s website.

After a two-year stint in Catholic healthcare, Sullivan decided to apply to the Springfield diocese. Although Sullivan didn’t have the typical background for the position, he says he’s able to offer new skills.

“I don’t have parish catechetical experience,” Sullivan said. “I bring a different skill set, and I’m certainly learning how to support people in the parish and provide good catechetical resources.”

For the past three years, Sullivan has been building up the diocese’s website and Facebook page with useful resources for catechists, organizing regional workshops, and meeting with principals and pastors.

“Sitting down and finding what they need has been the biggest help in getting acclimated at this diocese,” Sullivan said. “I’m not called to be a catechist. I’m not out there in the field in the classroom every Wednesday night. My role is to support the people doing the catechesis. If I’m just sitting there in my office, then I’m not being effective in my role.”

This year, Sullivan particularly took catechists’ words to heart. Every other year, his diocese runs a regional workshop that focuses on personal faith formation and features an outside speaker. Sullivan had heard from attendees that they needed more resources from these workshops. So for this year’s Roman Missal theme, he and his department decided to revamp the conference. They broke the workshop into sections, used video clips, and created small group table discussions, resulting in better feedback.

“I’m big on piloting new things. Start something in a small space, see if it works, and go bigger. If it’s a great success, then great, take to other parishes. I’m a big believer in not punishing failure,” he said.

For the future, Sullivan is looking into making a big push not just for catechizing, but evangelizing people in the diocese.

“We really need to challenge them that just sitting in a pew on Sunday isn’t enough,” Sullivan said. “It’s great, but we need to take what we do on Sundays and let it transform us the rest of the week.”

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See also: Jonathan F. Sullivan Talks About Facebook, Twitter, and the Church