Becoming friends through Walking with Purpose

In the spring of 2015, Catherine Earp was looking for a way to begin a new Bible study program at Christ the King Parish in Haddonfield. She already belonged to a small group study, but its leader was stepping down and had approached the young mom to step in and lead. Catherine had been the successful owner of a Pilates studio, and was a busy mother of four young girls. But leading a Bible study? She wasn’t sure that she was equipped.

“I knew how to be a champion for women,” says Catherine, “but I was looking for a way to do a Bible study well. And I didn’t feel like I had the education or the background to pull that off without being part of an established program.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Leibrandt had just joined the same small group. She was grieving from the passing of her beloved mom, Rita Moyer, a lifelong Catholic who had been a lifeline to faith for Rachel and many others. Rachel remembers, “For me having just lost my mom, I was really craving time with older women.”

“We weren’t friends, we didn’t really know each other,” says Rachel, “but God brought us together.”

The two young women set out one day to visit a Walking with Purpose meeting that Catherine had learned about at a parish in Pennsylvania. Once they witnessed the fellowship and the vibrancy of that group, they both knew that they wanted the same thing in their own parish.

What the two women had discovered together was a Bible study tailor-made for women looking to connect with other women of all ages through Scripture and fellowship: Walking with Purpose, a program founded as a small women’s Bible study by Lisa Brenninkmeyer in her parish in Maryland, almost two decades ago. Since that time, Walking with Purpose has spread to 400 parishes in 94 dioceses across 40 states, as well as to parishes in Europe and Canada.

At Christ the King, the program has quickly become a fixture of the parish community. Catherine and Rachel, still serving as co-coordinators of their parish chapter, have been happy to witness the growth in the group over the past four years. More importantly, they have been gratified at the impact that Walking with Purpose has made in the lives of the individual women they’ve come to know.

As they’ve watched the community spirit grow within the women of the ministry, the two women have grown as well.

Catherine says, “The most exciting thing for me has been seeing faith-filled women of positivity trying to learn and do their best, and that brings the best out in me.” Rachel adds, “Walking with Purpose has made church feel like home.”

When she looks around on Sunday morning, “all these women are friends, and that has been life changing.” But maybe more importantly, she adds, has been the satisfaction of leading a small group and encouraging other women to lead. “It’s been unbelievable to watch that transformation and empowerment take place in a woman’s life.”

The two women have also been grateful for the support that they’ve received for the parish program, first from Father James Dever, pastor at Christ the King when the program first began, and now from Father Jon Thomas, installed as pastor in July of 2020.

Father Dever says, “One of the best decisions I made as pastor was to encourage and support the amazing program called Walking with Purpose.  This program was designed for the women of the parish and brought great energy and spirit to all the participants — a unique blessing to the parish. However, Walking with Purpose had an equally effective impact in our whole parish. Families were uplifted, volunteer programs were enhanced and the Holy Spirit was at work in every facet of parish life because of the awesome effort of the leaders and participants in Walking with Purpose. It was one smart decision.”

On the day of the very first meeting at Christ the King, both Catherine and Rachel were unsure of what to expect. “I think we were terrified,” both women agreed. Only 10 women had registered in advance, but area support from Walking with Purpose advised them to expect 20 women. “And we had 20 women!” Rachel says.

Since then, Catherine and Rachel have forged a friendship and learned together how to lead a successful parish program.

Both women are quick to note that each one of them brought a different set of skills to help establish a successful program at Christ the King, and that they’ve learned from each other as they’ve become friends.

“The beauty of the co-coordinator relationship is that God brings out the individual gifts that we have. One person can’t do it. … It’s like the gifts of the Spirit.” says Rachel.

Catherine became the pastoral coordinator, and Rachel, a former teacher and mother of three, became the operational coordinator.

Rachel says, “I joke that together, Catherine and I make the perfect woman!” Catherine concurs: “I have ideas, but Rachel makes them happen.”

Today, the group has almost doubled in size, and many more women have stepped up to help lead and serve in the parish program at Christ the King. Even though the challenges of the pandemic have brought a slight drop in attendance, there are still 35 women signed up for small study groups that began meeting online this October.

New pastor Father Thomas is happy to have Walking with Purpose in his new parish: “Most Catholic parishes have large congregations that are split among a few Sunday Masses. It’s not easy to develop meaningful relationships with other parishioners in order to walk the way of Christ with companions. Small Christian communities fill this need. Walking with Purpose has helped dozens of women experience the Christian faith in exciting ways.” 

And new for this fall, Walking with Purpose has retooled its outreach to adapt to the unique needs of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Brenninkmeyer, now the Chief Purpose Office of WWP, “We’ve spent the past few months reinventing the way women can run a Walking with Purpose study small group. We now have robust training and tools to help women do WWP in a virtual online setting or in settings outside the parish.”

This year’s study at Christ the King is a 22-lesson study, Keeping in Balance, which helps participants “discover the relevance of Old and New Testament wisdom [as they] explore biblical ideas for managing life’s pace and pressure while living with calm and steadiness,” according to the WWP website.

The year ahead promises to be an exciting and different one as women continue to meet for fellowship and study in a format that is 100% online.

“This is a whole new avenue for our ministry,” Rachel says, making the program accessible to many more women both today and in the future.

Members of the Camden Diocese who would like more information on how to begin a study at their own parish are welcome to contact Rachel Leibrandt, area coordinator, at rachel.leibrandt@walkingwithpurpose.com.