Regnier gathered with 450 young adults in Winnipeg Dec. 27-Jan. 1 at CCO’s annual national Rise Up conference.

“We want them to be sent off knowing who they are,” he said. “If we fail to help them get past CCO, we fail in our mission... We recognize this as an area for improvement, although it’s always been our mission. We need to intensify our efforts.”

Regnier notes that, although CCO has been successful in its mission and is expanding into a new campus every year, the number of participants in weekly faith studies are down across the country. He said, however, that this decline is not a sign of deterioration but rather the call to a new focus.

“We are focussing on quality and not quantity as much... We’re making it more about our original mission of one person at a time. Our mission will be more effective if we send 20 heroic graduates forward who really understand the Gospel, rather than 200 people who don’t really get it.”

Regnier said that CCO must help its graduates to have hearts full of expectation and desire to live out their Christian identity, which is at its core a missionary goal. These are the people, Regnier said, who will be able to transform culture and the church.

“We want people going forward who are abandoned and ready to start a revolution,” he said.

Regnier also said community is essential for graduates. Twenty years ago, they stepped out of CCO into a “barren” world, but now graduates know they need communities and are starting to build them. In addition, they are getting involved in their parishes, leading Bible studies and helping out with ministries like baptismal preparation, and are witnessing to the Gospel in their professions.

Regnier notes this kind of involvement demands courage and that the disposition to be evangelistic in these spheres necessitates continued relationship with God and ongoing conversion.

“Faith is strengthened when it is given to others,” Regnier said, quoting Pope John Paul II. “As St. Catherine of Siena said, ‘If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.’ ”

Matthew Fahlman and Larissa Nelson, who are both in teachers’ college, attended a workshop on living the faith in education and agree with the need for stepping forward in courage and evangelization in their work and communities outside of CCO.

Nelson, who will graduate in April, has been involved with CCO for more than two years and has taken part in two of CCO’s summer mission projects, including Impact! 2009 in Saskatoon and Rencontrez Jesus in Quebec in 2008. She sees these opportunities with CCO as important for her own preparation for life after graduation.

“I’ve learned so many valuable leadership skills,” said Nelson. “If I had not been chosen to be a retreat team leader this summer, I would not have been prepared for my internship this fall and teaching after my graduation.

“CCO forms every individual to be who they are called to be, no matter where that calling is.”

Fahlman recognizes that although teachers directly affect students in their care, their professional position “goes way beyond teaching” to affect parents, administrators, other teachers and the community at large. Fahlman said teachers need “personal spiritual growth to respond to the demands of teaching” and that strong formation is essential to their ability to serve.

“It’s about carrying the evangelistic spirit into the educational field,” said Fahlman. “There are professional demands, but also spiritual. We need to always be striving for the higher good for everyone.

“We’re just starting to see the fruit of CCO. Imagine 10 or 20 years down the road... A spirit of evangelization will ultimately change the world,” said Fahlman.

(Wolfe, 21, is a Christianity & Culture student at Redeemer Pacific College in Langley, B.C.)