After 25 years on college campuses, FOCUS is sending missionaries into parishes — and Gregory Kinser is one of the first in Iowa, serving full time at St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll. Gregory explains the "win, build, send" model of spiritual multiplication and how it translates from a dorm Bible study to a parish serving young families, empty nesters, and retirees. He also shares his own unusual path to FOCUS, what drew him to the missionaries' prayer lives, and the early fruits of simply making friends.
Gregory Kinser joins Deacon Mark Campbell as a full-time FOCUS parish missionary at St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll, Iowa — part of a new push by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students to take its campus model into parishes after 25 years of college ministry.
Gregory's own introduction to FOCUS was atypical. He attended Iowa State from 2017 to 2021 without ever connecting with the missionary team there, and only encountered FOCUS later through his now-wife Chloe, who was a few years behind him. What struck him first wasn't a program — it was the missionaries' personal prayer lives and the divine intimacy he saw in them. He didn't think he fit the mold or was extroverted enough, but a FOCUS recruitment weekend changed his mind, and he applied like any other job: application, interview, call back, offer.
He walks through the "win, build, send" model of spiritual multiplication rooted in 2 Timothy 2:2. You win people over by becoming a genuine friend and earning the right to be heard — not collecting names for a Bible study. You invite them into Bible study and then small-group discipleship, building them up in a prayer life and the habits of a disciple. Then you send them out to do exactly the same with people you'll never reach, and the process repeats.
Gregory describes the reception in Carroll as one of excitement, with the parish priest championing the mission from the start. One recurring misconception: because there's a Catholic high school in town, some assume the missionaries are there for teenagers. In fact, they're there for parishioners in every season of life — young adults, young families, empty nesters, retired couples, older singles. Having started in August, Gregory says he and his wife have been tasked with one thing so far: making friends. No formal programs yet, just hearing people's stories, inviting them into their home, and being invited into theirs — and being surprised by whoever the Lord puts in front of them.
Learn more about the mission at FOCUS and about the parish at St. John Paul II Parish, Carroll.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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