Committment to Transformation
One of the obstacles for most parishes as they try and become Houses of Lay Formation is the work of overcoming decades (and centuries) of inertia. Embracing a mission (over a maintenance) mindset requires a great deal of prayer, planning, communication, evangelization, and execution.
And most parish communities don't possess the culture for such work.
Think of it this way:
Most councils, commissions, and committees meet only once a month. In any given three year term (which seems to be how most councils are set up, for example), that means the group will meet only 36 times for an average of about two hours (7-9 seems to be the standard). That's a total of 72 hours in three years to accomplish major undertakings.
That's the best case.
Leave aside the fact that Parish Councils are supposed to be consultative bodies to assist the pastor and assume that the group in question is actually a working group. Now consider that most parishes "take the Summer off" from June-August. That's three months off every year for three years (a total of 9 meetings of 18 hours that are "lost").
In addition, the first meeting of the year is usually more of an orientation/catching up meeting, and the last meeting of the year (or the December meeting, depending upon the fiscal calendar) is often a Christmas party), thereby costing the group another 6 meetings (or 12 work hours) over three years.
That leaves a council, commission, or committee only 21 meetings (or 42 hours) in which to complete their mandate. Now, some work may get done between meetings (but that isn't necessarily the norm). However, given that major initiatives (like building parish-wide formation programs) could take years of regular frequent meetings (in my last parish, it took 3 years of weekly meetings for a Council to adequately form, plan, and execute--through the creation of various commissions--on a parish-wide initiative), the working culture in most parishes isn't conducive to the kind of formation and planning it takes just to start some of the work that is necessary to transform our parishes.
And yet, any suggestion that a committment for a parish work group might be more than just once a month is met by horrified stares and declarations of impossibility from parish staff and parishioners.
How can we transform our parishes if the folks who have the charisms, talent, and experience to do so don't make the committment?
How does the work get done at your parish?
posted by Keith Strohm @ 9:14 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
The root of this problem is that most Catholics are not prepared to put in the time commitment to grow in faith or serve the community. Our idea of doing things is to take over top level administration -- make decisions and have some other folks do the work. Additionally because so many are not knowlegeable about the faith, attempts to help people grow in faith can rapidly devolve into heated arguments as people fight to implement things that make them personally feel comfortable -- "Church my way." They want the music style they want, the volunteer projects they want, the social issues they want, the prayer style they want. Anything that challenges them to get out of their comfort zone puts them on the defensive. More importantly, they don't want the "other guys -- ie traditionalists, Vatican II, charismatics, etc - to have the upper hand.
Then eventually when they realize that they are not getting what they could be getting out of their faith, some dear Protestant friend invites them to get to know Jesus better. So what do they do? They spend 10 to 20 hours a week studying their faith and serving their new Protestant Community and complaining about how Catholicism failed them.
Think you really have to create a culture of people getting to know Jesus and then wanting to be part of a faith community that fosters spiritual growth that leads to service. You have to start at where people are. The only way you are going to get more time from folks is to get them to know Jesus more and keep challenging them to essentially "see him more clearly, follow him more closely, love him more dearly, day-to-day. Small faith groups are how to get this going. The challenge is how to do this without creating yet another "Church my way" movement where people believe that they have the only really good way to grow in faith and create a true faith community.
Hi Keith,
Thank you, and to everyone at Intentional Disciples, for your thoughtful and challenging posts.
Regarding the parish council--in the Orthodox Church the council serves an active administrative role in the life of the parish (something that is at best a mixed blessing for the priest). In missions, I've been able to build on this administrative role to have the council work as active participants/leaders in the pastoral life of the parish.
While it can be done, I think based on my own experience anyway, there need to be clearly articulated boundaries and expectations. Again, when it works it is a great joy and blessing. But when it doesn't work it typically doesn't because someone comes on council with an agenda of power and control. When this happens quite literally all hell breaks loose.
From my experience the key seems to be having people on parish council whom(1) the pastor knows from his personal experience of the person in confession, is serious about the spiritual life and (2) this person demonstrates that commitment by actively working to help others discover and exercise their own gifts on behalf of Christ and His Church. As person who doesn't trust the pastor enough to come to confession and/or who doesn't trust his neighbors enough to make room for them to exercise their own gifts, is someone who you don't want on parish council.
Just some thoughts. Keep up the good and Godly work.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
Anonymous,
Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. In many ways, it's like a vicious cyce. I agree with you that we need to create a culture where encountering Christ and deepening that relationship is the foundation for the mission of the parish. By doing that, we help form Intentional Disciples who are willing to make the committment to work toward transformation of the parish and the community in which the parish is placed.
However, it's hard to build that culture without intentional disciples in the first place....
What I have seen happen is a smaller group within the parish be successful at evangelizing a subset of parishioners, and then these newly discipled folks have the passion and committment to make chage happen. It is tough to start right away at the parish-wide level--especially if members of the councils and committees aren't themselves intentional disciples.
Fr. Gregory,
Thanks for your kind words about Intentional Disciples, and thanks for your participation in this post!
Although canonically the Parish Council is supposed to be cosultative, on a practical level in most parishes it works like you describe in the orthodox Church.
The key, as you descrive, is to have a good formation and discernment process for parish council members to insure that they are themselves intentional disciples.
Even so, the culture in the Catholic Church seems to be that monthly meetings are the norm for all groups (councils, commissions, and committees). Anything more is seen as excessive.
This makes it hard to actually accomplish transformative work. At my last parish, we had formed a Council for Apostolic Formation and Evangelization that met weekly for 3 years. The whole first year was pretty much about formation and visioning. It took two more years of weekly meetings (and then spawning committees) to accomplish the building of parish-wide structures and programs to support the formation of the laity.
Even though folks wondered wht we were doing the whole first year, it quickly became apparent that the group was outdistancing the parish council and the other committees and commissions in terms of comprehensive and well-crafted output in the 2nd and 3rd year. So much so that the pastor decided to combine the Council for Apostolic Formation and Evangelization with the Parish Council in the fourth year.
Done well, with the principles of prayer and formation as the foundation, committees, commissions, and councils can be a powerful way of helping transform the parish.
It just takes folks who are willing to make the commitment.
Post a Comment
<< Home