"Timing is everything" is a common phrase and there is a lot of truth to it. If I had met my wife 24 hours earlier than I did, she would have had nothing to do with me. Because we met the same night that I had my primary conversion. Before that, I was a wild college kid and she wouldn't have talked to me. God knew what he was doing there. He also knows what he is doing in terms of renewing the Church in the USA. We are at a pivotal moment.
If we started Catholic Missionary Disciples 10 years ago, there is a good chance it would not have succeeded. It certainly wouldn't have taken off like it has. This is because the Catholic Church in our country is at a pivotal moment. Pastoral leaders, both clergy and laity, are much more open to a renewed vision of evangelization and a much more profound sense that our way of operating hasn't worked.
This is a great thing. But...
Not every trend, by itself, can solve our problems. With that being said, I am 100% behind the efforts of leaders who want to be better leaders. The sense that we need to get better at forming healthy organizational practices is a great thing! We certainly need better vision, planning, communication, teamwork, etc. Still there is a problem that few have talked about publicly, but many of us are discussing privately. I feel now is the time to bring it into the light.
We will never solve the Church's issues if we merely form better leadership skills and healthier organizational practices. Yes, we certainly need to work on these things - by themselves, they help us lay a better foundation for parishes, dioceses, and organizations to thrive - but we can't renew the Church without also having renewal in the way we operate pastorally.
In other words, if all we do is get better at communication, meetings, leading with a good vision, etc - but don't change the actual way we evangelize and disciple others, then we are merely become more efficient at managing decline.
We have to have both things - healthier organizational practices AND renewal in our pastoral ways of operating.
So, let us continue to work on having better meetings, clearer communication, accountability in our leadership, collaborative teamwork, etc. AND let us start to learn what it really takes to evangelize, accompany, equip, train, and empower the average Catholic to be missionary disciples. Then let us deeply form them, mentor them, and send them out to do the same with others. Still, we need to have leaders trained how to do this, because so few have experience in missionary disciple-making evangelization.
One without the other will not get us to where we need to be. Both of them working hand-in-hand could lead to great revival and renewal.
****To prove my point, I want to exercise the imagination (based on real-life cases of parishes I have seen that did one without the other...but without naming names).
Case #1 - Leadership without renewal of pastoral practices.
This parish sent the top leaders to a really great leadership conference. The parish leaders came back with a renewed sense of what it takes to help the team grow in healthy internal practices, communicate better internally, and work together. They built a sense of teamwork. It really was a good thing for them to experience and work on. But, flash forward a year or so.
While the internal health of the staff has gotten better, they aren't seeing much in terms of fruitful change in their parish. Some frustration is starting to show. They realize that the internal changes have made their work more efficient and healthier, but they really haven't affected the parish in a way that moves them forward. Sadly, they fell right back into the programmatic fixes, classes, and events. Yes, were operating more efficiently and in a healthier fashion, but what they are doing hasn't been able to move the needle as they want it to. Frustration creeps back in.
Cast #2 - Renewal of pastoral practices without leadership.
The second parish is facing a similar problem, the slow decline of the parish. This parish staff decided to work on changing the basic plan of how they operated pastorally. So, they implemented a series of changes where each staff member took on the goal of prayer and then started to grow in their personal skills as evangelists & disciple-makers. Each person started to see more fruit in their personal apostolate. But, systematic change has escaped them. Let's flash forward with them.
The internal issues of money squabbles, staff compartmentalization, lack of good internal communication, and more have limited the staff in working together. If there is one thing every church worker learns, it is that church politics can be ugly and they are here. Despite a shared sense that something needs to change internally, they don't have the teamwork, communication, or leadership to work on things together...so they struggle and stay compartmentalized. Thus, they never actually have systematic change.
Takeaways
"The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost. The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials."
-Pope Francis