I worked in Campus Ministry for 15 years. It is a place of "hellos" and "goodbyes", due to students coming and going every few months. This constant shifting landscape helped me better understand how to plan for anticipated change. This vision, anticipation, and planning made me a more proactive leader.
One of the missing ingredients in many Catholic leaders is being proactive rather than reactive, yet this is a learned skill that they can grow into.
In this post, I would like to explore some ways a Catholic leader can become more proactive and what some of the differences are between proactive and reactive leadership.
Reactive Catholic leaders:
Proactive Catholic leaders:
Let us look at one issue through both lenses. We all know that if people aren’t going to Mass, it is because they don’t see the value to it. How do we change that? A reactive Catholic leader will start by seeing the problem (folks aren't in Mass). Then they get frustrated, maybe even a bit upset. They then start to search for a strategy that will get people back to Mass. They may implement a program that worked at another parish. They may search for ideas on the internet. They may try all kinds of things, but we know that few parishes have turned around Mass attendance. So, the vast majority of strategies have proven to fail us. Why? Because people aren't a problem that needs to be fixed and the reasons they aren't going to Mass are much different than just having a program at a parish that welcomes them back.
A proactive Catholic leader doesn't look at just the problem. They want to do what Jesus asked them to do. So, instead of asking "how do I get people back to Mass", they ask, "how do I fulfill the Great Commission and stay obedient to what Jesus commanded us to do?" The point isn't to do something small, but something HUGE. We need to aim for making great saints and evangelists out of everyone. This is our goal. Is it a huge task? Of course, but God is up to it, why not us? So, let us aim for heaven and then everything else (including Mass attendance) will be solved.
If we make true disciples out of others, then all the other issues will eventually get better too!
Some facts we know about the Catholic Church:
Then many may say that the issue are external to the Church. But, that isn't the right answer either. Here are more facts:
So, rather than placing blame elsewhere, the Catholic leadership need to own the collective failures of our Church. Individual Catholic leaders need to own their failures too. Since the problem is not in Catholic devotions, Sacraments, teachings, doctrine, hierarchy, structure, etc. The problem is in our approach to these things. In other words, the problem is in our vision, strategy, execution, lack of holiness, lack of accountability, and lack of prayer.
The issue is that we have reactive leadership.
If you are a leader in a parish or diocese, ask yourself these 4 questions:
For too long the Church has depended on reactive leadership that waited for the world to come to them and then tried to "fix" all the internal and external problems we see.
This experiment in leadership has failed us.
Now is the time to appropriately plan on how we can achieve the mission Jesus has given us, to "make disciples of all nations".