If you have been Catholic long enough, you have seen the Catholic version of the military draft that many parishes enact annually. Before or after Mass, someone gets up for the announcements and tells the parish that “We are in dire need of catechists and volunteers for our youth classes” or “our parish festival is in a week and we only have 50% of the volunteers we need to run it.” Thus, a few folks are guilted into helping, some are nagged, and a few more might do it because they just want the announcements to stop. They get reluctantly drafted into helping.
But, as with the military draft, people who haven't willingly signed up aren't going to be as caring, invested, or interested as those who desire to serve.
The reason this happens is because we simply don’t have a culture in which most Catholics have taken ownership of their parishes, rather they are simply renting some space there. Think about the things you have rented or leased - cars, houses, event space, vacation cabins, etc. Now think about similar items you have owned. How did you see them differently? How did you treat them differently?
When I was growing up, my parents had a rental property that we would periodically have to clean after the renters would move out. I have to say, some of the grossest things I have ever cleaned were in that house. I learned at an early age that a lot of folks just don’t take care of things they don’t own (and some don’t even take care of things they do own). When it comes to our parishes, the same can be said of the culture we have created. We all view our parish as either renters or owners.
RENTERS
The Catholic renter is someone who views the parish from a consumerist mentality. They go to church with the mentality that they are their to be served and to receive. Just like you would walk into a restaurant or store - this is the mindset that many Catholics bring into our parishes. From the parish the Catholic renter would like to receive:
What Catholic leaders need to realize is that begging, nagging, asking, pleading, and even personal invite will only work on a small slice of the Catholic renter. No matter what you do, the culture you are swimming in is carrying the majority of Catholics in it. This culture of consumerism is (pardon the pun) consuming your strategy. In fact, most renters will just be put off further by your attempt to guilt them with obligation. They simply don't care about what many Catholic leaders care about, at least not in the same way.
You might not like it, but after decades of failed leadership, scandal, partisan politics (hidden under a veneer of Christianity many times), radical generational changes in morality, growth of distrust in institutions, etc - then we need to understand that what we struggled with 20 years ago (getting volunteers) is only going to get worse if we keep doing the same things. Renters don’t share your mentality about the parish, because they aren’t invested in your parish!
We can’t build on a consumerist model of parishes and expect consumers not to expect more of it! The history of the Catholic Church in the USA has gone through radical changes in the past few generations. Yet, we still do the same things. Why? Because that is what we know how to do and because we are scared to take big risks (even small risks scare most Catholic leaders). Yet, the real risk is sticking to what isn’t working. So, we can’t double-down on invitations, bulletins advertising, Mass announcements, etc and merely see the issue as a marketing scheme to get buy-in from more renters.
Rather, we need to transform renters into owners.
OWNERS
If you are a homeowner, you know both the joy and fear of signing a big check to a bank or title company, then being handed the keys to a house. A place that is all your own. A place you call home. A place you are invested in. A place that you are responsible for. This is the same kind of reality that we are aiming for by moving folks from renters to owners of their parishes.
Owners understand things renters will never know. If a renter moves out and then someone buys the home and moves into it themselves, the house remains the same, but the owners see it completely differently. They care for it, because they have to for it to remain a good house. It isn’t just about the return on their investment, it is about the people inside the home.
As Catholic leaders, we need to help those coming to our parishes to understand that their parish is their home. They are responsible for it. They need to care for it. Yet this mentality won’t just come from having the right strategy, the right advertising, the right buzzwords, or any other tactic we might employ. The solution runs so much deeper.
PARISH CULTURE
Too many times our parishes are set up to reward mediocre Catholicism. Mediocre Catholics can only perpetuate the current state of affairs. This is the state of our current parish culture in the USA. Are there exceptions to the norm? Absolutely. But, they are still not the norm. Culture is found in the norm. Culture is the unspoken rules that state “this is how we think and act in this time and place”.
Then there are the other obstacles that a parish faces in the attempt to change the culture. The Pastor is reassigned. Staff are laid off and programs cut because money is down. Ineffective leadership doesn’t know how to turn things around, so they depend on what has worked a generation (or several) ago. Unresolved conflict is in the marrow of the parish and is never explicitly dealt with. The entrenched lay parishioners push back because they are not bought into the vision. Leaders clutch their authority and decision-making close so that they feel powerful or in control. Etc. Etc. Etc.
From our current vantage point, things may look bleak. But, let us open up a window and let some light in.
We can positively change the culture of our parishes. It has happened before, is currently happening, and will happen in the future. The question is - will we help in the process of renewal or be an agent of maintaining mediocrity / managing decline?
Up front I want to point out a VERY IMPORTANT POINT. No one program, event, strategy, or organization can change every parish - in other words there is no magic bullet. You and your fellow parishioners are the experts in the local culture. No outsider, including the best experts the Church has to offer, knows more about your local community than you do. Thus, be wary of trying something merely because it worked at another parish.
With that being said, let us move forward.
We have a lot of years of an unhealthy Catholic culture (in many places) to overcome in our work of evangelization / discipleship / renewal - apathy, ignorance, hypocrisy, bad leadership, poor vision-casting, a failure to make intentional disciples, and much more.
As Tertullian once said, "Christians are made, not born." Our parish culture is either part of this process of making disciples or works against it. When we experience a culture that isn't about our discipleship of Jesus, then why would we expect more disciples to come out of it?
So what do we do to shape culture? Here are some principles that can inform our work. We have many other blog posts that take a deep dive into each of these issues:
WHAT TRUE OWNERSHIP LOOKS LIKE
If we are to truly be disciples of Jesus, then we need to recapture what it is like to follow him closely and faithfully. Which means now is not the time to avoid the tough subjects, but to understand them and then effectively communicate them to others, without just trying to beat the truth into them (which rarely, if ever, helps).
Consumerist Christianity doesn’t work. We have tried it for too long and it has failed us (and the world).
Passive Catholicism doesn't change lives.
Soft-selling discipleship means we don't make disciples of Jesus, but merely comfortably soft Catholics, who will fade away when things (or doctrines, morality, human sin, scandal, etc) get too tough.
You and I are called to be the salt and light to the world. But, are we? Because if we aren’t, then the world has no chance of salvation, because Jesus doesn’t have a plan B to make up for the failures of his Church (AKA - you and me). We are meant to be the instrument of salvation to the world. If we don’t do it, then the world goes to hell (literally).
We don’t need more people who are somber saints, half-hearted disciples, cultural Catholics, or comfortable Christians. We don’t need more Catholic gadgets, buzzwords, meetings, or documents that few people read. So, let's get rid of consumerism in our parishes!
Rather, what we really need is radical witnesses who have died to themselves, so that Christ might live in them. We need people who are great evangelists and disciple-makers. We need saints and prayer warriors. We need people who are willing to die (whether figuratively or literally) so that others might live forever.
START WITH YOURSELF
If we make true disciples out of others, then all the other issues will eventually get better as well.
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, we who are Catholic leaders need to own our collective failures in 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 starts with us as leaders who have either perpetuated or even supported a Catholic culture of consumersism, leading to parish renters.
So, if you are a leader in a parish or diocese, ask yourself these 4 questions:
For too long the Church has propped up consumerism. The annual exercise of trying to draft volunteers is sure sign that consumerism has deeply embedded itself in your parish.
This way of consumerist culture and leadership that perpetuates it 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".
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If you are a parish leader who wants to deeply impact your parish culture and make a change in the renter to the owner - but don’t know how. I invite you to reach out and see if we might be able to assist you.