Austerity or Abundance? When Church Budgets Drive Ministry Decisions

Today, I feel moved to engage in a little hand-wringing... and to pose lots of questions. With the stressed economy and falling contributions, some parish pastors have been cutting back on ministry salaries and hiring recently. I personally know of both catechetical and liturgical positions that have been converted to part-time, people who have been told the parish "can no longer afford to pay" them. It is heartbreaking to watch.

It began a couple years ago, when local pastors started letting full-time degreed lay ministers leave or retire, replacing them with part-timers with minimal formation for ministry. In my own diocese, this unfortunately coincided with the demise of our lay ministry formation program. This spring, I have watched with increasing dismay as excellent veteran ministers are pushed out at the behest of finance councils, or leave the ministry to retire while the pastor intends to get semi-volunteers to replace them.

Are we becoming an austerity Church rather than one of abundance?  We seem to be abandoning a theology of Christian hope and retrenching as if we are businesses instead of mission-driven agencies of the Kingdom of God on earth.  Have we forgotten the blessing to the Church that lay ministry provides?  Have we forgotten that the Holy Spirit is in charge?

At the same time parishes cut back, the cultural challenges to church participation and attendance are greater than ever and call for additional skills and strategies from our catechetical and liturgical leaders. Replacing them with well-intentioned but unformed people who are simply able to organize and operate a  program can only have negative effects.

We have not lost the need for catechetical leaders who can see the big picture - people with the ability to evangelize families and draw people into deeper participation in the life of the church, not just people who can "make the trains run on time."  We need people able to evaluate catechetical materials intelligently, who can deal with the very real issues of non-practicing parents of children in formation, and who have the ability to choose, lead and form catechists to provide more than what is in the textbooks.  We need leaders who can discern and support volunteers, with a vision for the future, who are available to attend local and diocesan formation to develop new strategies and skills, not part-time people who have another day job and/or the responsibility for a young family.

Parishes also need to provide more, not less adult faith formation. The promise of "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us" that adult formation should become the priority in parishes has not been realized in most places - and without someone giving that area attention, parishes provide either nothing or very little to engage and catechize adults. Small wonder that stewardship of time, talent and treasure for many people is tepid or irrelevant to their Mass attendance (if they attend at all.)

This church needs liturgical ministers who understand the beauty of the liturgy and have the ability to lead volunteers to enculturate the celebration appropriately to make it lively and appropriate for the community, not just people to play keyboards. The most frequent complaint parishioners have is about the quality of liturgy.  When pastors cut back on liturgical staff, they make good liturgical leadership even less possible - and more of the burden goes onto the pastors themselves.

Back in 2005, Paulist Father Robert Rivers proposed that we need to go From Maintenance to Mission - to move forward as a church to accept the challenges of evangelizing in today's culture. Today, it is even bleaker than that, as we seem to backslide into retrenching, rather than maintaining.

So where are we going? Where is the vision? Where is our trust that "God will provide?" Why do we have such a failure of Christian hope? More than that, how does the trend toward retrenching affect our ability to carry out the Church's mandate to provide the "New Evangelization"?  Since pastors seem to be more and more adopting a business model of operation, why are they having so much trouble seeing that the more they invest in good people the more they will get back?

The ROI (return on investment) in good lay ministers who are able to work with a pastor and independently to provide and inspire great parish leadership will naturally be larger in terms of participation, engagement and stewardship of its people.  The experiments by the Gallup organization with "church engagement" strategies have shown how true that is.

The larger question here is why are pastors listening more to the voices of their business managers than to the voice of the Holy Spirit?   There is a term that seems to apply here: "Functional Atheism" - meaning we say there is a God, but we act as if God has no power to affect our situation.  We are going into a Year of Faith. Perhaps it should instead have been a "Year of Hope" instead.

Trinity Sunday: the Great Commission - "Go" (And ROI)

Today's Gospel for the Most Holy Trinity includes the famous words with which Jesus leaves his disciples:

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.  (Matthew 28:18-20)

Besides the importance of Jesus himself naming the three persons of the Trinity, this passage, because of the command "go, therefore..." has become known as "The Great Commission."  Jesus is mandating this simple job description for his followers - to make disciples, baptize, and teach them - for all time, until the end. Pretty simple - and ostensibly this has been the mission of the Church since its beginning.

Notice the order here: first, we are called to "make disciples", then baptize, then teach. In the early Church, of course, converts called to the faith were primarily adults, so first they felt the urge to discipleship - they heard the Gospel proclaimed by believers and were attracted to the faith. Then they spent time in apprenticeship to the  local bishop to learn how to be disciples, also learning how to live as believers. Then they were baptized.  The order is often a bit different today.

Making Disciples. Disciples are called by hearing the Gospel. Certainly hearing the proclamation of the Gospel happens whenever it is read in church, and if the preacher is doing his job in the homily - of inspired instruction on what that proclamation means. But back up a minute. Because first we need to get people to church to hear that preaching, the calling of disciples is not primarily the job of preachers, but of the laity - the "faithful witnesses  who evangelize others  by testifying to their faith in Jesus Christ through their words and their lives, in the world. (In a previous post, I noted that this is a key theme of the Year of Faith.)

Calling and making disciples is the job of ALL Christians. The entire community of faith is called to proclaim the Gospel in its very life - and to call forth the gifts of its members so that they can become truly engaged deeply in the life of the community - so that the parish itself calls and makes disciples. Some churches do this very well. Others fail, for whatever reason. The Catholic Strengths and Engagement Community is a great resource on church engagement - providing resources and strategies for how to get people to be active, involved and contributing members of the parish. (Sign up for their June 15th webinar with Albert Winseman of the Gallup organization and Fr. Bill Hanson, pastor of the first church to use the Gallup ME 25 instrument to become an "engaged church."). 

An engaged church, by its very presence in the community, evangelizes, encouraging not only its members, but others, to become disciples.

Baptizing.  Of course today, since most Christians are baptized as infants at the desire of their parents, they have to spend a lifetime learning what it meant. That is why calling and evangelizing children and adults who are already members of the Church through inspired proclamation of the Gospel is so important.  If people really hear and see what is proclaimed, they remain in the Church.  But for that to happen well, we need to be part of a community of mystagogy - engaged in constant reflection on the essential and personal meaning of baptism. This begins, not with the entrance of a child into formal catechesis, but with engaging the parents of baptized infants and children in the life of the parish. Then, we need to provide lifelong learning and opportunities for participation in the life of the Church for all its members. (See the Engaged Church resources above.) In this reversed reality, baptizing does not stop after the water dries - each of us remains an apprentice in faith, learning daily how to be a better disciple and to "observe all" that Jesus has commanded. Parishes need to provide frequent opportunities for ongoing mystagogy on baptism for all ages, because it should be part of the lifelong learning of every Christian.

Teaching.  We know about that, and we attend to it - at least for children and youth. For the adults, not so much. In the 11 years since the USCCB document on adult faith formation, "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us"  was published, only minimal progress has been made in most parishes toward making adult formation the centerpiece instead of the periphery of parish life. We can and must do better - even in this stressed economy, when so many parishes are finding ways to make do with volunteer leaders instead of paid staff for adult faith formation.

But what about that first word of the mandate: "Go"?

Recently, I heard Neil Parent, former executive director of the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership and former representative for adult education for the USCCB, say:

"Jesus said 'go and teach.' We say 'come and learn.' We need to go where people are." 

That is increasingly the challenge for the Church today - especially since so many of our people do not physically show up at the parish on a regular basis. It is why so many, including the Pope, are advocating for an increased use of social networking to spread the gospel, which is literally going out where people today are. Although many parish leaders have heard this, they still falter when it comes to doing this well. As many other good people have put tremendous effort into raising awareness and assisting Catholics to use technology to spread the Gospel, I will not do that here. However, here are just a few of my favorite resources from people at the forefront of Catholic exploration of technology:

Catholic Tech Talk

The Church and New Media

Digital Catechesis

Faith Formation 2020

Open Source Catholic

Tech Tips for Catholics

So, how are you and your parish living up the "The Great Commission" these days? Do you give adequate resources (time, energy, money and personnel) to "going","making", "baptizing", and "teaching?" Or, do you need to step back and rethink your parish plan for outreach, evangelization, engagement and catechesis?  Remember, the more you put in, the bigger the ROI (Return on Investment.)  After all, we don't do it alone.  Jesus promised to be with us in this endeavor until the end of the age.

Marriage Catechesis: Winning Hearts & Minds of Catholics

Yesterday, I attended a diocesan day-long gathering on Marriage catechesis, featuring Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, of Louisville, vice-president of the USCCB and vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, and Dr. Helen Alvaré, a noted lawyer and theologian who has long been active in support of family and life issues for the Catholic Church. This kick-off event for a diocesan-wide initiative to bring Catholic teaching on marriage was packed with pastors and parish leaders. It was illuminating - and daunting - and inspiring.

Archbishop Kurtz, who has been characterized as a "smiling conservative," was gracious and pastoral, but firm in his contention that the Church's teachings about marriage need to be heard. The problem with marriage in our culture, he stated, is that "while people admire Jesus for sacrificing, they do not want to make sacrifices themselves." Although our own Bishop Daniel  Conlon admitted we may not win the public battle in our courts and legislature, Kurtz insisted that we need to have the "conviction that our leadership can make a difference" and that "cultural movements can change." The difference, he said, is us. 


Kurtz challenged us, pointing out that it is clear that "God's revealing and our nature go together 'like a horse and carriage' - man and woman fit together as two in one flesh. This is the first time in history we have tampered with that definition of marriage." What is needed in response, he insisted, is "three C's: courage, compassion and commitment" along with a need for communicating that to live within Church teaching requires both "inner discipline and community support." He urged all to read the USCCB document "Love and Life in the Divine Plan."


The archbishop had several practical ways to promote and strengthen marriage in parish life:
1. Find ways to proclaim good examples of married life (find and lift up the stories and examples in the community)
2. Pastors should be involved in marriage preparation so they develop relationships with couples.
3. Be involved and provide marriage enrichment. Couples are not "done" after the wedding.
4. Support those who are on the brink of separation or divorce - reach out and help them.


In the Q & A session after his talk, Kurtz noted that we need to be a part of local decisions on what it taught in public schools about marriage, and that we need to be more "out there" with the truth about marriage - because our own people often form their opinions without the Church.  He encouraged the use of the new "Blessing for a Child in the Womb". And to our youth, we need to communicate that "the friendship between married people is not just about mutual satisfaction, but about chaste and holy living and sacrificial love."


After his talk, we viewed a video which has been provided to all parishes: Made for Life (you can view it online HERE.


After lunch, Dr. Alvaré provided a tour of the developments in court decisions and legislation regarding marriage in the United States.  Some key points from her presentation:

• The 1970's saw the rise of decisions and factors that changed our traditional American view of marriage: no-fault divorce, right of unmarried people to birth control, legal abortions, rise of cohabitation, new reproductive technologies, an increase in non-marital births (she noted that today among Hispanic women, 54% of all births are outside of marriage.)
• In the history of American legislation and court decisions, originally marriage between a man and a woman was seen as supportive to a good society.  The "goods" of marriage meant more than the rights of the individual.
• Up until 1980, courts saw traditional marriage as the vehicle for preparing children for the obligations of society. Indeed, all current federal programs are based on a preference for children to be born within marriage.
• Abortion says fathers have "zero rights to the child." (Arguments in favor were based on assumption of male violence.)
• Reproductive technology breaks family ties and give preference to single parenting.
• Cohabiting and single parenthood as promoted in the culture today are all about the rights of women. (Even though there is 11 times more violence in co-habiting and single parent homes than in traditional families.)
• Procreation is now seen as a matter of choice for the individual, even within marriage.
• The rights of the adults are seen as more important than the rights of children
• Current arguments for same-sex or non-traditional models are based on "sexual expressionism"- sex is a matter of self-expression, not related to children or maintaining a stable home.
• Same-sex marriage advocates call state interest in linking marriage to children "irrational"
• The research is behind us. It shows that the family structure with the best outcome for children is two biological parents who remain married. The economic divide between those who are doing well and those who are poor, is not actually race, but marital status.  Strong marriages = strong economy. (Book recommendation: Charles Murray, Coming Apart.
• Difficulties with the current cultural view in the US:  Totalizing the state: it now gets to define marriage. Dualism: taking the baby out of sex takes the body out of the person and objectifies women. Rule by men, not by law: the courts get to make the decisions. Threats to religious freedom when religion conflicts with sexual expressionism: denial of the role of natural law.
• Religion, she said, has "value added" - it is expert in humanity, based on truths of natural law and covenant values. Our track record is stability in marriage - the Catholic way of marriage is recognized as good for society. Transcending politics with principles is a novel idea today.

As someone who supports the Church's teaching on marriage and is disturbed by many of the cultural trends, I have to say that this day was encouraging. Like Bishop Conlon, I have a gut feeling we will continue to lose the legislative and court battles, for the reasons Dr. Alvaré gave - that the culture regards sexual self-expression as the highest good and the only factor involved in the concept of marriage, and that we have turned over the decision-making to the state. This is certainly not ideal, but we still have a chance to reach our own people with the message that marriage is not only a human institution, but a divine one, created by God himself, within the natural order of things - and that the union of one man and one woman for a lifetime, providing a strong foundation for the children who will form our future is still the highest good. If we can do that, we can send them out to plant seeds of truth in American culture.

Who Creates & Gifts You? A Pentecost Reflection

The graphic below, presenting a quotation from George Bernard Shaw, is currently making the rounds on the internet - among those who are either atheists or "spiritual but not religious".  A quick search shows that it is quoted frequently in blog posts by atheists and in self-actualization posts.  It certainly portrays the heart of the post-modern sensibility:

From what I could find, no one can pinpoint the exact source of this quotation in terms of when Shaw said it - but since it involves a sense of  human potential and progress a look at the history of his spiritual life would most likely put it after he rejected atheism at age 30, when he became a "mystic" who believed we evolve as humans because of a mysterious "life force."

Why is this quotation so compelling? Because it pretty much sums up secular humanism, the prevailing outlook of our culture, based on the absence of God in our lives and the full responsibility of humans for ourselves.  It is attractive, because it puts the power of who we become in our hands.  It is also frightening, because if we fail, then it is simply our own fault, despite the circumstances of our life which might make "creating yourself" difficult.

However, for Christians, this outlook denies the action of the Holy Spirit, who bestows on each of us specific gifts and talents. If we take credit ourselves for all that we become, we miss that this really involves blessing - the God who knew us before we were in our mother's womb (Jer 1:5) and created us each as a uniquely gifted person.  Paul recognized this when he acknowledge in Galatians 1:15 "But when God, who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace..."

Certainly, it is up to each of us to reach the potential for which God created us - but WE certainly do not create ourselves. We cooperate with God's grace to become all we can be, using our gifts to build up the Kingdom of God in the world we live in, sometimes referred to as "co-creation"- but this is not our human work alone, nor is it equal partnership with God - rather it is submission of all that we are to the purpose of God.  It is not about who we become as independently empowered individuals, but about who we already are, through our unique giftedness in the Spirit, ratified in baptism and faith in Jesus Christ. We accept the action of sanctifying grace in our lives and allow IT to "create" us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1999-2000).  The CCC further explains how this works:

Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit. Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church. (CCC 2005)

Certainly our purpose in the world is to become more and more holy - more like Christ, through exercise of the virtues. We can work on developing the "human virtues" of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, but these are the result of the "theological virtues" of faith, hope and charity, which are actually not our human work, but the work of God, in whom they originate. "They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive and object." (CCC 1812) You cannot by your own effort, make yourself have faith, hope or charity. Your job is to be open to them as gifts offered by God for you and for others.

This Pentecost, give thanks to God for the unique gifts with which the Spirit has filled you, pray for discernment on how to use those gifts to become more who God intends you to be. You cannot "create" yourself. You can only live in cooperation with your giftedness, call and destiny. God already knows who you can become. Let go of your egocentric clinging to self-empowerment and allow God to "create" who you will become.  In seeking his will, you will discover who you really are.

The Year of Faith: Deepening Encounter, Understanding, Celebration and Witness

As most of you know, Pope Benedict has called for the universal church to celebrate a "Year of Faith" to begin October 11, 2012 (50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II) and end November 24, 2013 (Solemnity of Christ the King).  My friend Joe Paprocki recently wrote this great explanation and summary in his blog. 

The bottom line is that the goals of the Year of Faith are basically two: evangelization and catechesis.

The Pope is calling upon all levels of the Church to foster an encounter with Christ through faithful witnesses and to promote a deeper understanding of the faith. So how should diocesan and parish leaders prepare for this celebration? Read the pastoral recommendations from the Vatican, to start.

However, busy parish and diocesan ministers might benefit from the "Cliff's Notes version."   Here is a quick summary of the major themes on all levels of the Church:

• encounter with faithful witnesses (Saints as witnesses)
• understanding and renewing use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church 
• understanding and celebrating Vatican II
• renewal of the Sacrament of Penance
• intensification of celebration of the Eucharist 
• general renewal of and commitment to Catholic faith
• ecumenical dialog
• renewal of personal efforts to communicate faith (evangelization)

FAITHFUL WITNESSES: I have mentioned the concept of "faithful witnesses" before in this space (most recently in my post on how to choose new catechists).  I cannot emphasize this enough. My own journey to faith in Jesus Christ and full engagement in the Catholic Church has been nurtured in the RCIA process and ever since by a number of faithful witnesses - and the memory of those people, living and deceased, is always with me every time I reflect on my faith journey. Their effect on me then and now has been to ground me in the beauty of a living relationship with Christ. Parishes might do well, in preparing for the YOF, to start discerning who the faithful witnesses are in their community - and scheduling opportunities for them to speak to the parish about how faith has impacted their lives.  Catechesis about the Saints is also a great way to help people connect with examples of those whose very lives are remembered because they were all about witness to their faith in Christ.

CATCHISM: Making the CCC,  the Adult Catechism, YouCat or the Compendium more available to parishioners by selling them at parish events or in the back of church to kick off the YOF might be a strategy. Other ways to do this would be to have speakers or sessions on the CCC, or engaging in group studies, such as Why Catholic?.  Parish websites, blogs and social media pages should reflect on and post quotations and links to where to purchase these resources. Remind catechists that it is there for them to use in faith formation sessions... and show them how to use it. The point is to bring the CCC out of the shadows and remind - and teach - people to use it.

VATICAN II: Focusing on the history and some of the outcomes of the Council through presentations, study groups, preaching, websites, blogs and social media, and general discussion is also a good strategy.  Twenty-Third Publications has a great group of inexpensive resources to do this in parishes.

PENANCE:  The revised Rite of Penance suggests a renewal of catechesis on the sacrament - always the elephant in the room for Catholics.  Parishes would do well to plan to provide catechesis through presentations, preaching, and ample resources on blogs, websites and social media... and ample opportunities for celebration. Busted Halo has a great video that would be good to embed on a parish website and/or direct people to from a social media page, for example.

INTENSIFICATION OF CELEBRATION OF EUCHARIST: OK, it's the dead horse we all love to beat:  parish liturgy is the best thing we can offer people - and if it stinks, many people go away. Any energy a parish puts into improving celebration of the Mass is never wasted. Better training for ministers, better preaching, better music, more intentional liturgical planning... you all know the drill. We can never slack off on this.  Liturgical catechesis through homilies. presentations and the bulletin on the Mass - many of us did this for the new Missal implementation. We really should never stop - this is a full-time initiative.

RENEWAL OF FAITH:  Plan those parish missions now!  Get the best, most inspirational speakers - and make this not just an opportunity for people to show up and listen.. but to engage actively in further discussion, small faith-sharing groups, and more.  Be more intentional about adult faith formation - and more active in promoting it.

ECUMENICAL DIALOG: While this is the ongoing responsibility of the Vatican on a universal level, raising awareness of the ongoing dialogs and initiatives - and helping people claim a spirit of ecumenism is an agenda item for all in the Church.  The very least thing parishes should do is to pray for unity among Christians on a regular basis. Catechists and leaders need to be formed about the ecumenical teachings of the Church. (More on that in subsequent posts in this space.)

COMMUNICATING FAITH:  Encourage this by example through parish blogs and social media and public events and service in the community that invite others to experience the love of Christ.  Teach those who take communion to the sick to spend time talking about Christ.  Teach your parish food pantry minsters to give people a blessing and express to them that Jesus loves them, even though (especially because) they are poor. Talk about faith and the workplace in homilies, bulletin articles and presentations...  the possibilities are endless.

Every diocese and local parish can all come up with ways to make the Year of Faith a good and effective experience of renewal of the Church.  Don't waste the opportunity. Start planning now.

Liturgical Spirituality On the Beach

Yesterday, I had the enviable opportunity to spend 2 hours on the beach at Laguna Beach, on my way to a conference in San Diego. It was a glorious moment - the blue of the sky and the crash of the surf, combined with the cries of gulls - a chance to dip my toes in the Pacific for the first time and to wander the kelp-strewn beach looking at the rocks, the surf, and a few tiny mollusks and hermit crabs in stolen shells in the tidal pools. There were seagulls and a few people to watch as well - families with children, couples, older folks, a couple of enterprising surfers... but it was rather uncrowded, so there was plenty of room for introspection.

As I wandered, I found myself humming - snatches of psalms, bits of praise songs, they rose up from the musical archives in my brain unbidden... It was a time to appreciate the glorious beauty of God's Creation - in all its beauty and power. Call me a church geek, but as a cantor and psalmist, the psalms are my native  prayerbook... and the naturalness of this is a side-effect of 25 years of being steeped in the Catholic liturgy, and being part of a Franciscan parish for the past 10 years.  There is no finer soundtrack to the beauty of nature. Praise the Lord. His works are marvelous!

Mother Dolores Hart's Love Story Teaches the Power of Vocation

When I heard that a short film about a cloistered nun had been nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year, I was fascinated, as were many people, that such a thing could be true.  Now that I have finally had the opportunity to see it, I can tell you it was well-deserved.

God is the Bigger Elvis is a poignant look at what it means to be totally swept up in relationship with God. Not only is it a great human-interest story, it is a powerful explication of the concept of vocation - and can certainly serve as a way to catechize about what it means to hear  - and have the courage to obey, in spite of the temptation of other attractive options - God's voice in the circumstances of life.

Watch it. You will be moved. Share it and use it. The film is a gift to all.