Recently, I was reading a blog post from one of our Archdiocesan priests, Father Michael White. In it, he suggests that we need to come to the understanding that “My church is for me, but it’s not about me.”
Father White notes that there is no silver bullet in the renewal and rebuilding in parish life that makes a difference for all parishes. But there is a fundamental change in attitude that changes everything.
This is it: When people who are in the church, at least a critical mass of them, come to understand that church is not primarily for them but for the people who are not currently in church, that changes everything. When people who like church come to see that the church needs to be for people who don’t like church, that changes your church.
We, of course, are talking about Evangelization, the Church’s most fundamental mission to make disciples. It was Pope Paul VI who said it best, “The Church exists to Evangelize.” (Evangelli Nuntiandi) To really understand this, a parish has got to implement it. It does no good, it changes nothing to merely espouse this, it has got to animate the very life of the parish.
When a person is new to the parish, just like the baby in the family, they need to be served, they need to be taken care of. But when people stay consumers, week after week, year after year, the parish grows unhealthy and the ministry becomes unsustainable. More to the point: as long as they’re consumers, they’re not growing as disciples, and they’re not helping anyone else to grow either. The most basic way to make the parish not all about the church-people is to get them up out of the pews and serving.
This September, we will host a three-day Parish Renewal / Revival. On September 9, 10, and 11 we will meet in prayer and discussion to consider how we as church might better exist to evangelize, to be animated in our service to others, and to grow in our own discipleship of Jesus. Please plan on joining us.
Pope Francis reminds us in Evangelii Gaudium – “The Joy of the Gospel” – that Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction”.
May we each find within ourselves to share the joy of our faith with others. When people who like church come to see that the church needs to be for people who don’t like church, that changes your church. Christians should appear as people who wish to share their joy.
Fr. Gerry