December 14, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Present: Damian Gerstner, Wayne Snyder, Dennis Meier, Nancy Fahey, Tom Skorupa, Linda Albani, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach
Absent: Joe Doetzl, Pris Pawlikowski, Brad Grill

Tom provided prayer for the evening, a reflection on the readings for the upcoming weekend.

Wayne & Tom provided an overview of how they viewed the discussion on their Goal Area, and how the view who is responsible for each objective. See below:

Goal Area: To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ.

Related Objectives:

1. Establish and support a Faith Formation Committee to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish-wide faith formation initiatives -- based on the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Plan "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us." Questions as to who would make up this group, with suggestions that represent the Age demographic and represent existing ongoing programs. This committee would be selected and would make recommendations to the Pastoral Council as to various “Total Parish Initiatives”. The process of supporting continuity and consistency among the various faith activity groups would rest with the Fait Formation Committee.
   
2. Establish and maintain a "Catechism Corner" in the parish bulletin, which can serve as a basis for possible parish-wide Catechism Classes. This program has begun and the feedback was very positive. Discussions that this are of the bulletin could lead the various individual faith initiatives throughout the parish and that the Generations of Faith process could carry the content and direct a consistent approach to all the various faith groups within St. Therese.
   
3. Establish lines of communication and coordinate closely with the Diocesan Commission on Faith Formation. The Diocesan effort is under renewal and reorganization and our Faith Formation Committee is pledged to coordinate with the ultimate directions provided at the Diocesan level.
   
4. Begin planning for an ongoing schedule for Faith Formation of various parish ministers, particularly those in Faith Formation, Liturgy and Pastoral Care. The Generations of Faith program was presented and the idea seemed logical to the group.
   
5. Begin to explore and select a parish-wide evangelization/retreat/catechesis opportunity (e.g. Renew, Christ Renews His Parish) that might spark a resurgence & deepening of faith, serve as a basis for inspiring interest in learning more about the faith, and support our parish vision. The various programs used in the past were presented. It was recommended that this effort be studied. The initiative to involve the total parish community requires first the Pastor’s approval and the Pastoral Council to the Faith Formation Committee. The Faith Formation Committee is to evaluate the various processes and make recommendations to the Pastor and the Pastoral Council.

Then, Damian, Linda Winter, and Fr. Mike provided an update on our previous discussions on Youth Ministry. Here is an excerpt summary I wrote in another e-mail:

Linda Winter and I met with Fr. Mike last Thursday to give him a sense of our discussion on Youth Ministry at the last Pastoral Council meeting. We also wanted to find out what he had in his mind with regards to Youth Ministry. We all had a nice discussion. I’ll summarize what I remember, and since some of it involves a request of you, I’ll pose that question as well.

If we think in terms of a Director of Youth Ministry, Fr. Mike is envisioning that this person would begin working with the Youth in middle school, as a support to the existing RE programs. The Director’s involvement would increase as the Youth entered high school, and would be very supporting of the Confirmation program. However, the main focus of the Director’s work would be on social and spiritual development of Youth. Fr. Mike indicated that they have a good bead on two potential candidates for the Director position – people that have experience and are well formed. The staff also recognizes the need to dedicate some space for teens.

So, part of our discussion came back to our goal to “Establish and support a Youth Advisory Board to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish activities with Youth Ministry.” What did we expect the board to do? Why have one? We agreed that the purpose of the board is to establish a vision and strategic direction for Youth Ministry, modeled after the Pastoral Council. We also felt it would help add continuity to Youth Ministry, less subject to changes in Directors or interested parents.

To help the YAB start up and be successful, it needs someone to help lead it. If the Pastoral Council is any kind of guide, it may take a year or more for the YAB to fully form and understand its vision / strategic direction. Therefore, the person who helps lead this effort needs some understanding of the formation effort.

This excerpt comes from an e-mail written to Joe Doetzl, asking him if he is open to being the primary link to the YAB from the Pastoral Council. Because Joe is out of town, this issue is still open.

Discussion then shifted to addressing the Objectives that are assigned to the Pastoral Council. As written, the following ones are the responsibility of the Council:

1. Review existing small group ministries such as Small Christian Communities and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, evaluate how these ministries make St. Therese a more caring and personal parish community, and develop an action plan for integrating these traits into a majority of St. Therese ministries. The Welcoming Committee is not prepared to take this particular objective on. It is felt that the Pastoral Council needs to manage this objective.
2. Request and encourage the existing formation ministries in the parish to develop opportunities to facilitate a better understanding of the Catholic tradition of giftedness and stewardship. The Pastoral Council needs to identify the ministries and associated leaders, and begin working with them to develop said opportunities.
3. Establish a plan to facilitate, encourage, and coordinate the activities of ministry, lay involvement, and hospitality. Damian provided a handout developed by Ginny & Pat. It is a complete listing of Leadership & Ministering Communities. As it turns out, Ginny’s list has seven communities that more or less line up with the 7 elements we have developed. It is proposed that this document be the “plan” that is required to meet the intent of this objective. Now we must figure out how to take it forward to the next level. This is the responsibility of the Pastoral Council.

Given the issues with Youth Ministry and the discussion above, it is hoped that Joe will accept this challenge, thereby allowing the Pastoral Council to address:

1. Establish and support a Youth Advisory Board to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish activities with Youth Ministry. This objective has become harder to implement because of the recent departure of Jess. We tossed around several ideas at length, including several we have discussed before. We feel it is important to model our future around successful programs in other faiths or youth programs. We feel it is important to have a “mature” individual as Director of the youth program, perhaps paired with a youthful assistant. One thought was that perhaps a former principal or vice-principal may make a good Director. We also discussed the merits of partnering with a religious order to find someone to be this Director. Based on the Spirit of the moment, we prayed around this specific issue to close our meeting.

Tom Skorupa then indicated that he believed the Pastoral Council needed to bear responsibility for all objectives related to Faith Formation. He indicated that given the scope of his current responsibilities, and the responsibilities of others on the Parish Staff, there is no one left to focus on this area. Although what they presented on these objectives mentioned often the “Faith Formation Committee”, in essence he felt the words “Pastoral Council” should be substituted. This precipitated quite a conversation. One observation is that this lack of dedication to Faith Formation has been around for many years. The uncertainty of having adequate resources to properly implement Renew (or programs like it) precipitated the formation of the Vision Group. The Vision Group found Faith Formation to be 1 of 3 main priorities, yet little development occurred in that area. Once again, the Pastoral Council has determined this is a priority, yet it appears resources are still an issue. Another observation was that although our school and religious education programs represent a large commitment to Faith Formation, there are no full time staff members dedicated to Faith Formation. A main task of the Pastoral Council therefore must be to convince the appropriate people that resources MUST be allocated to Faith Formation.

Tom, Linda Albani, and Wayne will focus on the issue of Faith Formation, with a focus on 3 areas:

• Development of the Faith Formation Committee
  
• Develop concept of how to coordinate between staff and volunteers for Faith Formation. The areas of Liturgy and Pastoral Care may be considered useful models in developing this concept.
  
• Focus on #2 above.

Linda Winter, Nancy, and Pris will focus on #1 (the first one) above.

Damian & Dennis will focus on #3 above.

Joe and Brad will focus on #1 (the second one) above.

A brief discussion what constitutes a “quorum” ensued. We agreed that if we have less than a full Council at the meeting, the output of those meetings should be considered more of a “recommendation” than a “decision”. We still require that our Council makes decisions by discernment.

We decided that future meetings will start at 6:45 and last for 2 hours. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 4 and of course Fr. Mike WILL be responsible for prayer this time. At this meeting, we will break into subcommittee as noted above to discuss our objectives. If you need to bring in guests to help you discuss your objective, feel free to invite them to this meeting. Tom has reserved the meeting space on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays in January and February.

As a side note, I will attempt to work out a schedule for the next year during Christmas so that we can understand how and when activities are targeted for. I’ll also work on procedures for how we rotate people on and off the Council.

Finally, I have attached the document that Ginny provided at our previous meeting. The diagram doesn’t necessarily match all the verbiage that goes with it, but it is useful understanding a different approach to showing how we are organized (rather than an organizational chart).

Have a great weekend & holiday! Please correct me if I got any of the above wrong or is incomplete…

October 19, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
October 19, 2005

The Pastoral Council met October 19, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Snyder, Tom Skorupa, Nancy Fahey, Damian Gerstner, Linda Winter, Joe Doetzl and Linda Albani were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

We opened with a prayer from the Leader’s Guide to “Our Hearts are Burning Within Us.”

Damian recapped the meeting he, Linda Winter and Wayne Snyder had with Fr. Mike and Mike Birkel. In this meeting the draft objectives we had developed were discussed with Fr. Mike and Mike Birkel. The reaction was favorable with a few suggested changes to some of the objectives. Fr. Mike recommended that we introduce objectives to the staff and the other leadership committees in the Parish.

This meeting has been scheduled for October 27th 7-9 in the Wooldridge Center. There was a lengthy discussion of the meeting format and objectives. The overall objectives for the meeting are:

• Prayer
  
• Allow parish leaders from varied committees to get to know each other
  
• Present the goals to key parish leaders
  
• If there is a natural fit for an existing committee to work on an objective, obtain their support.

A draft agenda for the meeting was developed:

• Prayer
  
• Ice Breaker
  
• Presentation of Goals & Objectives. Each goal area needs a different representative to speak.
  
• Personal reflection time
  
• Small group discussion (insert Linda’s sample reflection questions)
  
• Large Group Comments
  
• Closing Prayer

A comment was made that we should emphasize that the pastoral plan is a recommendation to the Pastor. The Pastor will make the final decision about what objectives to pursue and how.

Next General Meeting is November 2 at 6:30. Prayer and facilitation have not been assigned.

September 21, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
September 21, 2005

The Pastoral Council met September 21, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Pris Pawlikowski, Fr. Mike Roach, Linda Winter, Nancy Fahey, Damian Gerstner, Wayne Snyder, Tom Skorupa, Joe Doetzl, Linda Albani and Dennis Meier were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Linda Winter led prayer with a reflection on a reading from 2 Philippians.

Linda Discussed results from the giftedness sub-group. Two main themes arose from their discussions “exploring our gifts” and “channeling our gifts”.

Tom shared some resources that could be used to identify spiritual gifts.

Dennis shared results from the “personal and caring” sub group.

Wayne and Tom shared results from the “faith Formation” group. There recommendation was to have a “year of prayer”, to both strengthen our parish’s prayer life and to wait on the results from the diocesan study of faith formation.

Tom provided copies of a letter soliciting feedback regarding diocesan faith formation needs.

Damian summarized results from the leadership sub-group.

Our next meeting is October 5th at 6:30.

Prayer: Pris
Facilitator: Dennis
Scribe: Joe

September 7, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
September 7, 2005

The Pastoral Council met September 7, 2005 in the Wooldridge Center. Wayne Snyder, Damian Gerstner, Fr. Mike Roach, Linda Winter, Joe Doetzl, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Albani and Brad Grill were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

We opened the meeting with a gospel prayer from the idea gathering sessions.

A discussion of the previous idea gathering sessions followed. Joe agreed to type up and distribute objectives from the idea gathering meetings.

We discussed Parish staff members to involve in the process:

• Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ: Wayne, Tom, Kathy Teson, Elizabeth Barmann
  
• Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community: Dennis, Nancy, Pris, Jane Gallagher, Nancy Borman
  
• Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness: Linda W., Brad, Fr. Mike, Tracy Torres
  
• Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision: Damian, Joe, Linda A., Pat Burbach, Ginny Feeney

We decided to involve the Parish staff as soon as possible.

Our next meeting is 9/21. Damian will facilitate, Joe will Scribe, Wayne will prepare prayer.

August 3, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
August 3, 2005

The Pastoral Council met August 3, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Linda Winter, Brad Grill, Nancy Fahey and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Linda Winter
Prayer: Linda Winter
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Linda opened the meeting with a gospel reflection from Matthew.

We discussed a method and timeline for processing the information gained from the 3 Idea Generation meetings. We formed 4 sub-committees, one for each goal area. We proposed that the ideal size for the committees will be 5. We will need to ask staff members or others interested to help. This help could be solicited at the gathering meetings.

• Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ: Wayne, Tom
  
• Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community: Dennis, Nancy, Pris
  
• Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness: Linda W., Brad, Fr. Mike
  
• Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision: Damian, Joe, Linda A.
  
  

The committees are to personally invite interested respondents from the previous survey.

We proposed a tentative timeline for publishing the results of our objective setting:

• 9/7 Pastoral Council Meeting – Begin to process information already received
  
• 9/8-9/30 Each sub-committee meets at least once, preferably twice to organize the information gained from the objective setting meetings into the committee’s respective goal area
  
• October – Consolidate and work into publishable form the results from the 4 sub committees at the 2 regularly scheduled Pastoral Council meetings.
  Publish in Early November.
  
• The take away from the objective setting meeting will be a prayer card with the 4 goals on the back.

Our next meeting is 8/17 at 6:30 the agenda will be to prepare for the objective setting meetings. Damian will facilitate, Joe will Scribe, Pris will prepare prayer.

Action Items:

• Tom – Create prayer and prayer card for meetings.
  
• Joe – Email council, solicit 4 volunteer facilitators for each objective gathering meeting
  
• Joe – Email call list of “interested respondents” to each goal committee
  
• Pris – Prepare prayer for next meeting
  
• Damian – Update Goals summary to reflect 3 objective meetings
  
• Sub Committees – invite interested parties to objective meetings
  
• Tom – produce list of staff to personally invite to objective meetings
  

Letter to Parishioners - Goals

Dear Parishioners,

On April 9 & 10, the Pastoral Council presented to you a Parish Vision statement – “We envision a community where all witness the Real Presence of Christ in every ‘little way’.” – and a summary of its foundation in the Seven Essential Elements of Parish Life – Community, Liturgy, Faith Formation, Stewardship, Leadership, Pastoral / Social Ministry, and Spirituality. At that time, we also asked you to complete a questionnaire to help the parish understand its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information was to be used to develop Goal areas for the parish, prior to developing specific Objectives.

The answers you provided via the questionnaires provided a broad spectrum of information. There were some that felt St. Therese was the most welcoming parish they had ever been in, while others felt St. Therese was very cold. Some felt that our spiritual leadership and faith formation was our strength, while others felt it was woefully inadequate. While it became challenging to reconcile some of these opinions, four particular themes became quite evident. These themes have become the basis for four goal statements that will guide our parish in the years ahead.

Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ. Parishioners overwhelmingly feel that a primary function of the Catholic Church is to educate and form parishioners of all ages in our Catholic faith journey. This goal not only requires us to strengthen and maintain our parish school and School of Religion, it requires us to develop a lifelong habit of continual learning and development of our spirituality, our faith, and as ministers of social outreach.

Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community. While some people have felt extremely welcome at St. Therese, there is no doubt that our parish size has become a big barrier in many ways. Because of our size, it is easy to feel anonymous, to feel that “someone else” will volunteer their time or their talents. Because of our size, it is harder for each person to be known by name. Because of our size it is challenging to know that someone who is hurting needs your care. When people feel disconnected from one another within the parish, it becomes challenging to meet the needs of our parish family, especially those needs described in other Goals.

Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness. St. Therese’s size is often a weakness, but if it can be channeled it can become its greatest strength. With so many people within the parish, there are many skills, talents, and time available to minister in numerous ways. With our resources, we are able to minister to people within our community and still look outward to minister to those parishes or communities that are less fortunate than ours. In addition, parishioners are eager to find ways to explore and share their spirituality. As a large and vibrant Catholic community, there are many ways we can discover, discern, and share our spiritual gifts with one another.

Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision. As St. Therese parish continues to grow there is a need to assure that parishioners are aware of the ministries and services that are available, and that these ministries are organized to operate effectively. It is also important that ministries and services are coordinated to minimize schedule conflicts, overlapping responsibilities, and duplication. This goal drives our parish to align its ministries and its organization to support the parish Vision, and also to support the above goals.
Goal statements by themselves without action are useless. While these goal statements provide a sense of direction, it is imperative that our parish now focus on developing specific objectives we can achieve in the next 12 months in order to bring us closer to our Goals.

On Wednesday, August 31, two separate Pastoral Planning meetings will be held – one at 8 AM, and a second at 7 PM. Each meeting will last approximately 2 hours. In each meeting, we will spend some time in prayer and then invite all who have attended to spend time in groups generating ideas that can help us achieve our goals.

The Pastoral Council will be contacting those who have previously indicated a desire to participate further in this process. In addition, we invite all parishioners who are interested to attend one of the two sessions. So that we may plan adequate space and refreshments, we ask that you sign up for the Pastoral Planning meeting in the Gathering Space.

The Pastoral Council wishes to thank you for your patience and enthusiasm in this Pastoral Planning process. We look forward to your participation as we move to the final stages of the planning process.

With love and peace,

Fr. Mike Roach

July 6, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
July 6, 2005

The Pastoral Council met July 6, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Dennis Meier, Tom Skorupa, Damian Gerstner, Linda Albani, Nancy Fahey and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Dennis Meier
Prayer: Tom Skorupa
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Tom opened the meeting with a gospel reflection from Matthew 13.

Dennis led a discussion of strategic goals and objectives.

Tom proposed a fourth goal: “To develop a leadership structure that supports the Parish vision”. A consensus among those present was reached regarding the 4 stated goals:

• To create a more caring and intimate parish.
  
• To explore and channel our giftedness
  
• To form Catholic Faith filled witnesses of Christ
  
• Develop a leadership structure that supports the Parish vision
  

Damian agreed to develop a draft summary of the council’s work to date. This summary published in the bulletin will be presented at parish workshops to be held to gather objectives. These workshops are tentatively scheduled for the last Wednesday in August. Both morning and evening sessions of about 90 minutes were proposed. Sessions will consist of a large group with perhaps multiple smaller breakout sessions. Invitations will be sent to parish leaders and survey respondents. Linda Albani agreed to scan completed surveys for signed responses and research mailing addresses.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 July 20. The agenda for the next meeting will include:

• Reviewing and finalizing Damian’s draft summary.
  
• Finalizing procedures for collecting more objectives
  
• Status report from the “Succession Planning Sub-Committee”.

For the July 20th meeting, Damian will facilitate. Tom will lead prayer and Nancy will scribe.

June 22, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
June 22, 2005

The Pastoral Council met June 22, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Snyder, Brad Grill, Dennis Meier, Damian Gerstner, Nancy Fahey, Linda Albani, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Dennis Meier
Prayer: Nancy Fahey
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Nancy opened the meeting with a prayer.

The council was informed that Steve Hilliard has chosen to resign from his position on the council.

A “Success Planning Subcommittee” consisting of Linda Albani, Damian and Wayne was formed to develop procedures for rotating the council membership and for filling vacancies. This committee will meet at least once prior to the next full council meeting.

Dennis led a discussion of goals and objectives. There was much discussion surrounding three proposed strategic goals:

To create a more caring and intimate parish.
To explore and channel our giftedness.
To form faith filled witnesses of Christ.

Tom agreed to attempt to draft language that would include a 4th goal “to refine and enhance the organizational structures of the parish to further promote communication, leadership and administrative support for all ministries.” This statement was included as an objective on a draft proposal. It was agreed that this statement was important, but elevating it to a goal seemed to clash with the “pastoral” nature of the other goals. Tom agreed to attempt to “soften” the language.

Future meetings were scheduled for 6:30 July 6, July 20, August 3, and August 17. The agenda for the next meeting will include:
Finalizing the goal statements
Developing procedures for collecting more objectives
Status report from the “Succession Planning Sub-Committee”.
For the July 6th meeting, Dennis will facilitate. Wayne will lead prayer and Joe will scribe.

Proposed Strategic Goals

St. Therese
Long Range Plan 2005 - 2008

Strategic Goals 2005 - 2008
· To develop and integrate a ministry of welcoming and hospitality in each area of service, liturgy, education, pastoral care, and administrative leadership

· To refine and enhance the organizational structures which facilitate communication, leadership, and administrative support for all ministries of the parish.

· To cultivate a commitment of stewardship among all members of the parish to support the development of human, spiritual, and financial resources.

· To expand and enhance faith formation activities for all ages (which develops an awareness of the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist) and supports the spiritual growth of each parish member.

· To expand outreach activities and services to build an awareness of and responsiveness to social justice issues.

· To sustain the commitment to provide and/or support a high quality Catholic education for all children of the parish.


Assignment
As we discussed at our last meeting, the goal statements above identify some of the key areas of growth, quality, and support for the St. Therese community. The assignment for each group is to review, revise, edit, add to, or delete from these goal statements. These statements are truly a first draft version and need refinement. In the end, each goal statement should support our Vision statement, promote the Seven Essential Elements, and provide a core direction for leadership and tactical planning.

After your group meets, please email your versions of the goal statements to me. We will then have four, second-draft versions and we will see how much variation there is among them. Hopefully we can finalize the goal statements at our next meeting.

Thanks,
Dennis

Goal Area #4 - Looking Outward

Goal - To live Christ's message in helping the poor and need in our city and our world.

Damian's Opinion - I couldn't think of a good way to intertwine this with the other Goals. Yet, I felt the responses were significant enough that they could not be ignored. In the end, I decided to let this goal stand alone.

While I don't want to diminish this Goal area, I do think that the other goals are higher up in the pecking order. We shouldn't let the other goals stop us from working on this Goal, but I think it will be difficult to fully realize this goal until the other Goals are realized.

Potential Objectives Fitting this Goal Area
The following suggestions from the parishioner surveys are relevant to this particular Goal Area, and should be considered if we move forward with this Goal Area.

Adopt a Town or Parish - Several people felt like we ought to reach outside our parish to support people less fortunate. Suggestions include a town in Mexico, the diocese in Peru, a foreign mission, or an inner city parish in the Kansas City area.

Annual Report Card on Helping the Poor - One person suggested having an annual report card on what we do already, so that people are aware of it. If we did this, I think we would have to also state what we don't do - yet.

Staff Member Focused on Social Ministry - I'm sure the idea here is that more would happen if we had someone focused on Social Ministry. Perhaps this can be addressed in reorganization rather than by hiring someone new, at least for now.

Annual Walk/Run for Charitable Cause - Parish could sponsor event to benefit external charity.

Start St. Therese Soup Kitchen - Someone would like to see this. We'd have to decide whether resources are better utilized in starting a new one, or supporting one that exists.

Garage Sale for the Poor - Someone suggested having an annual garage sale and donating the proceeds to the poor.

Fair Wages for Parish Staff - I couldn't tell you whether the wages are fair or not. I would have to agree that before we educated people on Catholic Social Teaching, I would want to make sure that all employees are paid a "living wage". If we can't model the behavior we are asking of our parishioners, then they won't believe the message.


One last word from Damian - I want to re-emphasize something this thought of modeling the behavior we desire from our parishioners. To me this is a tenet of very high order - I try to live it daily and find it is imperative I do this to be successful at work. If I cannot do what I am asking my people to do, then I lack credibility. If I lack credibility, I'll have a hard time leading my people and gain their support for our vision.

The same goes for our parish. When we look at all the goals, it is very important we model the behavior we are asking of our parish. If we ask them to tithe, then we (the parish) needs to tithe (however we define that for the parish - perhaps its the diocesan "tax"?). If we ask them to support Social Ministry, but then have no one responsible for this Goal Area on staff, then will they really believe we think it is important? Sometimes, our actions are the most important form of communication...

Goal Area #3 - Emphasizing Faith Formation

Goal - To establish systematic methods of lifelong Catholic faith formation that are broadly utilized within the parish.

Damian's Opinion - I have to admit that our last two meetings were somewhat difficult and frustrating at times. But once we reached our breakthrough at the end of the last meeting, it enabled me to read the surveys in a way I had not before. There were a number of comments I had discounted or ignored before, but now they really grabbed my attention. I see more what Steve saw.

There's no doubt people believe that Faith Formation is a major need. I believe that people's concept of what Faith Formation will differ greatly. Some want classes, while others want it all from the pulpit. The fact of the matter is that we have to use a lot of different methods to reach people, and do so in a way that engages them.

I believe that to effectively reach this goal, we must also address Goals #1 & #2. If people do not feel welcome, they will find difficulty in participating in Faith Formation efforts. If our parish and our Faith Formation efforts are poorly organized, participation will quickly diminish. That's not to say that one has to be addressed before the other. In fact, I can foresee that some Faith Formation efforts could make the parish more welcoming. I just believe that they need to be worked on together.

I should also note that I have decided to put issues related to Youth Ministry in this section. To me, all the responses regarding Youth seemed to lead to having good Faith Formation for Youth. Sure, they may want to have additional fun activities for the kids, but only because they believe that will help keep them involved with Faith Formation.

Potential Objectives Fitting this Goal Area
Once again, I noted the following specific suggestions from the surveys. I would suggest that these could be a starting place for discussion when developing objectives for this goal area.

Use USCCB Material for Faith Formation - This is more of a personal observation. We often struggle with how to develop Faith Formation programs on specific topics like Youth or Stewardship. We need to keep in mind that the USCCB has excellent resources for these efforts and should at least consult them.

Educate People on and Pray for Vocations - several people felt disappointed that no priests or deacons seem to be coming from our parish. I have observed my parents parish, which places vocations as a higher priority than our parish seems to. That parish (Topeka Christ the King) has hosted African priests for up to 2 years at a time. At every Mass, a prayer for vocations is recited by the parish, just after Communion. I'm certain I have witnessed at least one homily about vocations. Perhaps we need to add some or all of these to our parish.

Improve Baptism Class - at least one person felt the Baptism Class was lacking because it did not talk about the significance of different elements of the sacrament. Perhaps our leaders are not given enough training to do this properly.

Small Christian Communities - I understand that some SCCs exist. I get the feeling they were developed as part of a past program. I'm doubting that any new ones have been developed in years. Certainly some new people know nothing about them.

Educate about Mass during Mass - one person suggested using one Mass a month to educate people about different parts of the Mass - why we do things a certain way.

Youth Vegetable Garden - someone suggested having a youth vegetable garden, with the produce being donated to a charitable kitchen. This can be a faith formation opportunity, as well as a Social Ministry opportunity.

Faith Formation Beyond Confirmation - We have talked about this frequently enough. We need something that keeps our kids engaged in faith formation beyond Confirmation. The attitude that "now we are done" has often carried over into adulthood for many people.

Brochure Advertising Youth Programs / Opportunities - the bulletin does a better job of this than it used to. Still, it is suggested that we have a special brochure available to help people understand what programs are available for their youth. We may decide to extend this to all areas of faith formation.

Hire Full Time Youth Minister - no explanation needed.

Sunday Evening Mass - Masses are often too crowded now. A Sunday evening Mass would appeal to certain demographics, and would provide a fitting end to the weekend, in the opinion of at least survey respondent.

Policy About Liturgical Ministers - While convenient for some people, we should perhaps have a policy that a person is not to be a Lector and a Communion Minister. It gives a perception that a select few are allowed to do these tasks.

More Reconciliation Opportunities - Many people would like to have Reconciliation available more often. I can't tell if they want it for themselves or for others. I noted that it is always available by appointment, but perhaps people don't feel comfortable making that request to the priest.

Weeknight Mass - one person thought a regular weeknight Mass would be helpful, since not everyone can go to morning weekday Masses because of work schedules.

Eucharistic Minister Training - one person observed that Eucharistic Ministers may not be trained properly, especially with regard to Eucharist dropped on the floor.

Faithful Implementation of the GIRM - I believe there was significant reference to this issue in the survey.

Make Missals Available - If they are already available, people don't know about it. I think some believe that having them in the pews is a good Faith Formation tool. I do recall reading through them when I was William's age. I believe that William would pay more attention if he could follow along with the readings - he's so fascinated with reading right now. I think a lot of Youth would use them.

Goal Area #2 - Improving Leadership

Goal - To improve ministry effectiveness by re-evaluating the parish staff organization and leadership.

Damian's Opinion - In terms of survey responses, I can't say that the quantity of responses justifies listing this goal ahead of Goal #3 (which addresses thoughts that Steve brought up in our last two meetings). However, in my view, this goal has a higher priority than #3 and perhaps equals #1 in priority, only because I feel that we must make some changes in the way our parish staff is organized and in the way we handle ministries. If we don't take care of that first, I feel that some of our efforts on other goals will be canceled out by "leadership" issues.

No one should take my thoughts as a personal critique of individuals or in leadership in general. I use the term leadership in the spirit our 7 elements. I believe that fast growth of our parish & its staff has caused some unintended inefficiencies or deficiencies. We need to correct these issues so that we can tackle our other goals (and perhaps improve job satisfaction among staff members).

Potential Objectives Fitting this Goal Area
Once again, I noted the following specific suggestions from the surveys. I would suggest that these could be a starting place for discussion when developing objectives for this goal area.

Ministry Organizational Chart - this has been mentioned so many times, I think it goes without saying. As we do this, I think we need to consider reorganizing staff member responsibilities so that each ministry has someone on staff that is familiar with its work, mission, and current state. We may also decide that perhaps it makes sense to combine a couple ministries together. This would be a very delicate dance, to make sure we don't disillusion anyone if we reorganize in some fashion.

Develop Process for Forming New Ministries - in the past, the process has been to allow ministries to form as needed, perhaps without direct support from staff or other ministries. By pairing new ministry hopefuls (such as the opportunity to support the diocese in Peru) with established ministries and staff members, we give the new ministry the best chance for it to succeed and assure that the activities are coordinated among other groups. Once the ministry has a strong foundation and had processes in place for succession planning, perhaps it can branch out on its own. We need to make sure that we do what we can to assure that ministries are "built to last".

Frame Everything in Terms of Vision - we have a vision statement on paper, but we don't hear much about it outside of the prayers of the faithful. If we believe in the vision statement, we need to integrate it into the way we organize our parish staff, how we organize and direct our ministries, and how we talk to our parishioners. If we can't do that, perhaps our vision statement is wrong.

Have Periodic Ministry Leadership Meetings - the purpose of these meetings would be to give brief updates so that ministries know what's happening with other ministry groups.

Designate Someone as the "Guru" on the Parish Staff - that's the best name I can come up with. In the surveys, a couple people indicate frustration because they ask to help in a ministry, or have a problem with parish records, so they call the parish. Whoever they talk with either doesn't know what to do, doesn't know who to call, or says they will do something but nothing gets done. The parishioner may try more than once to resolve the issue, but it never happens. I've personally met someone in the parish that had this experience. There needs to be at least one "know-it-all" who can make sure these things are taken care of. Either that, or someone who already has this "job description" isn't getting the job done. The net result is a bad "customer experience" for our parishioner.

Improve Parish Staff Communications Skills - some people want more to be communicated. Others want it to be accurate. There have been a couple communications I have observed that give mixed signals to parishioners and am willing to talk about "offline" from this blog.

Rent a Priest - a number of responses lamented the lack of availability of a priest for reconciliation and other needs. People also don't want to wear the priests we have out. We've discussed before the possibility of "renting" a priest, so I added that idea to this list.

Open Accounting - the Finance Council has to find ways to communicate its finances to parishioners in a variety of ways. Some don't care about the details, but others do. When we can't provide them, it gives the appearance that something distrustful MIGHT be going on.

Related Financial Goals to Vision / Goals - if we state a vision or goal, but money is spent differently, then we are communicating mixed messages to parishioners.

Stewardship Fair - Perhaps this goes better under welcoming, but a number of people have suggested having a stewardship fair to make people aware of what the parish has to offer and get others involved. Some examples have been made of places that make it a true "fair" with games and/or rides for kids, treats, etc.

What Do We DO With Our Money - we talk about our needs, but we don't often make what we DO with our money a personal story for our parishioners. If we can somehow personalize what we do with our finances, more people would support our efforts. Also, the parish should frame the charitable support we give other organization as our parish tithe - and it should probably be at least 5%. This models the behavior we seek from our parishioners.

Goal Area #1 - Being More Welcoming

Goal - To make the community feel smaller and more close-knit by being more welcoming in all ministry areas.

Damian's Opinion - My overall sense in reading the surveys is that people feel somewhat anonymous because they are just one of 10,000 people. Because of this anonymity and the large parish, it is easy to believe that someone else will become involved, and therefore I don't have to. From my view, this then leads to a lack of participation in special services, faith formation programs, many worthy ministries, and stewardship. If people feel connected to one another, they feel a greater sense of obligation to each other; this ultimately will lead to greater participation in areas that currently are lacking. In my opinion, if we neglect this particular goal area, we will find our job in other goal areas much more difficult.

Potential Objectives Fitting This Goal Area
I noted the following specific suggestions from the surveys. I would suggest that these could be a starting place for discussion when developing objectives for this goal area.

Develop small groups, such as support groups for divorced adults - the thought here is that small groups with common interests help break down the size of the parish. Several people suggested support for divorced adults and for young married adults. I believe that these suggestions also fit the category of Pastoral Care.

Visit every parishioner at least once per year - Wow! What a challenge! Still, imagine how much more personal the parish would seem if we were all visited by a priest, deacon, or staff member once per year. Wouldn't you feel more connected and obligated to at least one more person? On the practical side, this type of visit would also help the parish become more aware of the specific needs of its members, and allow a chance to update parish records.

Every new family is welcomed formally into the parish - this could be like the welcoming program Joe talked about at one of our meetings. This could also be an announcement at Mass. By welcoming people personally, we can find out their needs and what they can provide. This is similar to the previous objective...

Invite people to participate in Ministry - many people won't step forward to participate, unless they are asked. We have to develop successful ways of asking people to participate (this could also tie to stewardship). People feel more welcome and connected when someone asks them to help out.

Develop an outreach to Park University - college is a tremendously important time of faith formation for young adults. In addition, there are a significant number of international students at Park. This objective could help us practice being welcoming, and make us more welcoming to our public community.

Have fun together - someone noted the camaraderie they felt at a previous parish because of a parish volleyball team. There's no doubt that our community can become closer through prayer, ministry, etc. But I also believe that having fun together is also a way to build community. If we don't want to have our own tournaments or leagues, can we somehow become a resource for helping people to find community teams or activities and have fun together?

Develop org chart / ministry listing / youth program listing - we've talked about this for years. We need to do it. While it is especially important to new parishioners, sooner or later we all need to tap into the deep resources within St. Therese. It is frustrating when you find out a resource was available, but no one knew it was there. Having this list (and/or having someone responsible for keeping it fresh) would make this easier. Another point was made about the freshness of the information (JUMP still on Sunday night?). We need to have a good way to print these lists "on demand", or at least in small quantities so that they can be kept fresh at minimal cost.

Communicating in many ways - we need to have information available in as many was as feasible - the web, bulletin, e-mail, etc. We have a better chance of reaching people in our community if we communicate in ways that are the most useful to them.

Weeknight community night - one survey talked about picking one night a week that people get together to talk, share experiences, have fun, etc. I gathered that the meetings were weakly structured, but had enough substance to give people benefit.

Some "Simple Actions" To Take

When I look at a lot of the ideas that people have, most strike me as issues to deal with in the long term. However, there is a certain set of ideas that seem like something we can do now, without waiting for goal areas to be defined.

While some ideas require little or no commentary, there are some that I would say that simply fit the idea of "giving advice to the pastor" - something our council is charged with doing.

Please treat this list of ideas as a list of what made an impact on Damian. In some cases, I may choose to give Fr. Mike my own personal opinion, regardless of what the Council would say, and on others, I'm willing to let you shape my opinion. Perhaps you will understand further what I am meaning as I go through the ideas.

Here is a list of ideas that could be implemented with little or no planning:

1. Parish Phone Number - When you dial the parish office number at 741-2800, you currently get a recorded message, regardless of when you call. I agree with one parishioner that this is very impersonal. It is possible to design the phone system so that it is normally answered by a person, but rolls over to a recording if the person can't get to the phone immediately. Another scenario is to have 2 different phone lines. The main phone line which is answered by a person and a second that allows people to dial directly to the person they want to by bypassing the operator. Either of these two scenarios is better than the current situation in my opinion, and would help may the community feel more welcoming than it does today.
2. Vocations - I believe it would be easy to work in prayers about vocations, either as a Prayer of the Faithful, or as a special parish prayer after Communion. I also believe that the pastor or deacon should talk about vocations on some frequency in their homily. I cannot recall the last time I have heard vocations discussed by a priest during Mass - either here or St. Patrick.
3. Church Design - there were a number of references about the design of the church. Many seemed misinformed to me. At my sister-in-law's parish (St. Theresa, Austin, TX), they recently built a new church. When the new church opened, they published a little pamphlet describing why elements of the church were designed as they were. That pamphlet also addressed appropriate dress at church (see below). For some people, it won't matter what church document you followed in designing the church, but for many, it will matter. Without this information, people make their own assumptions, which often are incorrect.
4. Appropriate Dress - again, a number of references to the inappropriate dress and inappropriate behavior they see in church. While I believe that there are more critical issues that need to be addressed in the Catholic Church, I can also understand the concern people have. I think we would all agree that we shouldn't HAVE to tell people to not leave church early, to dress appropriately, to not talk during Mass, etc., the fact of the matter, we all need to be reminded of appropriate behavior now and again. I challenge Fr. Mike to address this issue in some part through his homilies. I think you will win over more people than you offend.
5. Challenging Sermons - while I'm challenging Fr. Mike, I'd like to echo the sentiments that some have indicated in the surveys. I think we will all admit that we all have different gifts, even if we are priests (I'm not, by the way). Fr. Mike, I believe your gift is helping people to be introspective, to look within and analyze their faith. Having said that, you don't challenge people very often. While some in the surveys would say that you need to remind us of how we all sin (and that's one way to challenge people), I'd like to see you challenge us to action - whether it is to become involved in public decisions, help with food pantries, work with a mission, etc. There were things about Fr. Waris that really irritated me, but his gift was in challenging people to action. What a blessing it would be for you to occasionally challenge us in the way he does.
6. The Koran - this was brought up often enough that we ought to address it somehow. I would guess that at least one person on our Council would have a problem referencing the Koran at all. My personal opinion is that we can learn things about our Catholic faith from all religions, but when we have to be careful when we use other resources without any explanation. I think at the least, we will need to make some statement about this issue so that people know we have heard their concern, and perhaps try to address their concern a little bit by providing context for its use.
7. Expanding our Horizons - someone suggested having someone from the Police, City, or other public servant come talk to us about the demographic trends of our area. I think it makes sense to have a discussion like this at some time. It might help us think up some ideas we never considered.
8. Church / Politics - several people were concerned about receiving the letter recommending that parishioners vote for certain people because of their stance on certain issues. The perception was that this was sanctioned by our parish. My understanding of the issue is such that the parish did not sanction or censure it, but I believe the parish provided the mailing list. If I would have been asked about the issue at the time, I probably would have recommended against giving out the mailing list. Again, I think we need to step forward and acknowledge this issue to the parish, and admit we made a mistake (if that is appropriate) or provide the logic behind any decisions made. This was a significant issue raised in the surveys, in my opinion.
9. Ministry Mission - Some people recommend having specialized liturgies to cater to the likes of our community (such as taste in music). There are several like recommendations made in the surveys. People don't realize that some of these suggestions are directly against the core philosophy of the committees that are focusing on these issues. For instance, the Liturgy Committee has a specific philosophy to maintain a similar Mass structure and music through all the liturgies, in order to build a greater sense of community. When there are specialized liturgies, people tend to know few people because they only go to one liturgy. However, since we don't tell everybody about these philosophies or missions, we can't really expect them to know about them. It think it would be worthwhile for the mission statements or goals of each ministry area (if developed) to be published so that people can be aware of them if they choose.
10. Scooting In - two different people mentioned that because people are forced to stand in some liturgies, even though seats are available, we are less welcoming as a community. Some of the comments struck at the core tendencies of some people who won't scoot in because they want to make the quick getaway after Communion. But I think it is easy for the pastor at crowded Masses to request that people scoot in, perhaps noting how it is a welcoming sign to those who are standing. Why not do it?
11. How-to Cards - someone suggested a Reconciliation 'how-to' card. I don't know how big a need this is. But what could it hurt, especially for those that don't go that often?
12. Vision Speak - This is not mentioned so much in the surveys, but I think of it after reading some things tonight. We have a vision statement. We hear a little bit about it during the prayers of the faithful. Other than that, we never hear it. I realize it takes time to learn new behaviors. So I challenge Fr. Mike, Fr. Pat, Deacon Tim, and the staff to talk about the vision statement publicly. If we can't work it into our sermons, or into the groups we are associated with on a regular basis, then perhaps we have the wrong vision statement, or perhaps these people don't believe in it. To make our vision real, we have to talk about it, live it. At least one person in the surveys is having a hard time with the vision statement. I wonder if they would feel the same way if elements of the vision statement were woven into our sermons and our liturgies...

That's enough for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll start on goal areas. Form my view, it may be hard to squeeze them down to fewer than 5. We'll see creative I can be.

A New Type of Strawman?

Dear Pastoral Council:

I thought I would try out using a weblog tool (or blog for short) to post some goal ideas. By doing it this way, it will enable each of you to comment on each idea, and allow us to save our thoughts in a central place.

Like all of you, this is kind of new to me, so I'm sure I'll be less efficient for a while. My hope is that we find it more useful over time.

Some preparatory thoughts before I start listing my ideas in separate posts...

In between our last two meetings, I felt I ought to be doing something with the questionnaires, so I started rereading them. I decided to keep track of some of the ideas that people gave within the surveys. Some of these ideas fit alongside certain goal tracks or the essential elements, so I organized them that way.

I also noted that there were several ideas that could be implemented immediately - there is no need to wait for strategic goals to be developed for some or all of them. For the moment, I call these "Quick Hitters".

I will list the Quick Hitters and each of my goal areas in a separate posting. This will allow you to comment individually on each one of them.

That's it for now. I'll post this, and notify you of the blog so that you can get logged on. I'll probably start posting some ideas tomorrow night.

Sincerely,

Damian Gerstner

May 4, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
May 4, 2005

The Pastoral Council met May 4, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Schnieder, Steve Hilliard, Dennis Meier, Damian Gerstner, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Dennis Meier
Prayer: Pris Pawlikowski
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Pris opened the meeting with a prayer.

Dennis facilitated a discussion of unity that carried over from the last meeting.

Linda discussed adopting a diocese in Peru and will send copies of a letter requesting support.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 May 25, 2005. Damian will lead prayer and Dennis will facilitate. Joe will scribe. Agenda items proposed for the 5/25 meeting were:
The summer meeting schedule for the pastoral council.
Succession planning
Begin articulating goals

April 20, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
April 20, 2005

The Pastoral Council met April 20, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Schnieder, Steve Hilliard, Dennis Meier, Damian Gerstner, Linda Albani, Nancy Fahey, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach, and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Dennis Meier
Prayer: Steve Hilliard and Wayne Schnieder
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Steve and Wayne opened the meeting with a prayer.

Dennis led a discussion of general impressions from our reading of the comments received from the survey sent to all parishioners.

The following phrases were captured on an easel board:

Size:
Access to Resources
Lost in the crowd
“Ed”
Many are in pain – need to address
Unique Stories – How to get to “Know”?
Small groups to balance size
Welcoming/Not Welcoming
Difficult to focus on all elements
Lack of community
Issues of leadership and organization
Develop goals in other elements that develop community
Focus on Faith Formation
Adults need instruction to teach children
Threats come from “outside”
Blessed with wealth/Can be a threat if not used properly
Responses affirm that each element is essential
People want to be loved
People want to “belong” and be “valued”
Invitation
Spirituality
Faith Formation
People will participate when they are filled with the Spirit
Tap into “need”
Divorce outreach
Economic segregation
Labeling – as a way of limiting access
Communication
Organization/administration
Orientation for new members
Respond to those who want, need follow-up on feedback

We then had a discussion on “unity”.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 May 4, 2005. Pris will lead prayer and Dennis will facilitate.

April 9, 2005 Homily

Fr. Mike offers a short reflection on the readings of the day.

Fr. Mike: On a weekend where Jesus tells us that we shall always have Spiritual Life if we only believe in him, I’d like to spend a little time talking about the Spiritual Life of our parish.

As our construction projects drew to a close last year, I shared with all of you that I wanted St. Therese Parish to turn its focus from constructing buildings to constructing a vibrant community spirit. To that end — and as a culmination to various reflections and planning efforts that have been ongoing since 2001 — I invited all who were interested to consider forming a Parish Pastoral Plan by participating in a new Pastoral Council in late 2003. Through prayerful evaluation, the Pastoral Council was established with 12 members, including myself: Tom Skorupa, Linda Winter, Linda Albani, Damian Gerstner, Brad Grill, Dennis Meier, Pris Pawlikowski, Steve Hilliard, Wayne Snyder, Joe Doetzl, and Nancy Fahey. I’d like to invite one of the Council members – Damian Gerstner – to come up here with me and help me talk about the work of the Pastoral Council and how you can get involved in setting the long-term direction of the parish.

Damian: As an introductory note, you should know that the Pastoral Council has used 2004 to prayerfully consider and understand the complexity of its task – somehow, we have to get inside the minds of 3200 families, understand what their needs & desires are, understand the requirements of the Catholic Church, and somehow meld them into a robust yet manageable Pastoral Plan for the parish.

To prepare our parish for this challenge, we spent time studying the history the history of St. Therese Parish, researching the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, and evaluated dozens of resources. We’ve prayed and debated together. And, we found, that when we truly listened to God’s Spirit together, we could discern a Vision of what our parish can become.

Why establish a Vision? For any organization to succeed it must have a sense of direction, a purpose and an identity. A vision statement is a simple expression of that identity, purpose and direction.

Fr. Mike: As Damian mentioned, the Pastoral Council has articulated a new Vision statement. This Vision statement covers 3 important concepts for our parish.

The Vision statement starts off this way We envision a community… We need to think of ourselves as a COMMUNITY, not as a collection of individuals. Not as simply School Families, Singles, Knights, STARS, or Small Communities, but as a large, but close-knit COMMUNITY.

Damian: The middle of our Vision statement emphasizes what makes a Catholic Community like St. Therese different than any other Christian Community. It’s a place where all witness the Real Presence of Christ. In today’s gospel, it is our belief in the Real Presence of Christ that gives us the promise of resurrection. And for all of us here today, it is the Real Presence of Christ in the form of the Eucharist that draws us together. And it is how we express the Eucharist in our daily lives that enables others to witness the Real Presence of Christ.

Fr. Mike: The Vision statement ends this way: in every ‘little way’. The term “little way” calls to mind our heritage in our patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. Therese desired greatly to become a saint, but often felt she was “too little” to become a saint. Yet she felt she could still aim to be a saint. It was Therese who said “The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers… and these flowers are every little sacrifice… every glance and word… and the doing of the least actions for love.”

So when you put these three parts together, here is our Vision of what we believe we can become: We envision a community where all witness the Real Presence of Christ in every “little way”. Listen to it again: We envision a community were all witness the Real Presence of Christ in every “little way”. Wouldn’t that be great? That certainly sounds like a community I would like to be a part of.

Damian: To realize our vision, we must pray about, organize and direct our attention, together, to what is important to our faith as we live it out in our daily lives. The Pastoral Council has expressed this sense of importance and direction in something called the Seven Essential Elements of parish life. These Seven Essential Elements are Community, Liturgy, Faith Formation, Stewardship, Leadership, Pastoral / Social Ministry, and Spirituality.

Fr. Mike: All seven of these Essential Elements are interrelated with each other, and are necessary for vibrant parish life. And if you think of these Seven Elements as petals on a flower, then it is the Eucharist that is the center of the flower. Just as the center of the flower supports and gives life to the petals, so the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Seven Essential Elements of Parish Life. How we, through our parish community, witness this reality of the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ, is expressed in and through these Seven Essential Elements.

Throughout this Lenten season, we have relied on the imagery of a garden – Our Lenten Garden of Love. The analogy works well for the work of the Pastoral Council. What the council has done thus far is to prepare the soil and enrich it with a Vision and those Essential Elements that nurture parish life. We know that God will provide an ideal environment for growth through the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ. It’s now up to our community – to each of you – to plant the seeds that will grow and provide the fruits that nourish our parish now and long into the future.

Damian: In today’s bulletin you will find a detailed description of Seven Essential Elements of Parish Life. It also includes a Questionnaire. Just to be sure that we don’t miss anyone in the parish, we are also mailing this information to all parishioners. We believe it is extremely important that everyone have an opportunity to help plant the seeds of growth.

We ask that each of you take some time alone and with your families to reflect on the Seven Essential Elements, to pray about them. We also ask that you take some time to reflect and pray about the questionnaire. Then, we ask that you provide feedback to the parish and the Pastoral Council in one of the many ways outlined on the questionnaire – e-mail, phone calls, prayer service, in writing – it’s your choice. It’s vitally important that we receive information back from as many of you as possible – this is your chance to help shape the future of the parish!

The Pastoral Council will review the responses and use them to develop several strategic goals for our community (5-year time horizon). We will share these results with the community before Memorial Day, and ask for people to help the Pastoral Council develop objectives that will help us move toward these goals. Our somewhat ambitious target is present the goals and objectives in a Pastoral Plan to the community around Memorial Day.

Fr. Mike: I want to thank all of you in advance for your response to God’s call in planning for our parish’s future. When I first came here 6 years ago, I certainly did not know what God had in store for me – I certainly didn’t think I’d be involved with a big construction project. But through all of the personal challenges I have faced and through all of the challenges I have seen this community face, I have continually been humbled by the response of this community.

As Jesus raised his friend Lazarus to New Life, we trust that Christ can raise our parish to even greater life than it has already known. I KNOW and FIRMLY BELIEVE that St. Therese is a vibrant Catholic Community that can achieve whatever it chooses to. I also KNOW and FIRMLY BELIEVE that you will respond to this call to plan for our future in ways that will humble me once again, and for that I thank you.

April 6, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
April 6, 2005

The Pastoral Council met March 6, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Pris Pawlikowski, Dennis Meier, Steve Hilliard, Wayne Schnieder, Tom Skorupa, Linda Winter, Damian Gerstner, Fr. Mike Roach, Joe Doetzl, Nancy Fahey, and Linda Albani were present.

Facilitators: Damian Gerstner
Prayer: Pris Pawlikowski
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Pris led a prayer from St. Faustina and Gospel reflection from Luke 24:13-35.

Damian led a discussion regarding the survey responses. We have received approximately 80 responses so far. There was much discussion about whether we needed to collect more data before formulating goals and a Pastoral Plan. We decided to not actively solicit additional responses, but to still accept and encourage responses. We will use the existing data to begin to form goals and objectives.

We formed several teams to analyze the responses received and group them into themes or goals prior to the next meeting. The following teams were formed:
Dennis & Nancy
Damian & Linda W.
Joe & Pris
Wayne & Steve
Brad & Linda A
Fr. Mike & Tom


The next meeting is 4/20/2005 at 6:30. Dennis will facilitate, Wayne will lead prayer and Joe will scribe.

March 2, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
March 2, 2005

The Pastoral Council met March 2, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Pris Pawlikowski, Dennis Meier, Steve Hilliard, Wayne Schnieder, Tom Skorupa, Linda Winter, Damian Gerstner, Fr. Mike Roach, Joe Doetzl, Nancy Fahey, and Linda Albani were present.

Facilitators: Damian Gerstner and Dennis Meier
Prayer: Steve Hilliard
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Steve led a Gospel reflection and prayer.

Damian led a discussion of the latest version of the timeline and the bulletin insert describing the 7 essential elements.

Tom agreed to edit the letter to all parishioners to remove the background information. This information will be included elsewhere in the pamphlet to be mailed home.

Pris agreed to collect demographic and historical data. Some of which may be used in a “Did you Know Section” in the bulletin.

There was a discussion of the appropriateness of presenting the essential elements and the request for feedback during the homily. The council did not reach a consensus regarding this point.

Dennis presented a brief overview of the database software used at Synergy for managing their strategic plan. The software looked promising and Dennis agreed to make it available for use by the Pastoral Council.

The next meeting is 3/16/2005 at 6:30. Damian will facilitate, Linda Winter will lead prayer and Linda Albani will scribe.

February 16, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
February 16, 2005

The Pastoral Council met February 16, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Damian Gerstner, Dennis Meier, Joe Doetzl, Pris Pawlikowski, Wayne Schnieder, Linda Winter, Steve Hilliard and Fr. Mike Roach were present

Facilitators: Damian Gerstner and Dennis Meier
Prayer: Pris Pawlikowski
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Pris led a Gospel reflection and prayer.

Damian led a discussion of the proposed time line for gathering data, determining goals and forming objectives.

We discussed how to distribute the “brochure” or summary copy of the seven essential elements. It was decided that it would be distributed as a bulletin insert the weeks of 3/12 and 3/26 with a mailing to all homes the week of 3/11.

We discussed the possibility of having an email link from the St. Therese website.

Several comments were made regarding the summary copy of the essential elements. Linda W. will incorporate the comments and forward a copy to Tom for inclusion in the bulletin.


Linda W. shared a few designs for a logo based on the sun flower and another geometric design. Those present preferred the flower designs.

Dennis gave a brief update regarding youth ministry. The Confirmation program is doing very well under its new leadership. We agreed to postpone collecting data specifically regarding youth ministry. We discussed a vision of a youth advisory committee that would work under the direction of a Faith Formation Director and the likelihood that a Pastoral Plan would reflect this vision.

Our next meeting is 3/2/2005 at 6:45. Damian will facilitate, Steve will lead prayer and Joe will scribe.

February 3, 2005 - 7 Essential Elements

Introduction
For any organization to succeed, it must have a sense of direction. Many times, an organization can simply ask the people within the organization what direction they want to go. Other times, the organization has been given a charter that tells them what direction to go. Even with these directions, the members of that organization must somehow internalize that charter in terms that they can understand, if they want to be as successful as possible.

In June 2002, St. Therese Catholic Church began a journey to establish a new direction, when a “Vision Committee” was formed. The Vision Committee was not a formally established organization, but did include about 35 people who were interested in improving the vitality of the parish. The group met over the course of that summer, and reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of St. Therese. As a result of these meetings, formal initiatives related to Welcoming, Faith Formation, and Social Justice were established.

In 2003, the St. Therese Finance Council desired to gain better understanding of where the parish was headed, in hopes that they could provide better financial planning for the parish. After spending some time analyzing the parish and its organizations, the Finance Council presented some ideas to the pastor, Fr. Mike Roach. Fr. Mike then brought together members from the Vision Committee and the Finance Council in June 2003 so that the groups could compare ideas. Ultimately, these people elected to establish a Pastoral Council, which began its work in January 2004.

The Pastoral Council spent most of 2004 understanding its role, establishing a vision statement, and discerning methods for developing parish strategic goals. To the Pastoral Council, it became clear that it could not just simply ask parishioners what our goals should be. Instead, the Council must focus those discussions around the issues that are essential to parish life at St. Therese. But what are those issues? And how do we decide which ones are essential?
Fortunately, the Pastoral Council was able to use the information developed by the Vision Committee in 2002 and the Finance Council in 2003, as well as the information generated at Pastoral Council meetings in 2004. After prayerful discernment, the Council determined that there are seven essential elements to parish life at St. Therese:
1. Community
2. Liturgy
3. Faith Formation
4. Stewardship
5. Leadership
6. Social Ministry
7. Spirituality

None of these elements stands alone – they overlap, providing strength and support for the other elements. At the center is the Eucharist, the source and summit of their meaning. In a similar way, no ministry should feel constrained by a single element. Rather, ministries are strengthened when they draw upon several essential elements as resource.

As the Pastoral Council develops strategic plans and goals for St. Therese, it must make sure that each of these elements are strengthened within the parish. Ignoring one element of parish life will hurt the other elements as well. Therefore, it is important that each Pastoral Council member understands all of these seven elements, because these elements are how parish life at St. Therese will be measured.

The seven elements are described in the pages that follow. For each element, there are a few descriptive paragraphs followed by several “measuring sticks” that describe how an “ideal” parish might perform relative to that element. Following these descriptions, some observations are made about St. Therese’s performance relative to that element.

Although this document’s primary audience is the Pastoral Council, it can be a useful reference to any parishioner, especially those that are called to leadership within parish ministry. By understanding the elements that are essential to parish life, ministry leaders can better understand the objectives of the Parish Pastoral Plan and tailor their ministry to best serve the parish.

The seven essential elements of a parish's pastoral life, with the Eucharist at the center, provide the filter through which the new wine is poured into new wineskins. The parish's purpose is constantly sifted through these seven elements as the Pastoral Council leads the community in the ongoing, prayerful discernment of the call of God to the parish at this moment in time. The Pastoral Council provides this leadership primarily through the process of pastoral visioning and planning.

Eucharist at the Center[1]
Before focusing on the seven essential elements, it is important to note that these elements do not override the importance of Eucharist at St. Therese. In fact, it is intended for these seven elements to be strongly intertwined with Eucharist. The presence of Christ in the communal celebration of the Eucharist is both the source and summit of the seven essential elements of parish life. In fact, the goal of every ecclesial activity is that those who share faith and baptism as children of God be united in praising God in the Church, taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice and sharing the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is the center of parish life and of our faith in Christ Jesus. In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council we read:

Every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ (the Priest) and of his Body (the Church), is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.

While many other parish activities enhance the essence of what takes place in the celebration of the Eucharist, none substitute for it. Without the Eucharist at the center of parish life, the parish mission is devoid of meaning and evangelization is without substance because we fail to practice what we preach.

Jesus' command to "Do this in memory of me" (Luke 22:19) is not merely an invitation to imitate what Jesus did. "It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his Resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father. From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's command."

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read:

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.... All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. (Acts 2:42-45)

From the earliest days of the Church, from that first COMMUNITY of faith gathered in FAITH FORMATION and LITURGY, we receive the mission of SPIRITUALITY, SOCIAL MINISTRY, and STEWARDSHIP and the ministry of shared LEADERSHIP. And although these represent the 7 essential elements of parish life, the Real Presence of Christ experienced in the breaking of the bread continues to be the font and focal point of parish life.

Community[2]

. . . You are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own . . ." (1 Pt 2:9).

The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and his action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body. In the unity of this Body there is a diversity of members and functions. All members are linked to one another, especially to those who are suffering, to the poor and persecuted (Catechism of the Catholic Church nos. 805-806).

The ministry of community life builds an environment of love, support, appreciation for diversity, and judicious acceptance that models Catholic principles; develops meaningful relationships that bind parishioners to the community; and nurtures Catholic faith. The content of our message will be heard only when it is lived in our relationships and community life. To teach compassion, generosity, tolerance, peace, forgiveness, acceptance, and love as gospel values and to identify ourselves as Christians requires us to live these values in our interactions with people and in our community life. God's reign was proclaimed through the relationships Jesus initiated, and it continues to be heralded every time we witness our belief in him through the relationships in our community. The community life of the first Christians was a sign to everyone that Christ was in their midst (see Acts 2:42–47). The ministry of community life is not only what we do (activity), but who we are (identity) and how we interact (relationships). Community life is nurtured when the atmosphere is welcoming, comfortable, safe, and predictable—one in which all know that their presence is welcomed, their energy is appreciated, and their contributions are valued.

Community life is enhanced when leaders promote and model an attitude that is authentic, positive, accepting, and understanding—assuring all people that they are valued and cared for as gifted individuals. Community life is encouraged when our actions are inviting, supportive, and gospel-based. Community life is created when activities build trust and encourage relationships, and are age-appropriate.

Measuring Sticks
1. Eucharist Centered – The parish recognizes itself as a Catholic Christian faith community, rather than as a purely social or civic organization. The parish has a profound awareness that its unity as a faith community is derived from and is the fruit of being one in the Body of Christ, which has many parts, and that it is the work of Christ’s Spirit that makes the parish one.

2. Welcoming – There is a good spirit of working together among parish groups and organizations. The parish has a plan for personal visits with new parishioners. New parishioners and visitors are welcomed by a parish environment characterized by gospel values that nurture meaningful relationships. Parishioner interaction is encouraged so that people appreciate the uniqueness of individuals and the support of a community united through faith.

3. Inclusivity / Diversity – Parish organizations and activities foster inclusivity and diversity. An effort is made to provide for the special needs of those who might feel excluded from parish life at some point: young people, single adults, minorities, the separated and divorced, single parents, the widowed, the physically or mentally challenged, the homebound, the elderly, and the economically poor. Opportunities are provided for multicultural community building to promote respect for people's racial and ethnic cultures and to develop skills for communication and understanding

4. Coordination – Organizational activities are in harmony with the parish pastoral plan. Parish and organizational events are coordinated so that they complement rather than conflict or duplicate other events within the parish or diocese. Communication among parish and organizational leaders and with parishioners is adequate and consistent. Parishioners understand the importance of the role(s) they play within the community.

5. Responsive – Organizational activities are responsive to the ongoing and emergency needs of the members, the parish as a whole, the large community, and the diocese. Programming for parish organizations consistently offers prayer, information, education, entertainment, and hospitality.

6. Witness – The prayer and activity of the parish are outwardly directed, never totally focused on its own life. The parish collaborates with neighboring parishes as appropriate to enhance the mission of the Church. The parish promotes ecumenical relationships and activities.

7. Public Image – The public image of the parish is that of a Christ-centered community that is hospitable, inviting, and compassionate, where no one is excluded.

Liturgy[3]

To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in his Church, especially in its liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of his minister…but especially under the Eucharistic elements. By his power he is present in the sacraments…He is present in his word…He is present, lastly, when the hurch prays and sings, for he promises: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” [Mt 18:20] (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy no. 7).

Worship is central to our spiritual life as a Christian people. As a Catholic community, worship is most commonly expressed through liturgy. Through our liturgies, we celebrate Christ’s continual presence among us; we support our brothers and sisters in their sacramental journey; we adore the Blessed Sacrament as the Real Presence of Christ; we pray for Christ’s strength to live His message; and we thank God for the blessings He has given us. The challenge to every parish is how to involve the people in full, conscious, active participation, a challenge that requires thoughtful preparation and continual training.

Parishes have a need for continuing the education and training, and for placing greater emphasis on forming those who are involved in planning and ministering the celebrations: priests, deacons, ministers of music, lectors Eucharistic ministers and liturgy committees. More is needed than ministers doing their particular role; there is a need to help parishioners participate more fully in every liturgy and to see their participation as a personal encounter with the Risen Christ and as a primary means to deepening their prayer and relationship with God.

For many strangers, liturgy is the first point of contact with the parish. Our liturgies need to welcome the stranger. How we celebrate the Paschal Mystery in the midst of diversity is a question we continually carry with us as we plan and pray together.

Many parishes have liturgy committees that plan for seasonal liturgies and special occasions. We see a need today for those committees to formulate an overall vision of liturgical life in the parish beyond weekly or seasonal celebrations. These committees also can evaluate liturgies and liturgical ministers. Without this vision our liturgies can become routine or may not help people to connect with God and with one another.

Continuing formation in liturgy needs special emphasis. Parish liturgical formation includes training for the ministers and forming the assembly. The formation of the assembly takes place in a wide variety of places: sacramental preparation, all levels of faith formation, youth ministry, and the community gathering at Sunday Eucharist.

Liturgy itself is evangelization, a communal witness to the sovereignty of God, the abiding presence of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church. Liturgy gives expression to the faith of the community and its degree of commitment to furthering the Kingdom of God.

Measuring Sticks
1. Eucharist Centered – The Eucharist is a priority in the life of the parish and is celebrated with full and active participation of the parishioners.

2. Ministering – Competent individuals are responsible for every aspect of liturgical celebrations. Parishioners serve in many liturgical roles at liturgy. Liturgical ministers represent the diversity of the parish in age, gender, and ethnicity, and are regularly trained to perform their ministry in alignment with diocesan guidelines. Liturgical ministers also perform their ministry with reverence, care, and in a loving, welcoming manner.

3. Planning – Parish liturgy committees are representative of the diversity of the parish, are guided by liturgical documents, and are able to evaluate the liturgical life of the parish. Special services and events are planned to maintain liturgical integrity.

4. Word – Sermons and reflections relate to the Scriptures of the day and to the real life experiences of the people living in the parish. Liturgies develop a sense of Christian joy about the Good News of Jesus Christ in the community; it is evident in the homilies, in worship, in parish activities, and in outreach efforts. The formation of parishioners is enhanced by the incorporation of Scriptural praying at parish meetings, in Small Christian Communities and in Prayer and Scripture Study groups.

5. Environment / Music – The worship space is able to accommodate the rites of the Church in a dignified and liturgically suitable manner. Worship aids are contemporary and in good condition. Liturgical music, including instruments, musicians, cantors, and hymn selection, enables the assembly to participate in sung prayer.

6. Robust – All Sacraments are celebrated regularly as a community, with attention given to making them true expressions of the life of the parish. Holy days, feast days, and liturgical seasons are vibrantly celebrated throughout the liturgical year.

7. Inclusivity / Diversity – Liturgical service structure, time, and length are varied to meet the needs of a diversely aged and ethnic parish. Appropriate programs and methods are used to enhance liturgical participation of Children and young members of the parish. Devotional prayer is encouraged as an enhancement to the primary sacramental celebrations of the parish.

8. Unity – Despite varying purpose, liturgies have a sense of consistency and unity, regardless of when parishioners choose to attend. Liturgies draw the community together rather than encourage people to divide into groups of common interest.

Faith Formation[4]

Quite early on, the name catechesis was given to the totality of the Church's efforts to make disciples, to help people believe that Jesus is the Son of God so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the Body of Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 4).

Faith formation helps believers develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and the Christian community, and increase their knowledge of the core content of the Catholic faith. Faith formation also helps people enrich and expand their understanding of the Scriptures and the sacred tradition and their application to life today, and live more faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ in their daily lives, especially through a life of prayer, justice, and loving service. Genuine faith is a total response of the whole person—mind, heart, and will. Faith formation fosters growth in Catholic faith in all three dimensions—trusting (heart), knowing and believing (mind), and doing (will). The goal should be to have all Catholic parishioners involved in some program of faith formation.

Parishes are challenged to face obstacles on many fronts, fighting for the time and attention of children, youth and adults. Parishes must look for ways to provide formation opportunities for people to mature in their faith.
Preparation for the sacraments requires parishes to have basic faith formation programs. In addition parishes must look to new and innovative ideas for passing on the faith, aware that all are on a lifelong journey of faith. We can best reach the destination if we are formed and informed along the way, so that we can clearly see where we are headed.

Another dimension of this essential is formation of a diverse parish population. All are challenged, as a diocese and as parishes, to respond to those who are joining with a different understanding of church. All are called to offer faith formation for those who live out their faith in various experiences of church.
Faith formation takes place in many formal and informal ways within the parish: adult, youth, and children’s education and spiritual formation, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA); sacramental preparation for the sacraments of Baptism, First Communion and Reconciliation, Confirmation, and Matrimony; family formation; renewal efforts; and Sunday homilies. These and other means of passing on the message of Jesus Christ are all aspects of Faith Formation within the community of faith.

Measuring Sticks

1. Competence – The school’s Catholic teachers and religious education leaders have appropriate education, ability, and experience to provide formation and effective administration of religious education efforts. Leaders and teachers foster an environment that is characterized by warmth, , acceptance, and care, so that all can hear and respond to God's call.

2. Ministering– Skilled and knowledgeable persons staff all aspects of parish formation efforts: adult education, RCIA, sacramental preparation, school of religion, youth ministry, teachers, etc. They are witnesses to the Gospel, active in parish life, and faithful to the teachings of the Church.

3. Planning – Adequate funds, resources, staff, and space are allocated to carry out the faith formation efforts of the parish, including Catholic schools. Religious formation or catechesis is planned and evaluated for all in the parish: adults, youth, and children.

4. Family Formation – Assistance is provided to help parents understand their roles as ministers to their children in the formation of Christian values and family relationships through programs, activities, and resources to improve skills such as family communication, decision making, and faith sharing. Show that faith formation benefits children and youth by enriching the parents’ role as their children’s teachers, and by setting an example to the children that learning about God does not end with Confirmation.

5. Community Formation – Sacramental preparation for baptism, confirmation/Eucharist/reconciliation and marriage is parish-based and uses parish diversity to enrich sacramental celebration whenever possible.

6. Youth Formation – Catholic schools attended by parish children and youth not only provide strong educational programs but also foster Christian community and witness.

7. Lifelong Formation– Parish offers a variety of faith formation programs to encourage life-long learning so that both youth and adults can explore their faith, their vocation, and fulfill their role within parish ministry. While all formation is rooted in the core content of Catholic faith, lifelong faith formation expands the breadth and understanding of Catholic faith. Parishioners are actively invited to explore the possibility of a personal call to ministry and vocation.

Stewardship[5]

“Who is a Christian steward? One who receives God’s gifts gratefully, cherishes and tends them in a responsible and accountable manner, shares them in justice and love with all, and returns them with increase to the Lord.”

This comprehensive definition of Christian stewardship headlines the pastoral letter Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response, which was approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) in November 1992. The definition, rooted in biblical and church tradition, corresponds with Almighty God’s decision to entrust to humanity the universe God had created (Gn 1:26-31) and with Jesus Christ’s famous parable of the talents (Mt. 25:14-36).

For disciples of Christ – everyone who responds to Jesus’ invitation, “Come, follow me” – Christian stewardship is an obligation, not an option. Correctly and fully understood, Christian stewardship holds every individual accountable to God for personal care of the universe. At the time of judgment, God will have the right to ask: “What did you do with my world?”

Christian stewardship, therefore, applies to everything – all personal talents, abilities, and wealth; the local, national, and worldwide environment; all human and natural resources wherever they are; the economic order; governmental affairs; and even outer space. This stewardship does not tolerate indifference to anything important in God’s world.

The pastoral letter describes stewardship as a way of life. It challenges Christians, inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, to try to see the hand of God in all creation. That calls for time – quality time – and extended perseverance. Stewardship is not easy.

Persons of all ages can practice stewardship in “the real world”. Children can learn about it and begin to put it into practice in their own small ways. Young people should be encouraged to develop their talents and use them to serve the parish and community. Adults need to practice stewardship in the workplace and community as well as the parish. Retired men and women have more time to get involved in parish ministries. Even the homebound and elderly can continue to contribute by telephoning other homebound individuals, by helping with parish mailings and by praying for the need of the parish.

The parish community must also model stewardship with its own actions. The parish has the responsibility to use its financial resources prudently. It must value the diverse nature of its parishioners, drawing upon the skills God has blessed them with. And it must respect and care for the facilities and natural environment in the community it lives in.

Measuring Sticks

1. Giftedness – The parish provides opportunities for parishioners to experience their giftedness and to recognize the source of blessings from God. Parishioners are thanked privately and publicly for their stewardship to the community.

2. Formation – Formation efforts and liturgies help parishioners of all ages understand their baptismal responsibility to steward their gifts, including the gifts of faith and life in a diverse Church. Parishioners who offer their gifts in service to the parish mission are given adequate training, encouragement, and supervision.

3. Resources – Parishioners demonstrate their understanding of Christian stewardship by their willing support of parish and diocesan needs through their time, talent, and treasure. These resources of the parish are sufficient to accomplish its mission and the goals and objectives flowing from that mission. The parish provides a parish brochure listing the ministries in which parishioners can become involved.

4. Planning – The parish has a stable Finance Council, staffed with persons with experience in budgeting, facilities management, fundraising, and development efforts. The Finance Council develops budgeting and finance strategies designed to assure long-term viability of the parish.

5. Independence – The parish keeps up payment on its debt, if there is one. The parish is not overly dependent on extraordinary fundraisers such as bingo, auctions, and tickets to support its ordinary budget. The parish establishes endowments and other self-sustaining funds to ensure long-term viability of the parish and school.

6. Modeling – The parish regularly shares a portion of its income with the poor. Parish and school facilities and grounds are maintained in good condition, with consideration for its neighbors.

Leadership[6]

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings by the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit (1 Cor 12:4–7).

Effective parish pastoral councils require a shared leadership among clergy and laity which calls forth the gifts of visioning, planning, empowering, and evaluating. These gifts are placed at the service of the community for the fulfillment of the parish mission.

While the pastor bears the ultimate responsibility and authority within a parish, the gifts of the laity “as each one has received” (1 Pt 4:10) are needed and welcomed in the service of the parish as well. Finding and developing leadership potential is essential if individuals are to take the places God equipped them for in the Body of Christ. Each parish needs to encourage its members to place their hands, feet, and minds in God’s service. Those selected to serve on the parish pastoral council exercise their gifts to vision, plan, empower, and evaluate the parish’s programs and initiatives in light of the parish mission.

Although all members of the council are called to leadership, each will carry out the responsibility in a unique “little way”, based on his or her own gifts, talents and style of leadership. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same spirit” (I Cor 12:4). Together, the pastor and council place their gifts at the service of one another and of the parish community with humility, a sense of hospitality, and accountability, with an openness to the Holy Spirit. They do so, however, as servants of the Gospel:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be the first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt 20:25-28)

The pastor and council do not work for or under one another, but rather with one another for the Kingdom of God. Together they lead the parish in the ongoing discernment and realization of its mission.

Measuring Sticks

1. Planning – The pastor, parish staff, and pastoral council according to their appropriate roles share responsibility for visioning, planning, empowering, and evaluating. The pastoral concerns of the parish are assessed, evaluated, and responded to by the parish pastoral council in collaboration with the pastor and parish staff, and when appropriate with the diocese or community at large.

2. Discernment – Decisions at parish and organizational level are made by discernment after a process of consensus building, study, discussion, and reflection. Individuals are encouraged to reflect and discern on the vocation that God is calling them toward, with an open invitation to consider a religious vocation.

3. Competence – Ongoing formation and training of parish and organizational leaders is provided for and is informed by diocesan, national and universal church teachings.

4. Delegation – Parish leaders delegate responsibility for implementing pastoral activities to competent persons, offering them support, resources, and regular oversight.

5. Professionalism – Parish personnel are recruited and paid according to professional and diocesan standards and formal job descriptions. The pastor ensures that parish and school staffs are regularly evaluated.

6. Succession – A systematic method of succession planning is used to ensure the continuity of parish staff and organizational ministry programs.

Pastoral / Social Ministry[7]

Our faith calls us to serve those in need; to care for those that are neglected; to love those that are unloved; to heal those that are hurt; to pursue peace; and to defend the life, dignity, and rights of all our sisters and brothers. This is the call of Jesus, the urging of his spirit, the challenge of the prophets, and the living tradition of our Church. This call not only drives us to address the inward needs of Pastoral Ministry; it also inspires us to look outwardly to address the needs of Social Ministry.

Our efforts to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort the sorrowing, console the bereaved, welcome the stranger, and serve the poor and vulnerable must be accompanied by concrete efforts to address the causes of human suffering and injustice. Advocacy and action to carry out our principles and constructive dialogue about how best to do this both strengthen our Church and enrich our society. All are called to transform their hearts and social structures, to renew the face of the earth.

Social ministry nurtures in all people a social consciousness and a commitment to a life of justice and service rooted in their faith in Jesus Christ, in the Scriptures, and in Catholic social teaching; empowers people to work for justice by concrete efforts to address the causes of human suffering; and infuses the concepts of justice, peace, and human dignity into all ministry efforts.

The Church increasingly views itself as a people set aside for the sake of others—a community that stands in solidarity with the poor, that reaches out in service to those in need, and that struggles to create a world where each person is treated with dignity and respect. We are called as a Church to respond to people's present needs or crises, such as homelessness, sickness, loss, or hunger. We are also called to help change the policies, structures, and systems that perpetuate injustice through legislative advocacy, community organizing, and work with social change organizations. Direct service needs to be coupled with action for justice so that all experience the benefits of working directly with those in need and learn to change the system that keeps people in need. Justice and service are central to who we are as God's people and to how we live our faith at home, in our communities, and in the world.

The central message is simple: our faith is profoundly social. We cannot be called truly "Catholic" unless we hear and heed the Church's call to serve those in need and work for justice and peace. We cannot
call ourselves followers of Jesus unless we take up his mission of bringing "good news to the poor, liberty to captives, and new sight to the blind" (cf. Lk 4:18) (Communities of Salt and Light, p. 3).

God is revealed to us, as existing in perfect relationship. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; one, yet three separate persons. To live in God's image, therefore is to live in right relationship with God, with each other, and with God's creation. We witness God's love by living and loving ourselves and our neighbor and God's creation. (Luke 10:37 Go and do likewise.) As a parish community, we live this calling by respecting life, servicing each other in need, advocating to promote the common good in society, demonstrating our Catholic faith with others, and working for generous stewardship of God's gifts to us. Acts of charity and works of justice lovingly complement each other, resulting in peace within families and among neighbors. The parish social ministry therefore reflects God's love and the primary commandment to us to love God with our whole self, and our neighbor as ourselves. By abiding this commandment, as a community, we help to build God's kingdom here and now.

Measuring Sticks

1. Pastoral Care – The parish has ongoing programs for ministering to the sick, the homebound, the aged, those in nursing homes, and those suffering loss due to death, divorce, life transition, etc.

2. Family Life – Strengthening marriages and nurturing the life of families are priorities for the parish.

3. Formation – Formation efforts at all levels within the parish integrate Catholic social teaching. The parish has organized programs of instruction dealing with current issues in the light of Catholic social teaching. The parish coordinator of social ministry has adequate education and experience for the position.

4. Human Dignity – The parish focuses on the needs of the human community, beginning with its own members and extending to the poor and marginalized in the local area, the nation, and the world. Organizations within the parish systematically address particular human needs by sponsoring projects such as food pantries, shelters for the homeless and job assistance for the unemployed, or by supporting other parishes or agencies which have these services.

5. Actively Engaged – The parish participates in local, national, and international helping efforts. Participation in political action, voting in local and national elections, involvement in policy-making at local, state, and national levels is encouraged. Opportunities for collaborative activity with other denominations in the local area are sought out.

6. Diversity – The parish makes every effort to accommodate persons with special needs. Racial and ethnic harmony, peacemaking and non-violence, respect for life at all stages, and the practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are priority areas for study and action in the parish.

Spirituality[8]

"Great is the mystery of faith!" The Church professes this mystery in the Apostles' Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two), so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2558).

The ministry of prayer and worship celebrates and deepens people's relationship with Jesus Christ through the bestowal of grace, communal prayer and liturgical experiences; it awakens their awareness of the spirit at work in their lives; it incorporates people more fully into the sacramental life of the Church, especially Eucharist; it nurtures the personal prayer life of people; and it fosters family rituals and prayer.

Our pilgrim journey together in holiness toward eternal life describes the spirituality of parish life. With our hopefulness, our prayers, our grateful living with God's gifts, our mindfulness of our existence together as children of God, in communion with those who have gone before us, state clearly that our goals as a Catholic community of believers is to seek complete union with God. Through family life, sacramental experience, communal prayer and personal reflection, we find wholeness together with God.

Spirituality should not be confused with piety. Spirituality means a full life orientation to God: not prayerfulness, but life as prayer; not just expressions of gratitude, but living stewardship; not just petitioning words, but experience of trust and belief in God's goodness and mercy. The parish provides a rich tapestry of opportunities to deepen personal relationships with God, and with each other, and to encourage each member to live out his or her true vocation on their journey back to God to discern God’s purpose for their life.

Measuring Sticks

1. Meetings / Activities – The parish systematically incorporates prayer into all meetings and activities. Prayer is treated as an essential component to completing parish and organizational work (You do not hear, “we spend too much time on prayer in the meetings, and not enough time getting work done”).

2. Prayer – Sacraments, liturgies, and special services include times for communal and private prayer. The church environment is adaptable to the various needs of private and communal prayer. Spiritual retreats and other prolonged spiritual programs are provided regularly to encourage communal and personal spiritual development.

3. Reflections – Sermons and reflections invite parishioners to prayerfully consider their spirituality, and how it can manifest itself within the parish community. Special events such as missions, retreats, or concerts help parishioners reflect in alternate ways.

[1] Mostly from Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council: A Workbook, Mary Ann Gubish and Susan Jenny, S.C.
[2] Mostly from Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
[3] Mostly from The Ten Essentials of Parish Life, Diocese of Oakland, www.oakdiocese.org/Ten%20Essentials%20Eng.pdf with references also from Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council: A Workbook, Mary Ann Gubish and Susan Jenny, S.C. and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy [1963].
[4] Mostly from The Ten Essentials of Parish Life, Diocese of Oakland, www.oakdiocese.org/Ten%20Essentials%20Eng.pdf, with references also from Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council: A Workbook, Mary Ann Gubish and Susan Jenny, S.C. and Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, US Catholic Conference of Bishops.
[5] Source: Stewardship and Development in Catholic Dioceses and Parishes: A Resource Manual, US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
[6] Source: The Ten Essentials of Parish Life, Diocese of Oakland, www.oakdiocese.org/Ten%20Essentials%20Eng.pdf,; Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council: A Workbook, Mary Ann Gubish and Susan Jenny, S.C.
[7] Mostly from Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, US Catholic Conference of Bishops
[8] Some references from Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, US Catholic Conference of Bishops.