HENDERSONVILLE — What is the mission of a parish?
That's the question Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz posed to his parish council at Immaculate Conception Church a few years ago. The Hendersonville parish had a mission statement, of course, printed in its weekly bulletin, but no one could remember what it was.
That realization served as a wake-up call for the parish lay leaders, who under the pastor's direction formed a nine-member mission team and began a period of prayer and discernment, asking themselves: What is the purpose of our parish? Where are we going? What are we to do when we get there?
Over the course of nine months, answers to their questions slowly came to light through what they believe was the working of the Holy Spirit. The result is a new parish mission: "We are a joyful Catholic community of disciples of Jesus Christ, moved by love, to seek the lost and the broken and bring them home."
To better clarify the mission, the team broke it down into seven phrases, which come together to provide a single mission. Their prayer is that it "has the ability to touch, inspire and move God's people. That it speaks to each of our hearts. That it unifies us without limiting our movement. That it provides focus while not constraining. And that it calls us to respond to the promptings of the Spirit – uniquely as individuals and communally as the Body of Christ."
"It's not a mission statement," explains Bob Lange, longtime parishioner and the mission team leader. "A mission statement feels passive. This is a mission! Mission is action. You could hear a pin drop in the room afterwards when we presented it to our parish council, there were a lot of tears. It's a very provocative mission. Seeking the lost and the broken and bringing them home is something we don't talk a lot about as Christians."
He noted that we all have this hidden brokenness and a hidden feeling of being lost. It applies to everyone. Bringing people "home" means bringing them to the Heart of Jesus to allow His healing Presence to change their lives.
Parishioners then asked themselves: do we have a parish capable of performing this mission? The answer was no. So parish leaders spent months discerning how the parish could live its new mission.
Said Lange, "We started with a blank sheet of paper, which is very freeing, but it's also a very scary thing because there is no roadmap. We spun our wheels for a while. We had to ask ourselves if we were going to design our parish around what Jesus did, how would we do it? We looked at how Jesus spent His days. What did He do? It was a basic approach, but that is when the blank sheet of paper wasn't blank anymore."
The work led the parish to reorganize its various ministries and groups established over the parish's 100-year history into seven core ministries that model Christ's mission: praying, teaching, serving, healing, outreach, fellowship and leadership.
"Those are the seven things Jesus occupied His time doing. We realized we didn't have to be clever, or cute, or corporate-minded about it. We didn't have to invent anything. We just had to do what He did. We developed and designed a parish that looks like Him," Lange said.
"We realized we're not just designing a parish, we are designing the Body of Christ," Lange said. "It just changed everything. We decided we're not doing things because it is organizationally necessary, we wanted to design the Body of Christ."
Adds Father Schratz, "From there a structure evolved with the finance council and a special pastor's advisory group, both of which work directly with the pastor."
"It was daunting to take this in another direction," Lange noted. "Some ministries were populated strongly and some didn't exist. What Catholic parish has a conscious leadership development ministry? Or a healing ministry? A considerable amount of what Jesus did was related to healing."
One particular mission of the parish, they strongly believed, was the shepherding of souls, because Christ is the Good Shepherd.
So the team created "shepherding groups" to guide and uplift the parish's ministries. These supporting groups were split into five areas: stewardship, discipleship, mission team, pastoral advisors and the finance council.
They also redefined "stewardship" as a focus on someone who is being entrusted with something from the Master.
"What's valuable is the precious lambs that have been entrusted to our parish: the people," said Lange. So everything at Immaculate Conception now revolves around doing what Jesus did and bringing souls closer to Him in the Body of Christ.
The mission team has also selected patron saints to help guide and intercede for each of the 12 areas highlighted in their new mission: the seven core ministries and the five shepherding groups. For example, St. Faustina Kowalska is their patron of the praying ministry. St. Andrew, who led Peter to Jesus, is the patron of the leadership ministry. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patron of the discipleship ministry. And St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron of their mission team.
Once everything was set up and shared with the entire parish, everyone recited the mission at Mass for a few months. The mission is now stated at all meetings and has become the focus of who they are as a parish.
Father Schratz says he also invited everyone involved in ministry, starting with the parish council, to read a book by Paulist Father Robert S. Rivers entitled "From Maintenance to Mission."
"Too often we just maintain our parishes. This book challenges us to be a parish with a mission.
"With this new mission and now with a new Holy Father and his thrust for evangelization, what better place to turn to then to the Gospels and the life of Jesus?" Father Schratz noted. "If we are following Jesus, let us look at His life and work and model our parish on His life."
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. Photos provided by Bob Lange
HUNTERSVILLE — The Diocese of Charlotte held its first formal Respect Life conference Aug. 28 at Christ the King High School in Huntersville. The event, open to all parish Respect Life coordinators and pro-life activists, drew close to 30 participants representing approximately 15 Charlotte area parishes and Knights of Columbus councils.
The event began with Mass, which was offered by Jesuit Father Joseph Koterski, associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University in New York, and the conference’s keynote speaker. During his keynote address, Father Koterski reviewed the social teachings of the Church and the philosophical foundations for the right to life.
The conference also featured addresses from Be Not Afraid ministry, which supports parents experiencing a poor prenatal diagnosis; and a powerful testimony from Jackie Childers with Rachel’s Vineyard, a post-abortion healing ministry. The event concluded with an address by Bishop Peter Jugis, who encouraged pro-life leaders to persevere and to continue their work through prayer and fasting.
The conference was well received by Respect Life coordinators.
Andy Zorichak, Respect Life coordinator at St. Ann Church in Charlotte, said, “It was very informative and I was especially moved by the Be Not Afraid ministry presentation.”
Tammy Harris, St. Gabriel Church’s Respect Life coordinator, also found it inspiring. “The conference allowed me to make so many connections within the Respect Life community. It helped me to create deeper bonds within this ministry,” she said.
The conference, organized by Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, was the fruit of a new collaboration between the diocese and C-PLAN (Catholic Pro-Life Action Network of Charlotte), a coalition of Charlotte-area parish Respect Life coordinators that organizes city-wide Catholic Respect Life efforts. Catholic Charities plans to hold the conference annually and rotate it among the three regions of the diocese (Asheville, Charlotte and the Triad).
To learn more about Catholic Charities’ Respect Life pro-gram, go online to www.ccdoc.org/services/social-concerns-advocacy/respect-life. To find out about C-PLAN, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org
— Mike FitzGerald, Correspondent