YA Ministry Model

Engaging young adults is a priority for almost every parish I work with to create a Parish Vision Plan. A consistent thought about young adult ministry is that “it’s slippery.” It seems to be one of the hardest ministry to start, develop, grow, and sustain.

Feeling Heard

Catholics have opinions about how their parishes should function. (That’s a truth you didn’t need me to outline.) Because they are so invested and we want them to be engaged, we include them in the Vision Planning process right from the beginning. The Parish Leadership Team (created to develop a Parish Vision Plan) is composed of people who represent the entire parish community whenever possible: young, old, families, empty nesters, cradle Catholics, converts, English speaking, Spanish speaking, etc. This group of individuals bring their own opinions as well as their fellow parishioner’s insights.

Thoughts on Homilies

Some weekly activities at the parish are intended to be for the people to grow deeper in the faith. Some are for the pastor to engage with his people. However, the reality is that everything is related to the Mission! Today an idea for a simple opportunity for parishioners to unpack the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel that comes full circle to the homily preached at Sunday’s Mass.

Languishing & Mental Health

I read this article about “Languishing” and thought, “Yes, this describes so much of what’s going on right now in the world. We heard about this idea of “emotional burnout” related to the pandemic about a year ago.

The Heart of the Mission

I recently finished a new book by Cande de Leon entitled The Heart of the Mission. I cannot recommend this book enough to parishes, pastors, ministry teams, and anyone really. Cande breaks down the HOW of Evangelization in a way that makes sense for all believers.

Opinions about Music

As I do surveys at parishes all over the country, one consistent trend is that Catholics have an opinion about music. It’s either too fast, too slow, too new, too old, too in English, or too in Latin. Their parishes either use too much organ or not enough, too many guitars or not enough, drums are too loud or “how do we not have drums yet?”

Examination of Conscience for Women

Radiant Magazine (a publication of OSV) shared these two examinations of conscience for women during Holy Week. I thought they were so great, I had to share them with you to share with your parishioners.

A Free eBook

Earlier this spring our team put together the best ideas from Transform Your Parish into an easy to download and share eBook. Have you seen it yet?

Listening to Understand

At the beginning of the year I started following a new political account on Instagram. Her name is Sharon McMahon, and she is a former government teacher who spends her days sharing the facts with her almost 600k followers. I’ve learned more from her in the past four months about government than I did in the previous 35 years of my life. But this post isn’t about government, politics, or even current events – it’s about a concept she keeps coming back to that we need more of in our lives.

The Station Churches

One of my favorite things this Lent is the daily edition of my favorite pilgrimage guide’s podcast: The Catholic Traveler Podcast. Mountain Butorac and Joannie Watson are sharing this beautiful Roman tradition with all of us – and without the ability to travel to Italy in person I am here for it.