Category: Rebuilt

Proclaim 2014: First half of 23 August Keynote Speech

8/11/2014

Saturday Keynote Speech Part 1 : Moving Members from Consumers to Contributors

Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran, the writers of 'Rebuilt' and 'Tools for Rebuilding' gave the keynote speech on Saturday of the Conference with the title 'Moving Members from Consumers to Contributors'.

Not everything that has worked in our parish will work or be transferable to your own situation and setting. There are still many questions for which we do not have the answers yet. Our parish in North Baltimore is a work in progress.

Many of you have read our book, 'Rebuilt'. Publishing a successful book has been a very interesting experience. That book has opened up the doors to many speaking engagements, even in Las Vegas. Let us tell you that travel gets old very quickly.

Recently we were in Chicago and very much looking forward to going home. While we were waiting in the airport lounge we noticed a big buzz and lots of agitation going on. Our flight had been delayed. First by 2 hours, then by 4 hours and then indefinitely delayed. So many flights had been delayed and cancelled that quite a lot of panic developed in the airport. Our options were limited, we could stay and wait until the next flight to Baltimore became possible, or we could try to get to Baltimore via Cleveland. The lady in front of us at the airline counter was quite frantic about getting the Cleveland option. Eventually we did get home by the direct route. But the lesson we learned was this – it is very, very easy to lose direction and purpose over temporary setbacks.

So let's have a brief refresher on the basics. Acts 2:42 'These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.' This is what the first Christian community did, and they were extraordinarily fruitful in introducing people to Christ and in helping develop them in discipleship. The mission hasn't changed. This too is our task, our work, fuelled by the new evangelisation (we don't know what that term means, but we are learning).

The difficulty comes with the details. In any project, the devil is in the details. So here we can get mixed up. To build you need to start somewhere, and the building site is your parish; your neighbourhood. Parish is where you join the kingdom building effort. And as you know, any building site looks messy and awkward.

Your parish consists of those not just in your congregation, not just those in the pews. It consists of it of everyone who lives within your parish boundaries. So we need to learn about them, the people in the parish who are not in relationship with the parish. What is their culture? What they think about God, faith, religion? - If they think about any of these things at all.

We decided to learn about them. What we learnt surprised us. The majority of those in our parish do not go to church, were baptised Catholic and are not interested in the things of God at all. Learning why they left, and about what might them back, is critical to building the kingdom.

We read in the Gospels that Jesus took His 12 disciples on a road trip. They went to Caesarea Philippi, an ancient town that was like Las Vegas on steroids. It had a temple with a deep grotto that was dedicated to the Greek god 'Pan'. It was a wildly hedonistic place. The locals called this temple with its grotto the Gates of Hades. It is actually the source of the River Jordan. The interesting thing is that Jesus brought His disciples here not to preach or to teach but to ask them two questions:

'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' The disciples had many answers for this question because there was plenty of confusion about who Jesus is.

'But who do you say I am?' Peter gets this question right, and that's the first time that happens. He says 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

What happens then is that Jesus makes a very big announcement. As big as the giving of the Law to Moses, as big as the promise that a descendant of David would be the Messiah, as big as the angel's news to Mary that she would become the Mother of God. That big. 'You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My church.'

Jesus could have used 'temple' or 'synagogue', but He didn't. He used a word previously not found in the New Testament – 'church'. This is the biggest news ever. This is God's plan for the rest of human history. 'And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven'. Matt 16:18-20.

The Greek word for church is ecclesia. It was a word used to describe assemblies, gatherings of people in a neighbourhood coming together for a purpose. A bit like a town hall meeting with a deliberate purpose which impacts upon everyone in the neighbourhood. Jesus Christ promised to build an ecclesia, not a kirk, not a building. He wasn't interested in buildings. An ecclesia is a movement. And a movement has gotta move – it has to grow, too. The ecclesia of Jesus is a dynamic gathering, a powerful movement, with world changing consequences.

The problem is that church people get in the way. We like to control and contain this movement. We like things neat and orderly. Ecclesia is messy. Building projects are messy. Building projects are unpredictable. They are works in progress. Church people want things neat, predictable and finished. Tension between the movement of the kingdom and the inertia of church people is not ancient history – it happens everywhere.

Building the kingdom is not easy and no one will thank you for it initially – do it anyway.

Throw away your usual agenda, and ask…..

Are we making a reasonable difference in our community or are we simply serving our members?
Are we mobilised for mission or insisting on business as usual?
Are we here to preserve a broken system or building where God is blessing?
Are we simply meeting or are we moving and doing something with meaning?

People have one of four types of relationship with your parish

People committed to not coming
Consumers in your parish who come out of guilt, to get something, who come out of obligation, who come to feed their needs, who come for something for a family member. It is all about them. It is OK for them to come in that way.
Contributors. Those who are helping your parish to move and who are supporters.
Committed. Those sold out to build the kingdom of God.

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The next issue will give the second part of the keynote speech and some of the Q and A discussion which followed it.

Some of the workshops have been made available as podcasts via www.xt3.com

To access them visit http://www.xt3.com/library/view.php?id=17454

Some of the talks and workshops are now available from http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources.

Several video clips, transcripts, handouts and slide presentations are downloadable.

These Notes are only one person's version of what they heard, and they are not a literal transcript.

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Proclaim 2014: Second half of 21 August Keynote Speech

27/8/2014

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Before we get to the rest of Fr Michael White's and Tom Corcoran's keynote speech, it is important that I pass on to you what Bishop Peter Ingham said as part of his preamble to Morning Prayer – and which made such an impact that it was repeated by many other speakers and presenters at the conference.

It went like this: Bishop Ingham said, 'That if Jesus were with us today, I think the message He would give us is this, 'Tweet others as you would like to be Tweeted'.

Fr Michael and Tom's quest to learn from healthy churches began at Saddleback, California. This was just prior to Rick Warren, the pastor of that mega church publishing 'The Purpose Driven Life' which quickly rose to the top of the Christian best seller list and stayed there. (Ed. It is a good book, but it does contain a few ignorant digs at liturgically based churches, so if you read it do so with discernment.)

Not surprisingly Fr Michael and Tom were concerned at the reception they might receive at such a place if they were outed as Catholics. When they arrived the first building they came to was a big one, but it wasn't the church, it was the nursery. Eventually they found the church, and were very surprised to see how very plain it was on the inside, think Walmart with chairs. There was nothing fancy here at all. But the people, there was something different about them. They were SO friendly, and SO happy. And they were SO happy to see me. Anxious to find out whether this kind of welcome was the same for everyone, Fr Michael ducked out a side door, and came in through the front door, and received the same kind of enthusiastic greeting. The experience begged the question, 'What are they so happy about?'

Following this, Fr Michael and Tom visited and studied several other mega-churches and went well outside their comfort zones. 'Growth is always on the outside of our comfort zone'.

From these studies they learned three big (huge) lessons:

Focus must shift from the churched to the unchurched
Prioritise the weekend experience, 'It's about the weekend, stupid!'
Move the churched people to action

Change came at The Nativity parish when our focus came off those in the pews and on to those not there.

The non-attendees are your growth market. So who are they?

We didn't actually know, nor did we know how to reach them.

So we worked on a description, and called him Timonium Tim.

Tim is a great guy. He grew up Catholic, but stopped going to church soon after Confirmation. Everything he thinks he knows about Catholicism is a muddled mess. He has a stressful life. He has a long commute to work, and has three kids, who go to three different schools. Tim has a lot of debt and is living beyond his means. The financial stress is having an impact on his marriage. Tim has a crazy life, and on the weekends Tim wants some Tim-time, time to relax and do his own thing. Mostly that means going to the football game or playing golf. Tim does not ever consider going to church. If he ever thinks about church, the words boring, bad and irrelevant come to mind.

The old paradigm, 'Open the doors and they'll come' – doesn't work anymore at all.

You will never get as many people in your doors on weekdays than on weekends. Even with our Family Friendly Fridays we were getting 600 people, compared to the 1800 showing up for weekend Masses.

If someone has a bad weekend experience at church, they will assume

That the rest of what you have to offer is equally bad
That there is nothing there for them
And this will lead to thinking , or confirm their thinking, that God is irrelevant in their lives

For someone like Tim, the Eucharist is not yet enough to attract him and keep him coming back.

THE most important pillars of your weekend experience are MUSIC, MESSAGE and MINISTERS.

Music has the power to transport a person on an emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey. God has bestowed on His people the gift of song. God is present whenever His people sing. Music leads us to the higher realm of things. Music can do what words alone cannot do. More than anything else music can change hearts and minds for the better.

Historically at The Nativity, the music was very bad. We had a choir Mass, a folk Mass and a quiet – no music Mass. The folk Mass was the most popular choice, but the music group struggled. Our choir was convinced that they had musical skills beyond where reality lay, and had a few prima donnas. And no one sang. No one. If you sang, we knew you were a visitor, and we would probably stare at you until you shut up. Most people were apathetic about their involvement in singing.

At one of our town hall style 'get feedback from the people' meetings there was a riot of complaint about the music.

People were coming to church, and leaving angry because of the music.

What did we do? Nothing... Because we didn't want to offend people.

It is very difficult to change the music. To do so you must make the commitment and wear the consequences.

There are very good musicians right now in your pews, who won't step forward and haven't stepped forward because there are other musicians (usually of lesser quality) in those spots.

God gave us the courage and the grace to make changes in the area of music.

Message. Words are powerful.

This is where the relevance comes.

This is where you can give spiritual direction to hundreds of people at a time.

This is worth dedicating time and effort to.

People feel 'fed' if the homily is good.

This is especially so for Tim who is not at the stage of feeling fed by Holy Communion.

Ministers. They create a sense of destination for those who come.

We have a Host Team, consisting of greeters, ushers and people to help with parking. These people are about creating an irresistible environment for people to worship in. They help create the sense that 'something exciting is going to happen here.'

We have a Children's Team. Parents need support. The family is where the foundation of faith is laid in children. What we want to happen is to see what Fr Michael saw once: a dad struggling to escort his son in the direction the dad wanted to go in, with the son telling him, 'Dad you just don't get it, I want to go back in the #@&! church'.

One thank you letter The Nativity received explains why this is so important.

'Thank you. We found it hard to go to church and to keep our children happy and occupied. Your kid's programmes were such that our children wanted to come back. Everyone was so helpful, friendly – and smiling. Now we know we can come to church and sit as a couple for an hour to be refreshed and renewed, and to get what we need to get us through another crazy week.'

Question to start asking yourself

Is there something your parish is doing that is not making disciples?
What can you do to improve the weekend experience at your parish?
Who is your Timonium Tim or Sydney Sid?

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The next blog-post will feature the homily from Thursday's Mass at the Conference and a few other things.

To read the first chapter of Rebuilt for free, visit http://rebuiltparish.com/book/ and fill out the details in the black box on the right hand side of the screen.

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Proclaim 2014: First half of 21 Aug Keynote Speech

26/8/2014

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Prior to the Keynote speech starting, there were brief welcome speeches from the organisers and from Bishop Ingham, followed by a shortened form of Morning Prayer (as normal, except for only one psalm and no Benedictus). To know you are praying to the One God in the midst of representatives of the whole of Australia, New Zealand and beyond, in union with several bishops and numerous clergy and religious is something very special, powerful and rare. For that experience alone the conference was worth it.

Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran, the writers of 'Rebuilt' were then introduced. During that introduction they were called the Paul and Barnabas of our day. After acknowledging the barriers of language and distance between us and them, they then took turns in talking.

Tom graduated from Loyola University, Baltimore in 1996, and after a brief look at a career in politics was invited to do youth ministry work at the parish of The Nativity. Since he was getting ready to propose marriage to a young lady, the mundane need for a regular pay cheque swung the deal. She is now his wife and they have 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls.

Fr Michael insisted that they are experts only in what works in their parish at this time in history. What works in their context may not work in your context.

Fr Michael said that the most important question we have to ask ourselves is 'Why?'. It is an uncomfortable question and one we need to ask ourselves sooner and more frequently. Why am I here? Why am I doing this task? Why does the Church / parish exist? Purpose, meaning and value come from answering these Why questions.

When we first arrived at our parish, it was obvious that it was a sleepy one. So we said to ourselves,' let's provide more programmes and services', 'that will get it going'. Unwittingly our actions fed a consumer mentality in our parishioners, and reinforced the notion that we retail representatives of the Church sent to serve them.

We put all kinds of programmes together, social, youth, concerts etc.

Much of this work was a waste of time.

Just like in Lewis Carroll's story, we were experiencing what the Queen told Alice, 'You have to do all the running you can do to stay in the same place'. The more we provided, the more was demanded. The net effect of our efforts was that we were creating consumers who did not change, and were increasingly demanding consumers at that.

The crunch came for Fr Michael after 5 years of running a very labour intensive Lenten programme. It was called Family Friendly Fridays, and had a free dinner, a talk, and other stuff. This programme was in addition to the already packed parish schedule. By the time the team came to the 6th and final Family Friendly Friday of the Lenten season, which seemed like it had gone on forever, they were at total burnout point – and this just prior to facing the marathon that is Holy Week. On this last night of the Family Friendly Fridays for that year a woman approached him to complain nastily about the free food. Yes, about the FREE food. Something snapped. He realised that he could no longer do this. This programme was wasting his time, and not changing the attendees at all. There was a distinct lack of purpose and impact.

At last he asked himself the 'Why am I doing this?' question.

To work without purpose leads to heartache, depression and despair.

Jesus is clear about why the Church exists. Matthew 28:16-20. He assembles the apostles, and declares to them that the devil is no longer prince over this world because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He endured the Passion to win back this authority. Now He declares to the apostles, 'now I pass it on to you'. 'Take it' not to run Bingo, not to run pot-luck dinners, not to run youth lock-ins, but to Go and Make Disciples of All Nations. This is why the Church exists.

A parish is a geographical area. We are responsible not just for those in the pews, but for all those who dwell within the parish boundaries.

What is a disciple? They are students learning to follow Jesus the Master – not perfect- but trying each day to be better disciples. A disciple is someone growing to love God, growing to love others and growing in making disciples. To be a disciple involves turning everything in our lives over to Him. To be a disciple means that you are trying to love God with all you have and trying to love your neighbour as yourself. Disciples naturally make disciples. If they are truly in a relationship with Jesus, then they bring others with them.

Take the example of the woman at the well. John 4: 1-42 She went back to the community she had been ostracised from to say, 'Come and see a man who knows everything about me, but still loves me'. They came, they saw, and many became disciples.

Take the example of the Gerasene demoniac. Mark 5: 1-20. Jesus freed him from a legion of demons, who then went into the pigs. When the former demoniac asks to go with Jesus, the reply of Jesus is unusual. Not 'Come, follow Me' but 'Stay here and tell the people what God has done for you'. The bloke must have done a good job, because the next time Jesus returns to that region of Galilee there is a large crowd waiting for Him to preach to them.

We have to carefully ask ourselves in each of our Church activities, 'Are we making disciples or creating religious consumers?'.

Things only began to change in our parish when we acknowledged that what we were doing wasn't working, when we began to seek God's guidance in prayer, and when we were humble enough to start seeking healthy churches to learn from – even if this meant learning from non-Catholic Christians.

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In the next blog-post the Keynote speech continues, reflecting upon the three big lessons Fr Michael and Tom learned from these other churches about making church matter.

To read the first chapter of Rebuilt for free, visit http://rebuiltparish.com/book/ and fill out the details in the black box on the right hand side of the screen.

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Proclaim 2014 : Fruitful Waiting

24/8/2014

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Over the past few days, from Thursday 21 August to Saturday 23 August, I had the privilege of attending the Proclaim 2014 Conference at Chatswood organised by the National Office for Evangelisation on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. This was the second conference of this nature, the first one being held in 2012.

Since I am a copious note taker, and the content of the Conference was so good, I will dedicate the next series of blog posts to sharing both those notes and the thoughts they engendered. How long that will take is in God's hands, depending on Him to provide the time. Hopefully there should be some more content every two or three days until I run out. Due to my father's generosity (who also attended) I have some of the handouts for two of the workshops that were going on at the same time as the ones I attended, and will add that in when the time comes.

But before I forget the details, I want to record some of things I learned while talking to people as we waited for the concert hall to open, for the workshops to start, with those who manned some of the stalls, with those who walked to and from the conference venue with me, during the breaks for coffee and food, with those waiting in the queue for lunch, and the queues that sometimes formed in the loos. Those times of waiting were extraordinarily fruitful and I met a great number of inspiring people.

One bloke was manning the Emmanuel Community table, married with children, who grew up in the community. He spoke about how the local bishop had given them permission to function as a parish, to gather for Mass Sunday by Sunday, and to provide a full sacramental life and preparation for those sacraments – and how that was going very well.

One priest from the diocese of Bathurst was a missionary immigrant from that wonderful All Hallows seminary which during the 20th century sent out so many priests to our country. He was there out of concern for the welfare of his parish and had driven six hours to get to the conference. My own parish priest from childhood days was a graduate of All Hallows.

Sitting with Dad during the major sessions, he shared with me his vision for making parish meetings more effective. The 'let's get all our ideas on this topic out on the whiteboard' and then discuss them isn't working. Few people can come up with truly excellent ideas without a lot of thought and reflection. So why not provide a pre-prepared list of ideas to the meeting, that you can go through one by one seeking a yay or nay response, ensuring that you get to discuss the good stuff quicker? Of course, you'd ask for additions to the list on the day from those present at the meeting.

One of the priests manning Conventual Franciscan Friar's stall was named Fr Benedict, and he lived up to his well- chosen religious name by granting a blessing from the heart over a holy card of St Padre Pio which I desired for a parish friend facing a major operation on the feast day of St Padre Pio.

One woman had come all the way from Townsville, and is involved in RCIA and sacramental preparation in her parish. They now do RCIA all year round, welcoming inquirers as they come, and journeying with them until they are ready (however short or long a time that takes). Each year they would prepare about 50 school children for sacraments and about 20-30 indigenous youngsters in a separate programme. Possibly because they have a reverence for ancestors and elders, these indigenous youngsters respond wholeheartedly to the lives of the Saints and develop strong life-long bonds with the Saints they choose as confirmation patrons.

Another woman hailed from Surfers Paradise, where they have done a most interesting thing: changing the name of the Parish Pastoral Council to the Parish Mission Council. Thereby also changing the focus of the Council's activities toward the vision of Pope Francis for our parishes.

Waitara parish decided to buy several copies of 'Rebuilt' for parishioners to read on a 'read and return' or 'read and keep for $5' basis. They are also experimenting with helping people take little steps out of their comfort zones by inviting them once in a while to sit somewhere different at Mass and see what happens.

The Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand, was at the conference for all three days. Most of the rest of the 24-strong contingent from NZ were from the North Island. When asked what he most wanted prayers for, he said not one thing but three things: vocations, evangelisation, and fiscal soundness for his diocese currently struggling with large debts. Please pray a Hail Mary for him, and for his diocese, that God may grant him the big miracle he seeks.

On the train I had a nice long chat with someone who works in the local diocesan development fund. These funds are set up as money managers in a diocese to harness the collective financial bargaining power of the whole diocese, providing a way for individuals and institutions to invest in church projects and for churches and schools to get loans at good rates of interest. The current challenge is that due to the greying of many religious orders lay people have been taking on management / board positions in Catholic institutions and thinking with secular minds when it comes to loans and investment – not knowing that there is the diocesan development fund option that will enable them to serve not only the institutions they are involved with but the wider mission of the Church as well.

Another interesting conversation was with a member of our diocesan Parish Support team. Teams like this know of so many resources that are available which most parishioners don't. Generally, as someone involved in a parish ministry if you can articulate clearly what you need, then the parish support team can help you.

Two priests younger than me had travelled to the conference from the highland regions of Papua New Guinea. There vocations seem to be steady, with annual ordinations of new candidates to the priesthood.

Don't underestimate how valuable having expats from other countries in your parish can be. What enormous courage it takes to pack up your whole family and move to a new country! They know a lot about 'moving out of your comfort zone' and have lots to teach us. One Irish expat lives in Canberra and has first-hand knowledge of conditions in the middle east and in south east Asia. One expat American is discerning how best to serve God though her Blue Mountains parish.

It was great to meet a young diocesan priest from the Philippines who is currently ministering in Lismore diocese. He was very aware of how he must be a missionary to all God's children, not just to other expats from his country.

Another lady encouraged me to think about the needs of those in our communities who have suffered strokes. They are unable to stand in queues for long periods and the balance required to eat while standing up with plate in one hand and fork in the other is just beyond them.

The Sisters of St Paul de Chartres was a religious order I wasn't familiar with, and who had a stall at the conference. I look forward to reading some of the material I collected about them and their founders. What I did learn is that like the Carthusians (St Bruno) they not to seek canonisation for members of their order. Since the canonisation process is a lengthy and costly one this means that they are more likely to keep focus on the mission God has given them. Obedience gets rewarded, because at least 3 of the 124 Korean martyrs beatified this month by Pope Francis were members of their order, and I guess that process would have been prepared at a national level.

Often I asked attendees where they had come from and what motivated them to make the journey. Some came from Hobart, Perth, Toowoomba, Bateman's Bay, Ballarat, Canberra, Queanbeyan, Maitland/Newcastle. Many were sponsored by their parish or diocese (as either conscripts or volunteers), many came because they had read the Rebuilt book, some because they came 2 years ago, some because knew something has to be done at parish level and wanted to know what could be done.

While travelling on the rails, I was surprised to see so many people are watching video (movies, podcasts, YouTube), more than were flicking through texts and Facebook. Now video clips are not my cup of tea, and if I find one on a website or Facebook post I usually skip over it, but obviously to reach those not in the pews using online video content has to be part of any evangelisation strategy.

At least two people not attending the conference asked 'What's going on?' questions. All these people moving around with huge white carry bags and name tag pouches caused comment. One was a young man of the Maronite tradition who travels from somewhere like Punchbowl to Chatswood each day for work. Please pray that God provides him a good job closer to home.

Another delight was meeting a young priest from Parramatta diocese, who has resolved to emulate Fr Tom Forrest by bringing mentions of the Mother of Jesus into his preaching.

One of the Benedictine nuns from Jamberoo, who had a stall with their handmade candles, told me how pleased she had been that some of the general public had come in to look at the stalls and ask questions.

For Proclaim 2016 I hope the organisers set up 2 or 3 demountable reconciliation alcoves beside the grassed area against the wall. Quiet areas for such ministry were hard to find amidst all the wonderful conversations going on. In such a location generous priests could be available not only to conference attendees but also to the general public who might not have the courage to step into a church to go to confession but might have enough in such a marketplace setting.

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Proclaim 2014: First half of 23 August Keynote Speech

Proclaim 2014: Second half of 21 August Keynote Speech

Proclaim 2014: First half of 21 Aug Keynote Speech

Proclaim 2014 : Fruitful Waiting

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