I am in the process of reading this book. The authors say right at the beginning that they do not expect parishes to implement EXACTLY what and how they did, but it certainly gives food for thought.
I’ve heard of another book “From Maintenance to Mission” by Robert Rivers. I plan to read that next.
I have that one, too. I haven’t read it yet, but I saw the author give a presentation on it 10+ years ago. He definitely gave food for thought. It was the first time I recall being challenged in my presuppositions about what Church ministry should look like. As with Rebuilt, a lot of it is about changing mindsets. So many parishes can get stuck in the rut of “But that’s how we always do it” with the same core group of people doing all the work, and then wondering why they cannot ever seem to get any new blood to volunteer. It pays to ask and wrestle with those difficult questions, even though we may not know the answers.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize how critical it is to engage the “person in the pew” in the work of evangelization. In our soft and squishy American culture of comfort and individualism, it is very easy to turn the Church and the Sacraments into one more commodity to be “sold” by the “seller” (AKA the priests and clergy and maybe those handful of super involved lay people) to the “consumers” (AKA the laity). This model turns the laity into passive recipients and discerning shoppers. If they don’t like your “product”, they’ll just go down the road. And if they like it, well, you better keep giving it to them in exactly the same way else they will take their dollars elsewhere.
In this model, we are self-focused. We look at the Church to give us what we want. And if the Church also gives others what they want, then that’s nice, too. But we don’t often stop to think what
we can do to help others. We’re just looking to be served rather than serving.
What we really need is for the laity to be awakened to their role. We don’t just take and consume the Gospel message for our own self-edification. We must also pass it on to the next person. We need to share it, and become invested in sharing it while becoming invested in the lives of others.
There are too many silos out there. We try to lone wolf it and go it alone. That’s not how the Church was designed to work.
Sorry for the tangent.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
. This is very personal, as it kept me out of the Catholic Church for years. I would not have come home without the help I found here.