About a quarter of the Church of the Good Shepherd Parish’s 450 parishioners teamed up at tables inside the school gym on April 14 – even on a rare fog-free Saturday in coastal Pacifica – to score the parish’s effectiveness, identify its challenges and map out its future together
The pastoral assembly – the first in the 67-year-old parish’s history – was a spirited, interactive day that parish leaders hoped would serve a second purpose by helping form new alliances between attendees that spanned all ages of the parish community from students to parish stalwarts to relative newcomers..
“When we are in Mass there is a sense of community while we are in the physical church,” said Scott Buskey, 58. “But as soon as Mass is over everyone is off to their busy lives. That clearly is one thing most of us want to resolve.”
The assembly was the second of a three-phase “journey of renewal” that the community embarked upon two years ago not long after the assignment of pastor Father Luello Palapac in 2014, pastoral associate Suzanne Chinn said.
The faithful who serve as “pillars” of the church are growing older, Chinn said, causing great concern for the future. There are also the national phenomena of the religiously unaffiliated “nones,” declining church attendance and people leaving the church.
“We needed to do something now,” Chinn said, noting that “Father Lu,” as he is affectionately experience in renewing church communities. “He has taken this vision to heart.”The dozen or so tables of six to seven persons each were asked to evaluate the parish mission statement and give it a grade. Pastoral council leaders Peter Gresh and Kelley Chawke recorded the grades from each table on big sheets of paper.
It was visibly clear before half the tables were done that the parish mission statement – wording and execution – earned a “C” average.
The parish mission statement reads: “We are grateful disciples of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, striving to be a faith-filled community through the prayerful celebration of the liturgy and sacraments. We welcome all, embracing our diversity and seeking to grow as a loving and nurturing community serving others with our God-given talents and gifts.”
At Buskey’s table, Joanne Kendrick, a retired high school teacher, former school parent and parishioner of almost three decades, said the mission statement is written for the people who are already in the parish, not for those it might want to attract.
“It doesn’t address getting new people into the parish and it doesn’t address those that were once part of the parish that are now gone,” she said. “I think about my 26-year-old daughter who says ‘Good Shepherd doesn’t speak to me anymore.’ Kendrick said her daughter is going to a Christian church where they know her by name.
“As a community we need more warmth in this parish,” said one young man who said his table gave the statement a “B-“ grade. He also said: “Father Lu, we love you, but every time there is a change of pastor there is a lack of continuity in how we deal with each other as parishioners.”
During the second half of the pastoral assembly, the same groups worked together to narrow down the 10 objectives outlined in the Parish Vision Guide to a prioritized five. In the days and weeks following the assembly, delegates will attend follow-up meetings with a goal of narrowing those five into three solid goals with actionable plans for implementation.
Chinn said that it will take years to see a “big picture result” in the parish and that there will be many issues to take into consideration – turning the parish culture from being priest-dependent to one of empowered “true disciples” for one.
But the enlightening day has already produced “little fruits.”
“One of the greatest gifts of the day was the sense of pride and empowerment that the faithful been able to reclaim for themselves,” she said. “Being given the opportunity to vote and grade the church community in a concerted effort has now provided the impetus for an amazing growth period at Good Shepherd.”
Full story at Catholic San Francisco.
I wonder what grades the parish would give the the parishioner’s “Domestic Church”? Daily prayer individually and with spouse/family? Devotional activity with family such as adoration and reconciliation? Do parents consistently and passionately model the spiritual and corporal works of mercy outside the home? The parish isn’t a vending machine. The Sacraments are fuel for the fire of faith, hope and love which burst forth into the world from the Mass, catechesis, and just plain getting involved. Kids leaving the faith is pretty common, but less so in families that are “on fire’ for Christ. Blaming the parish for shortcomings when parishioners bail on their Christian duty is baloney.
The parish mission statement reads: “We are grateful disciples of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, striving to be a faith-filled community through the prayerful celebration of the liturgy and sacraments. We welcome all, embracing our diversity and seeking to grow as a loving and nurturing community serving others with our God-given talents and gifts.”
Banal, trite and cliche….what does that even mean?
Then this:
“I think about my 26-year-old daughter who says ‘Good Shepherd doesn’t speak to me anymore.’ Kendrick said her daughter is going to a Christian church where they know her by name.
Why would anyone be surprised at this?
Good for them for trying to get ahead of the problems threatening every Catholic parish. They are starting in the right direction.
Before the 1960s, and before Vatican II– we had a very stable society, with the Traditional Marriage and Family at the core– and a very stable Church, with parishes often knit together by large, extended immigrant families, and their immigrant cultures! You also had to attend the church in the parish boundaries, where you lived! And the Catholic Faith– along with the old Latin Mass and Sacraments– was the exact same, worldwide! Every Catholic received catechism training, from childhood. Vocations to the priesthood and religious life, were numerous! No parish ever wrote up its own, distinct definition of purpose! Lacking a solid Church, unified completely by Rome– many parishes struggle terribly! So sad!
Poor leadership since the 1960s, is the root of the problem, of our Church. Also, all of the mainline Protestant churches in America, have likewise sunk their ships, since the 1960s, abandoning Biblical truths, for much wrongful liberal experimentation! Good families don’t want their kids brought up with crazy, immoral, and dangerous liberal “fads!” And college-age kids are looking for a good, stable church, with a strong, stable backbone, and plenty of support, for their future lives! Epecially,when they are at the point of readiess for Marriage, and raising children! The “Death Culture” is so horrible– and they want a good, stable, reliable Church, with excellent spiritual guidance and support, for their lives!
This is a great first step that each parish should consider doing. Doing this kind of analysis is never comfortable, especially for those who have been around for a while and like the status quo. Without getting into a definition of faith food fight, I think we can all agree that generalization is a primary objective. When working with parishes that were trying to update, or create, a strategic plan, most of the time was spent on their vision for the parish and what they consider to be their mission. Mission statements need to be concise and easy to remember. My suggestion was that the mission statement should be easy to put on a tee shirt – To know Christ better and make Him better known – A local church making a world of difference,…
What made parishes strong in the past was their sense of community: a place to pray, yes, but also a place to learn, a place to play basketball, a place for family dinners, the center of the local community. We have lost a lot of that community. A parish is more than a place where you go to Mass on Sunday for an hour. It needs to be a focus of our lives. The good ones are few and far between, which explains why we don’t know people by name, we don’t play and learn together. Our future members are on their phones and tablets. How many parishes have really good web sites, publish prayers each day or make comments about the day’s readings from Mass, or use technology to meet up with younger people?
This sounds like a wonderful church, in the above article, really trying to do a great job! It would be nice, in a year or so, to read a follow-up news article, to see the results of their new endeavors!
the answer and the model might very probably be just a hop or two away at star of the sea parish
We are still on the 4th month of the year there will be improvements well wait and see it then.
I assume we all agree that an examination of conscience is a good thing. If we as the body of Christ do these things privately, why not do them corporally, as the gathered body of Christ? We are but grains of wheat brought together into the bread that we break every Sunday: a bread that becomes for us the very Body of Christ. This is a parish I think should be highlighted as a “Church Worth Driving To”.