This is the next article in the series on From Christendom to Apostolic Mission.
After I finished my talk, a man walked up to me and said, “I feel like I need to refute everything you just said.” Surprised, I asked, “Oh, please tell me what you disagree with?” He said, “All this talk of innovation in our parishes and dioceses is contrary to the nature of the Church. The Church is an eternal reality and an unchanging institution. Founded by Christ Himself. We do not change.”
I did my best to explain that there are elements of the Church that will never change, like the Deposit of Faith, Dogma, etc., and elements of the Church that can change, like the methodology of evangelization and the way we form clergy. He interpreted what I said as an accommodation to the world and “dangerously politically correct.” He could not bring himself to use the word “innovation” or “change” in the same sentence as “the Church.” If I had a copy of the book, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, I would have given it to him and invited a follow-up conversation over a cup of coffee.
One of the great gifts in the book, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, is how clearly it articulates what I was unable to articulate that night – the elements of the Church that need renovation. And it does so in a way that increases one’s love for the Bride of Christ rather than instilling any sense of frustration or disappointment.
“The Church, from the time of its founding by Christ, has been ever surrounded by conflict and engaged in struggle. At every point, the One who came as light into the darkness to establish a kingdom of truth and love has been opposed by the darkness. The light continues to shine; its origin is in God himself, and the darkness cannot overcome it (cf.Jn 1). But the extent of that light, the way it sheds its rays, the kind of opposition it encounters, and therefore the means it uses to keep its light shining and shed its influence abroad, changes from place to place and age to age. It is therefore important for those who are members of Christ’s body, who share in his divine life and so are called by him to be the light of the world (cf. Mt 5), to take thought for the times in which they live and to devise pastoral and evangelistic strategies suited to those times. This is the task of every generation.” From Christendom to Apostolic Mission
Methods are many, and principles are few. Methods always change, but principles never do. The Church and each member within it, share a permanent call to be salt of the earth and light for the world. We are called to bring the Gospel to all places and at all times. This calling is universal and permanent. However, how we fulfill this eternal mandate changes from place to place and age to age. To resist pastoral and evangelistic changes in strategy is to resist the Holy Spirit who Himself is ever ancient and ever new and the principal agent of evangelization (Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi #75).
Methods are many, and principles are few. Methods always change, but principles never do. The Church has a permanent mandate to preach the Gospel. How we fulfill this eternal mandate changes from place to place and age to age. Share on XThe Only Constant is Change
From Christendom to Apostolic Mission helps us understand that different modes of engaging society are required at different times. When the Church holds a stable and prominent place in society over a long period, pastoral and evangelistic strategies at the parish and Diocesan levels can hold steady without the need to innovate. However, when the imaginative vision of society begins to move away from the narrative provided by Christianity, the Church needs to pay attention to the modes by which she continues fighting the good fight. When the relationship between the Church and society is not only evolving but rapidly evaporating, the obligation to pay attention to the pastoral and evangelistic modes the Church is using becomes urgent and critical.
We are living in such a time.
Lay of the Land
The Church is no longer a trusted lighthouse for society. The vast majority of people believe that the further society flees from the influence of the Church, the better off society will be. “Our society is full of many, including those that are baptized and raised with some exposure to the faith, who believe that they have seen enough of Christianity to see that it has little to offer them” (From Christendom to Apostolic Mission). With the accumulation of negative impact of the clergy sexual abuse scandals, residential schools and reported financial corruption even at the Vatican, it is easy to see why growing numbers of people distrust the Church and feel she has nothing to offer.
With an accumulated negative impact of the clergy abuse scandals, residential schools and reported financial corruption, it is easy to see why growing numbers of people distrust the Church and feel she has nothing to offer. Share on XWe live in the information age and yet people have never been so confused. What makes this more tragic than ironic, is that we are confused about the things that matter most – marriage, sexuality, family, the dignity of the human person, and divine revelation.
We live in the information age and yet people have never been so confused. What makes this tragic, is that we are confused about the things that matter most – marriage, sexuality, family, and the dignity of the human person. Share on X
Fr Georges Lemaître (center), a Belgian Catholic priest in 1933 with Albert Einstein (right) and Robert A Millikan, head of the California Institute of Technology, where Lemaître had just given a lecture. Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images
Developments in technology, communication, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and manufacturing have so influenced our lives that it can be said, “a person who lived just 100 years ago was closer both in modes of consciousness and in the daily rhythms of life to the time of Christ than to our own” (From Christendom to Apostolic Mission).
Changes within the social fabric of society are so pronounced and so immediate that Pope Francis can rightly say we are not living in an era of change but a change of era. Fr James Mallon, founder of the Divine Renovation ministry said it like this, “As priests, we were trained in seminary for ministry in Jerusalem but we are now living in Babylon.”
Recent legislation here in Canada expanded the opportunity for a higher number of people, even those struggling with mental illness, to seek medical assistance in dying (MAiD). This was unthinkable 20 years ago. Government leaders are not only discussing end-of-life terminations but the beginning of life as well. Cases will be made that parents with children who are born with unpredicted birth ‘defects’ may have the opportunity to terminate.
What about Gender dysphoria? There is a rising epidemic among teenage girls but we cannot talk about it because gender is now defined as a social construct. To suggest mental illness would be to go against someone’s free will, an act of hatred and the laws defining conversion therapy are entrenching this as fact for the foreseeable future.
2023 might be the year that Canada legalizes prostitution after a group of sex workers in Ontario filed to repeal Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. I viewed some of the hearings from the Justice Committee in recent weeks. In the absence of a Christian anthropology, it can be quite convincing based on regulating a precarious industry, providing safe environments, securing opportunities for self-employment, etc.
The pandemic has made it clear that our elected representatives do not consider Sunday services as essential as window shopping, going gym, or attending a strip club.
Christianity is no longer woven into the social fabric of society. It is tearing apart. Everything is shifting under our feet and each year the pace quickens. The whitewater of change and misalignment between the Church and culture churns more ferociously.
Christianity is no longer woven into the social fabric society. It is tearing apart. Everything is shifting under our feet and each year the pace quickens. Share on XThe cultural situation described above was not what the Church was navigating in the 1950s. We cannot expect to bear fruit in our pastoral and evangelistic strategies if our starting point is what we wish society was today or what it was 70 years ago. We must engage with the culture as it truly is here and now.
Innovate or Die
Business innovation is a change process that leads to new products and services to gain more market share. Church innovation is a change process that leads to renewed focus and effectiveness to make more disciples.
Business innovation is a change process that leads to new products and services to gain more market share. Church innovation is a change process that leads to renewed focus and effectiveness to make more disciples. Share on XInnovation comes from the language of greatness, not business (Jim Collins, Good to Great). Great organizations all around the world and in every industry are constantly innovating. That is what makes these organizations great.
If any organization should be concerned, even fanatical, about becoming great through innovation, it is the Church. Innovation should be discussed as often and as passionately by pastoral councils in parishes as it is by executive teams in board rooms. Why? Because our mission is the only mission that has eternal consequences – we got to get this right!
If any organization should be concerned, even fanatical, about becoming great through innovation, it is the Church. Because our mission is the only mission that has eternal consequences. Share on XThe number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to the Church is constantly on the increase. Since the second Vatican council, just 50 years ago, this number has doubled. If innovation is driven by data, this metric should drive all kinds of innovation in our parishes.
Here are five things every pastoral leader can do (and stop doing) to drive innovation.
One, evaluate results. Every organization, including your parish or Diocese, is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting (W. Edwards Deming). It is a simple idea but so powerful – you cannot do what you have always done and expect different results. Pope Saint John Paul II launched the new evangelization in 1983 when speaking to a group of Bishops in Haiti. The evangelizing mission of the Church needed newness at the time and still does today – new ardor, new methods, new energy, and new expression. In other words – innovation.
Two, re-clarify the mission. The Church is missionary by nature, she exists to evangelize (Pope Paul VI). The first step to shifting to a more evangelistic approach is not to create a “to-do list”. Innovation begins with pruning. It is more important to start by creating a “stop-doing list.” When you stop doing things that are not aligned with your evangelizing mission, it frees up time, talent, and resources that can be re-invested into initiatives that move the evangelizing mission forward.
When you stop doing things that are not aligned to your evangelizing mission, it frees up time, talent, and resources that can be re-invested into initiatives that move the evangelizing mission forward. Share on XThree, overcome the status quo. All significant breakthroughs are break-with old ways of thinking (Thomas Kuhn). The biggest shift most parishes need to make is to shift from focusing on who they are trying to keep to focusing on who they are trying to reach (The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, Andy Stanley). Unsure if you are focusing on keeping people or reaching people? Look at your budget and look at the calendar. How much time and money is spent on keeping people and how much is spent on reaching people?
Four, assign leaders a threefold mandate. Every ministry leader in your parish should be responsible for three simultaneous agendas – the sustaining agenda, the improvement agenda, and the mentoring agenda. The sustaining agenda is about doing what they do well; it is about execution. The improvement agenda is about doing what you do but getting better at doing it. The mentoring agenda is about investing in next-generation leaders who will take the ministry further and faster; it is about succession. Sadly, many ministries are stuck in the sustaining agenda. Ministries rarely evaluate the effectiveness and fewer think of investing in future leaders.
Five, create a system of innovation. Pastoral leaders should stop treating innovation as a one-time event. It is not about brainstorming sessions or suggestion boxes. Too many of those activities increase noise but produce no signal toward something transformational. Innovation is a continuous never-ending process. It is a habit, an organizational competency. When the parish structures and processes define problems, generate and evaluate solutions, and develop action plans to implement those solutions by current and future leaders, innovation is starting to take root. Of course, none of this usurps the Holy Spirit’s presence. He is the principal agent of the new evangelization and the principal catalyst for innovation.
Pope Francis has spoken frequently about the danger of communities becoming self-referential. He wrote, “Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style, and methods of evangelization in their respective communities” (Evangelium Gaudium #33).
The Pope is exhorting the Church – every parish, Diocese, and ministry in the world – to be what we are meant to be, missionary disciples and communities of dynamic apostolic activity focused on the ones we are trying to reach. His challenge is to reach out to the periphery with a creative and missionary dynamism. He encourages our parish communities to become field hospitals, to engage in ‘out-of-the-box thinking, and to execute uncomfortable things.
The number of those who do not know Christ and do not belong to His Church is constantly on the increase. The new evangelization is a challenge to innovate and pastoral innovation begins with an all-out commitment to re-focus on the ones we are trying to reach not the ones we are trying to keep. The new evangelization needs new methods, new ardor, new focus, new energy, and new expression.
Edited by Hannah Powell