of this moment, and proactively works to meet them head-on, the new missionary age prophesied by Saint John Paul II will come about. To me, creating this kind of momentum requires that parish leaders focus singularly on four simple keys, which we will discuss in more detail in a moment.
It is incredibly important that these keys be simple. Parish leaders today are often discouraged and overwhelmed. They have been trying to do well and to effect change for so long, with so much resistance and inertia, that they are burned out. They feel overworked and underappreciated. Many feel cynical about the possibility that their parish culture can ever really change. The to-do list is already full and the thought of trying to drive such change feels like a thousand new tasks that they just do not have the time or energy for.
If this is your situation, I come bearing good news. Parish renewal is not about running off in a thousand directions like chickens with our heads cut off. This scattershot approach to renewal leaves parishes disorganized and parish leadership burned out. My vision for parish renewal involves, not multiplying our efforts and doing more, but doing less. And who doesn’t love doing less?
Really, renewing a parish and creating a culture of missionary discipleship is about doing less because it is about prioritizing a few things and doing them really, really well.
Take a secular example. In-N-Out Burger, a fast food restaurant chain found in the western part of the United States, particularly California, has long had an almost mythical relationship with its loyal customers. In-N-Out does not have the huge menu of a McDonalds, but lines are out the door at all times of the day. Recently, one Los Angeles newspaper referred to their drive-thru lines as a “public menace” due to their length.12 Their secret? They do a few things incredibly well using fresh ingredients. They focus on a small number of food items, but everything they do is top quality. Because they have a smaller menu, they have the ability to be intentional and expert in everything they attempt.
Now consider your parish. Each parish is unique, so it is difficult to propose a top-down, one-size-fits-all model for parish renewal. However, through personal experience, through analyzing the very best missional parishes, and through pulling from the magisterial teachings of the Church, we can come to some definite principles that can be universally applied to any parish situation to begin the movement from maintenance to mission.
To effect such a change will not be the work of a moment, or even a year or two, but will be the work of the next ten years. We need to begin with this big-picture vision of a complete cultural overhaul, from focusing inward on maintenance to moving outward toward mission and forming disciples. Only a goal that big will inspire the work that will be required.
Below are four strategic goals that can focus your ef forts and break down the massive project of parish renewal into more achievable steps. I call these the four keys to parish renewal, as they lay out, not a step-by-step, one-size-fits-all path for any parish, but the four main drivers that inspire and propel our efforts to renew the culture in our parishes. As we seek to build our parishes into missionary outposts of the New Evangelization, these four keys help us determine simple and actionable ways we get there.
They are as follows:
1) The vision is clear. We want ours to be a missional parish aimed at introducing parishioners and non-parishioners alike to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
2) There is a clear path to discipleship. We want our parish to be equipped and formed to help people grow into the fullness of mature Catholicism and missionary discipleship.
3) Leaders are well-formed, empowered, and sent to bear fruit. We want our parish to form leaders who are fruitful both within the parish and in the larger community in their day-to-day lives.
4) Nothing in the parish operates in maintenance mode. We want everything our parish does to be aligned with the mission to form disciples who can make disciples.
This book is written to guide you through these four keys to parish renewal and give you practical strategies for implementing them. With the conviction that the renewal of the Church depends on the renewal of the parish, and the renewal of the parish depends on forming missionary disciples, we will be unpacking these four keys to show you how to move your parish from a culture of maintaining decline to one that is radically on mission and forming missionary disciples.
While the “meat” of this book will focus on how to implement these four keys in your parish context (chapters 4–8), we first have to pause to lay some groundwork. Before we throw up the walls of the house, we have to lay the foundation. Like we said earlier, unless we properly diagnose the problem, we will not know what the right remedies are or how to contextualize them appropriately in our parish. So first, we will look at the four types of parishes in the United States and take a moment to diagnose where your parish may be. Second, we will propose the antidote and this book’s overall vision for cultural change: forming missionary disciples.
Two Important Notes on Renewal
Before we move on, I also want to stress what we mean by “renewal.” There are two important things to note as you read this book and consider renewal in your own parish.
First: Renewal is not something we do.
Jesus is abundantly clear about this: “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
As we are going to talk about, real parish renewal depends on changed lives and new disciples. You and I do not have the power on our own to form a single disciple. At the end of the day, it is God alone who makes this happen through his grace. The power of the Holy Spirit brings about renewal. We cooperate through what we do, but we cannot do it alone.
If we believed that truth more fully as a Church, we would pray and act differently, and we would start to see real change. If I could point to a single reason why we have not seen more wide-scale renewal in our parishes, it is because we as leaders do not really believe that God is fully in control. The best way to start renewal: pray consistently, intentionally, over time, with others for God to bring about change. We have to actually believe and act like it is God alone who can do the work that is required. Plans are great; prayers are better. We need both for renewal to happen.
Saint John of the Cross puts it better than I can:
Let those then who are singularly active, who think they can win the world with their preaching and exterior works, observe here that they would profit the Church and please God much more … were they to spend at least half of this time with God in prayer. … They would then certainly accomplish more, and with less labor, by one work than they otherwise would by a thousand. … Without prayer they would do a great deal of hammering but accomplish little, and sometimes nothing, and even at times cause harm. … However much they may appear to achieve externally, they will in substance be accomplishing nothing [without a deep life of prayer].13
You are our only hope, Lord.
Second: Authentic renewal is always authentically Catholic.
Many faithful Catholics in our time are wary of the concept of “renewal.” This is not without reason. Too many watched as the excited language about renewal following the Second Vatican Council amounted to little more than watering down the Faith and adapting to modernity. Often this left the Church looking more like the world, and it did not help the Church reach and transform the world as she is called to do. Rather than authentic renewal, the reforms following the council
