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Effectively leading the church
archived from: 2012-04-30
by: Dr. Mary Ann Gubish

Upcoming speaker talks about “positive change”

Capuchin Father David Couturier is set to speak Wednesday, May 30, from 7-9 p.m. at St. Paul Seminary in Crafton as part of the second anniversary celebration of “One Body, One Mission,” the diocesan parish pastoral council guidelines.

The director of pastoral planning in the Archdiocese of Boston, Father David recently responded to questions about his work.

You will be addressing our parish pastoral council members on May 30 with a presentation titled “The Parishes We are Becoming: Implications for Pastoral Planning.” Why is it important that parish leaders hear your message?

During our time together, we’ll be looking at the ways that parishes today are changing and the ways they can respond more effectively to the pastoral needs of Catholics, especially young adults. The fact is that the church in America is changing in profound ways, not dogmatically, but certainly demographically. I think we need to look at those differences with fresh eyes and understand where the leverage points are for evangelizing people today.

The Holy Father has called us to a “new evangelization,” a more vigorous, energetic and adaptive engagement with and proclamation of the faith. We’ll be talking about ways to lead effectively in a period of “urgency, high stakes and uncertainty,” as Ronald Heifetz from Harvard describes our time.

Our parish pastoral councils have been asked by Bishop David Zubik to “grow the church.” What advice would you give them?

Paulist Father Bob Rivers talks about moving “from maintenance to mission.” That’s a good way of starting. We have to take a look at our attitudes. Are we in a maintenance mode of thinking — doing what we have always done because we have always done it this way? Or are we organized for mission? Do we know what our particular mission is as a local church? Is everyone in the parish rallied around that “mission” or are they hoping that “Father gets it!” “Growing the church” is going to happen when we put people in a personal relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the passion of God for us and, when people experience his love and mercy they are drawn into a community of faith. We need to begin a church-wide conversation about the best practices for engaging people’s hearts and minds in a world of enormous distractions. In your articles and presentations you talk about “positive change.” Is there such a thing?

Sure there is. It’s often said that people don’t like change. But, as someone recently said, tell that to someone who has just won the lottery! That’s a change we like. The church provides moments of “positive change” all the time — those moments of “amazing grace” and conversion where we experience the abundance of God in our lives. What we need to experience is “positive change” in our parishes. There are many parishes that are experiencing it when the word of God is preached well, when the Eucharist is celebrated with passion and the works of mercy are the conviction of parishioners. But lots of other parishes are under pressure. Some are constrained by the inherited need to “go it alone” when new forms of collaboration and cooperation could give them a new level of strength and direction.

You will also be joining our priests and deacons for a luncheon meeting May 30 with the address “The Pastors We are Becoming.” Why is it important that our ordained leaders hear your message?

The fact is that priesthood and pastoring are changing dramatically. The way we serve today is not the way we served just 20 years ago, and the way we will be expected to serve in the next five to 10 years will be dramatically different as well. The demands on a priest’s time and energy are increasing exponentially.

We need to talk to one another about the ways we are adapting our pastoral service to the demands of ministry, the adaptations that are healthy and the ones that are not. We need to talk with one another about ways of serving that are more effective, not just more time and energy consuming. We were trained with a great set of pastoral skills, but society and culture are changing rapidly. People’s lives are becoming more complicated at home and at work. We need to find ways to hone our pastoral skills that will address the challenges we face but that don’t cause even more stress than what we experience today.

I’m going to share some stunning research on the stress levels being experienced by priests today. I look forward to the luncheon.

Your most recent ministry experience has been in the Planning Office in the Archdiocese of Boston. What did you learn about parish life in Boston that could help us here in Pittsburgh?

These are two great dioceses with rich histories of amazing pastoral love and service. As everyone knows, Boston has faced its share of crises during the last decade. I have called it a “perfect storm” of social and ecclesial factors that have called forth from the bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity of Boston a whole new level of pastoral courage.

What have I learned about parish life? First, it’s the place where evangelization and communion happen. Catholics love being Catholic and they love their parishes. They are immensely devoted to their parish and it’s not so much about the buildings. It’s about the “incarnate feeling of grace” they experience when they gather in that space with one another. That’s the first thing. I have learned a tremendous respect for the history and experience of grace that people experience in their parishes. I have also learned how vulnerable and threatened some parishes are. Since the 1970s, the rate of church participation in Boston has plummeted from 70 percent to 15.6 percent. Secularism, materialism and consumerism are corroding community in America, and we see it affecting our churches now.

Parishes are resilient for sure, when people are engaged with a powerful sense of purpose and mission, when they keep their eyes focused on Christ. But the concern is real. I hope to share the positive stories of parishes that are facing these challenges with courage. We hear a lot of the negatives about church today. It’s time we tell the best-kept secrets of highly effective parishes, the stories of parishes that are adapting well today.

Gubish is director of the Department for Envisioning Ministry.

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