{"id":62,"date":"2010-09-28T22:20:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T04:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=62"},"modified":"2010-10-15T08:39:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T14:39:10","slug":"maintenance-mode-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/maintenance-mode-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintenance Mode Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why are some Catholic parishes stuck in \u201cmaintenance mode\u201d? Matthew Warner posted on this recently at NCR<\/a>. He characterized maintenance mode parishes as inwardly focused and unconcerned with reaching out or with increasing attendance. I\u2019m constantly struggling to figure out why it is and what to do about it. I think at least part of the problem is a lack of vision. On the local level, we are not inspiring and moving people to view the parish as being outwardly focused.<\/p>\n

Vision is that goal of an organization that fills a gaping hole in the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s the view of an alternate reality that should be, and if it\u2019s not, the world becomes a darker place. Leadership must work constantly at communicating vision in order to inspire people to greatness and align them towards accomplishing that goal. Without a clearly communicated vision, members of an organization don\u2019t know what to do in order to succeed.<\/p>\n

What is the Church\u2019s mission? The message of the Universal Church is clear…evangelization. Jesus told the apostles to go and make disciples! We are to extend the Kingdom of Christ on earth and push back the kingdom of Satan. In doing so we bring increasing numbers of people (and consequently the culture) into union with God and his life-giving Spirit. Now that is a vision that calls you to sacrifice! It\u2019s large, it\u2019s bold, it can (and will) change the world!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the mission message I got recently from my diocese, though. At the latest annual diocesan development appeal, we saw a video highlighting the diocesan services our money provides. These are maintenance services. The message? Our mission is taking care of your needs, not mobilizing you for mission. The video was well made. But it didn\u2019t communicate a vision that inspires greatness. It was inward, not outward focused.<\/p>\n

The Church is either outwardly focused or it is stagnating. For many years now, Church leaders have concentrated on those within the flock. It\u2019s logical with limited resources to take care of those you know as opposed to those you don\u2019t know. However, Christ\u2019s mandate of evangelization defies logic. Not being outwardly focused means death for the Catholic parish and for the Church in general. It is the mission and life of the Church to evangelize.<\/p>\n

I think we need to learn better how to proclaim the gospel in a contemporary and authentically Catholic way. This is something I want to post on in the future. And, we need to have a clarity of mission. The Universal Church understands exactly what she\u2019s about. However, I think this gets muddied a bit at the diocesan and parish level.<\/p>\n

What do you think are some reasons why Catholic parishes are predominately in \u201cmaintenance mode\u201d and not outwardly focused?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why are some Catholic parishes stuck in \u201cmaintenance mode\u201d? Matthew Warner posted on this recently at NCR. He characterized maintenance mode parishes as inwardly focused and unconcerned with reaching out or with increasing attendance. I\u2019m constantly struggling to figure out why it is and what to do about it. I think at least part of the problem is a lack of vision. On the local level, we are not inspiring and moving people to view the parish as being outwardly focused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelization-2","category-parish-ministry","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nMaintenance Mode Dilemma - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/28\/maintenance-mode-dilemma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maintenance Mode Dilemma - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why are some Catholic parishes stuck in \u201cmaintenance mode\u201d? 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