Divine Renovation: Practical Ways to Renew Your Parish

If you are a disciple of Christ who attends a parish regularly, or works in a parish setting, you must be aware that there is something sorely lacking in the way our parishes run. Parishes do not seem to be forming disciples, instead either there seems to be indifference or lukewarmness, or bitter infighting and hypocrisy, or a focus on activities over discipleship, and sadly often it is experiences within the parish that seem to be pushing people away from the faith.

Most Catholic disciples I know came to faith and were formed in their faith outside the parish setting. It was either through the Charismatic renewal, or through a lay community or movement. When they try to work with or in the parish, it seems very challenging to thrive in the parish environment.

As someone who has worked with and in the Catholic Church for many years, sometimes in parish settings, I have often written about the need for change within the Church. I wrote about When I Get Tired of Being Catholic, The Different Levels of Conversion Needed in the Church, What’s Wrong with Catholic Youth Groups and The Two Big Missing Pieces of Our Catholic Faith.

Imagine my excitement when I came across a book called Divine Renovation: From a maintenance to a missional parish. Fr. James Mallon seems to have faced these problems first-hand as a parish priest in Canada, but instead of rolling over and dying, he allowed the Holy Spirit to work in bringing about real change. What I love most about the book is how PRACTICAL it is.

I want to share a few cool tips and ideas that you should definitely incorporate into your parish if you have a voice there. But before that HERE IS SOME SUPER-COOL NEWS.

Fr. James Mallon is going to be in MUMBAI on Saturday, June 15th for a Transforming Parishes Conference. It's for parish priests with their assistant and a lay leader. If you know your parish priest well, convince him to attend! What a great opportunity, right on our doorstep! Sign up here.

So here are a few of the many great insights and suggestions Fr. Mallon talks about:

1. Equip and empower the laity: 'The primary task of the pastor is not to do all the work of ministry himself, but to equip the saints to do the work of ministry... Ministry proper to laity should be allowed to flourish without clerical control: serving the poor, feeding the hungry, evangelizing, and forming small Christian communities where people are cared for, loved and helped to move towards maturity.' If everything has to be run by or controlled or micro-managed by the priest, or everything has to be run on church premises, your parish is never going to flourish. Of course the key is placing DISCIPLES (with common-sense) in positions of responsibility and leadership, not just power-hungry clerical-minded lay people.

2. Create a welcoming, hospitable parish culture: 'Hospitality does not mean being friendly with our friends and all the people who look, think, and talk like us, but reaching out to the stranger.' Form a hospitality team, welcoming every person who enters the church with a smile and a handshake, reaching out to strangers, and unfamiliar faces (especially the poor and visitors from other religions). At weddings and funerals and Christmas and Good Friday services, acknowledge and greet the many newcomers from the pulpit, and help them understand what is going on. And for goodness sake, move to the middle of the pew so people who are standing have place to sit!

3. Create a welcome booth: Make it easy for newcomers to get information about joining the parish and parish activities. 'Staff it with friendly parishioners who are eager to help.' My team and I once did a Christmas day welcome booth at my parish, and we invited visitors to attend an evangelistic Christmas programme a few days later. People were visible touched by our friendliness, obviously not something they had ever experienced while visiting a church before. Why not every Sunday?

4. New Parishioner Event: Get someone from the hospitality team to get in touch with new parishioners, and invite them to a short hour-long event (with not more than 20 new parishioners) to get to know the parish priest, a member of the welcome team, etc and each other. Fr. James' parish did wine and cheese, we can do cake and coffee. People need to feel connected. In our big parishes in India, it's so easy to feel lost and invisible. We have to be very intentional about helping people connect.

5. Use uplifting, beautiful music: I loved Fr. James' entire section on music. There are different kinds of hymns, but we need to give pride of place to hymns that are not just talking about God, but talking TO God. 'It is in praise to God that we move away from fixating on the idea of God to the experience of God... It is hymns of praise that move the heart most and help lead those who gather into a personal encounter with Jesus.' How many of us can say that about hymns we sing at Mass? I remember the harmonized, melodic Mass hymns I experienced in the Philippines, and compare it with the jarring 60s pop music in churches in India. We can do better! Beautiful music is evangelistic.

6. Preaching the Good News: The kerygma should be at the center of every homily. 'Every homily.. ought to preach Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, and the new life found in him.' No more tired self-help, or vaguely inspirational messages. Last year I heard a young Salesian deacon give an excellent homily about 'second chances with Jesus'. It was simple, direct, clear, evangelistic and hopeful. Even the kids in the congregation were listening intently. Preach with joy, preach with love, and preach the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ. 'Have a group of parishioners who will give you brutally honest feedback about your preaching.' (Preferably clear-minded disciples.) Painful, but effective.

7. Create opportunities for every parishioner to encounter Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit: The tool Fr. James uses and I highly recommend is a programme called Alpha. 'Alpha is a ten-session process that re-introduces the Christian faith.' It's welcoming, non-threatening, always involves food and friendship, is a great way to invite and include friends and family, can be run in people's homes, and helps people feel a sense of belonging and community.

8. Name Tag Sunday: Once a month get every parishioner to wear a name tag, and greet people they don't know before or after Mass. It makes it easier to say hello to someone new, something I often struggle with. 'Just like the Cheers theme song goes, we really do have a deep desire to go where people know our names... We want to go to war with the notion of anonymous Christianity.' 

9. Prayer Ministry after Mass: I love this! Have trained prayer teams available after every Mass, and invite anyone who needs prayer to approach them. I have often tried to remember to offer to pray with people, in the moment and aloud, rather than the usual promises to pray later that are often forgotten. Prayer ministry is the next level. What an easy way to connect with and love the people who show up at church. I have often thought about how parish offices should have a cozy little room where there is always someone available to offer a cup of coffee, a listening ear, and a prayer.

10. Inviting people: If we want to be missionary parishes, we need to be willing to invite people for evangelistic events, to prayer meetings, bible sharings, Mass, Adoration, youth group, concerts, etc. We cannot continue to exist only for ourselves, but must go outside and invite people in. But how? Start by praying for the people you're planning to invite. Pray for courage. Don't be afraid of getting a no. 'We are responsible for inviting, but not for the response to the invitation.' Also, 'success is the number of people being invited, not the number that show up.' Sow the seed, and allow God to work. And be persistent if the answer is 'Not this time'.

Okay, obviously there is a LOT more in the book which I highly recommend that you read. Buy a copy for your parish priest. Look up the Divine Renovation website. And invite the Holy Spirit to transform your parish!