Secularism. The threats to marriage and family. Modern sexual and gender ideology. Politics. Technology and the phones in our kids' hands. Scandals. Etc.

These things certainly are serious issues and I’m not going to argue that any of them is overblown, because they are not. But none of them can ultimately threaten the existence of your parish.

The threats that can actually finish a parish are not out in the wider culture. 

They are inside your parish - in how we operate.

In the average parish in the USA, there are few Catholic leaders that have a problem with any part of the Creeds we profess. That doesn’t mean there aren’t leaders who don’t struggle with doctrinal issues, but they are fewer than the past few generations. Yet we have a bigger problem - the gap between what we profess we believe and how we live that belief out in the way we lead our parishes and dioceses. As one common phrase puts it “Your actions speak so loudly, I can not hear what you are saying.”

For a Catholic leader - the real test is found in our behaviors, decisions, and the way we run our parishes. The question is not so much “do you believe this” but “would an outside observer to your parish conclude you believe it by what your parish is doing?”

This isn’t an accusation that you (or any other Catholic leader) really doesn’t believe in what they say they believe in. Rather, it is that our belief needs to grow. As the father of the possessed child says in Mark 9:24, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

There are three areas I believe we can really start to grow our faith. They are below.

1 - We don’t operate as if anyone is really lost.

WHAT WE BELIEVE - We profess our belief that Jesus came to save humanity (and us personally), that the Church exists to evangelize, that we are called to be the means by which God saves souls, that each of us has free will to choose God or not, that salvation is possible, etc.

WHAT WE WOULD HAVE TO BELIEVE TO OPERATE THIS WAY - most folks are on the path to heaven, not hell, and already following Jesus. 

THE EVIDENCE - The things that cause the most anxiety and panic in a parish meeting are about budgets, buildings, and internal personal conflicts. What does not upset us: the thousands of unbaptized souls inside our boundaries that we are doing nothing about. We talk about welcoming people, but haven’t had anyone from the neighborhood surrounding our parish walk in our doors in years. There are people who have left our parish and we probably don’t know who left or why they left.

THE TOUGH QUESTION - If we really believed that some folks in our parish territory could end up in hell (and we loved them like Jesus loves them), what would we be doing differently?

THE WRAP ON #1 - a default way of operating as if universalism is more real than hell didn’t just happen. We let it become part of our parish culture. Turning around a culture that we inherited (and then perpetuated) won’t be easy, but if we are to live out what we profess, we can’t just continue on the same path we have been on.

2 - We act like the “involved” or the “active” Catholic never needs to be converted.

WHAT WE BELIEVE - That nobody is accidentally a disciple of Jesus, so every single individual needs to choose to follow Jesus for themselves, repent, and be converted to him.

WHAT WE WOULD HAVE TO BELIEVE TO OPERATE THIS WAY - Most folks are ok. Especially if they are “active”, “involved”, or have a title or role in the parish. 

THE EVIDENCE - We catechize the many and evangelize the few, if any. We perpetuate activities, ministries, and programs where nobody is asked about their relationship with Jesus. We don’t ask the regular attendees or the involved Catholics to respond to an invitation to repent and be converted to Jesus. We don’t proclaim the Gospel in any regular manner and help them respond. We certainly don’t sharpen or work on building our own skills in making disciples and evangelizing others.

THE TOUGH QUESTION - How many of the folks who show up to Mass this weekend, in your parish, have personally responded to an invitation to put Jesus at the center of their lives - and have done so? NOTE - this is not about how many showed up to Mass…

THE WRAP ON #2 - This assumption was never a good one, even when Christendom still existed. Even when we lived in a culture where most self-reported as being a Christian. But that culture is long gone and we have retained some of the assumptions it came with. We need to change the assumption for today and the reality of it all.

3 - We do everything in the parish as if it is all up to us and God won’t actually do anything.

WHAT WE BELIEVE - God is all-powerful and that He cares. He wants renewal, conversion, and growth. God hears our prayers and answers them. God can heal, forgive, and change hearts.

WHAT WE WOULD HAVE TO BELIEVE TO OPERATE THIS WAY - God is real. He exists. But, in reality - for success to happen, we have to know the results are up to us ultimately. 

THE EVIDENCE - We open the parish council meeting with a 2 minute prayer and then operate the same way the United Way does in town. We plan as if grace isn’t real. We rely on our own strategy, not the one Jesus revealed to us. We don’t ask others to intercede for us in any meaningful or ongoing way. We don’t ask God to show up and do supernatural things. We don’t look beyond our internal operations or ask the Holy Spirit to send us out to the edges of our parish boundaries. 

THE TOUGH QUESTION - What is happening in your parish right now, that can’t be explained unless God is acting supernaturally and why isn’t the goal to make more of these answers the norm?

THE WRAP ON #3 - Most of you reading don’t doubt what the Church teaches. But you might be disappointed in what the lived reality looks like in your parish. Disappointment gave rise to giving up on asking God to do something. Sometimes it feels easier to give into disappointment and go along with what we have always done, we do that. The way we strategize and structure never challenges us to grow or change either. So, we are stuck.

WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?

Secularism will not end your parish. Neither will hostile politics, bad court decisions, technology, or the collapse of the surrounding culture. Those things are certainly real and they impact the Church and your parish.

The biggest threats your parish faces are internal, not external. The threats that start with:

• A parish that no longer operates as if anyone is lost.

• A parish that assumes the people already in the pews have been converted.

• A parish that plans as though God is not going to do anything.

These aren’t things that we vote on in a parish council meeting, talk about after Mass, or even notice happening. Rather, we inherited them, accumulated them, and then perpetuated them - because we got used to them being part of our Catholic parish culture.

But you can change how you operate! In fact, all three problems share a solution. A parish leader who starts operating as though the people in the parish boundaries are not all saved as-is will also start evangelizing the people already sitting in the pews, and will start asking God for things they could never accomplish on their own. It is not three problems, but three symptoms of the same problem.

And functional unbelief does not have to be permanent.

“I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Make that your prayer and say it as honestly as you can - about the state of your parish, about your leadership, about the gap between what you profess and how you operate. Then lead as though you meant it.

Start with whichever of the three convicted you most while you were reading. That is usually the Holy Spirit. Then do something different.

If you need ideas on what to do - we have other blog posts for that. You can also contact us to start a conversation if you want us to walk with you to help.