-
August 6, 2026If you have been Catholic long enough, you have seen the local parish version of the military draft, which happens annually. Before or after Mass, someone gets up and announces a dire need of catechists, or that the parish festival is a week away and they have only half the volunteers needed. A few people are guilted into helping. A few more are nagged. A few just want the announcements to stop.
As with any draft, the people who did not sign up willingly are rarely as invested as the ones who did.
If this is an annual ritual at your parish, it is telling you something. It is not a volunteer problem. It is a culture problem. Most Catholics have never taken ownership of their parish. They are renting space in it.
RENTERS
Think about things you have rented and things you have owned. When I was growing up, my parents had a rental property that we cleaned out each time tenants moved. Some of the worst things I have ever scrubbed were in that house. As I learned as a child - people generally do not care for what they do not own.
The Catholic renter comes to your parish the way a customer comes to a store. He is there to receive. He wants something in return for his time, something to show for his money, something worthwhile if he volunteers. There is an exchange happening, and he is on the receiving end of it.
Here is what leaders need to understand. Begging, nagging, pleading, and even personal invitation will only move a small slice of the renters. The culture is stronger than your announcements. Consumerism is consuming your strategy. And most renters are not moved by appeals to obligation. They will simply be put off further.
You may not like that. But after decades of failed leadership, scandal, partisan politics dressed up as faith, generational shifts in morality, and the collapse of trust in institutions, what was already hard twenty years ago will only get harder if we keep doing the same things.
Renters do not share your mentality about the parish, because it is not 'their parish'. Even if it is yours.
We cannot build a consumerist model of parish and then be surprised when consumers behave like consumers. Yet we keep doing the same things, because it is what we know and because risk frightens us. Yet, the real risk is continuing to do what is not working. Doubling down on bulletins, pulpit announcements, and better marketing treats this issue as a messaging problem. It is not a messaging problem.
We need to transform parish renters into parish owners.
OWNERS
If you own a home, you remember the day you signed the check and were handed the keys. A place that is yours. A place you are responsible for. A place you call home. It is an exciting and frightening time. Owning comes with responsibilities and rights.
As every homeowner knows - we see what renters never will. The same house, the same walls, but the relationship is entirely different. An owner cares for the house because it is his and he wants it to be a good home for the people inside it.
That is what we are aiming at. Not better recruitment. Ownership.
But this does not come from a better strategy, better advertising, or the right buzzwords. It runs deeper than any of that.
CULTURE IS THE REAL PROBLEM
Culture is the unspoken rule that says "this is how we think and act in this place and time." And too many of our parishes are structured to reward mediocre Catholicism. Mediocre Catholics can only perpetuate what already exists. Are there exceptions? Of course. But culture is found in the norm, not the exception.
The obstacles are familiar. The pastor is reassigned. Money drops and staff are cut. Leaders fall back on what worked a generation ago. Unresolved conflict sits in the marrow of the parish and is never named. Entrenched parishioners push back because they were never brought into the vision. Leaders hold decisions close because it makes them feel in control.
It can look bleak. But parish culture can be changed. It has been changed before, is being changed now, and will be changed again. The question for you is whether you will be an agent of renewal or a caretaker of decline.
One warning before you go looking for the fix. No program, event, strategy, or organization changes every parish. There is no magic bullet. You and your people are the experts on your culture. No outsider knows your community better than you do. Be wary of trying something simply because it worked somewhere else.
IT STARTS WITH LEADERS
Before you look outward, look at the diagnosis honestly.- The problem is not our doctrine, if it is true.
- The problem is not the Gospel, if it leads to life.
- The problem is not the Sacraments, if they give grace.
- The problem is not the world, but a Church that is not reaching the world.
- The problem is not that people do not know God, but that we are not making disciples.
- The problem is not moral relativism, but a Church that has lost her moral credibility.
Which means it starts with us. We are the ones who built and maintained a consumerist parish culture, and we are the ones who have to lead out of it.
So ask yourself four questions.- Who am I actually leading? Not who reports to me. Who is following me, and do they know where I am taking them? If they do not, I am not leading. I am managing.
- Who am I following? Not a podcast or a book or a blog. Who actually knows me deeply, has a plan for my growth, and holds me to it? If no one does, I am not being led well.
- Where are we going? If I cannot answer that, I cannot measure success or point anyone in a direction.
- How will we get there? What is the strategy, not just the list of activities?
The cure starts with the people who have been leading. Parish leaders who start to work on a radical change to consumerist parish culture, by being courageous and bold.
If you are a parish leader who wants to change this culture but does not know how to begin, we would like to help. Reach out to us here.