On November 5th I introduced the five “best practices” for revitalizing the Catholic Church as presented in
Everyone Leads by Chris Lowney. Last week I reviewed the first; the ways we are entrepreneurial here at Sacred Heart. This week I want to examine the ways we strive to be accountable; and invite you to share your wisdom in what more we can do.
Certainly, we strive to show fiscal accountability with our operational finances and the monies contributed through our Capital Campaign. We report weekly Mass attendance in the bulletin and keep everyone posted on our efforts keep our facilities and campus fully operational.
Becoming a more accountable catholic community is much deeper than simple fiscal, or physical accountability of church property. Becoming a more accountable community is more uncomfortable; it requires that we ask ourselves some difficult questions. We believe, for example our parish mission is “Becoming and Making Disciples, Welcoming all to Follow Jesus Christ.” But, do we know how consistently that is happening? We don’t ask ourselves or parishioners whether that’s going well or poorly, or track our results over time?
How do we find out the answers to the difficult questions; and what are those difficult questions? Here are some that are on my mind:
Are our weekend Masses inspirational, and assisting us to grow spiritually and deepen our catholic community? If not, what must we do to enhance our Catholic Worship?
One-time parishioners have been drifting away, what can we do to engage our lost or alienated neighbors, friends, brothers, sisters, young adults, our own adult children and those with whom this catholic community would be strengthened?
How do we attract and engage young adults in worship and parish life?
Would having an “annual shareholders meeting” like companies convene assist in gaining the wisdom we need to move toward more accountability to our parish mission?
These are just some of my questions as I hear that word “accountability.” I am sure there are many more as we put our heads around this best practice. We need to work at holding ourselves accountable to our mission of building faithful disciples in our Catholic Community here at Sacred Heart.
Again, please share any wisdom you have in these matters with me or members of the Pastoral Planning Team through e-mail, phone or grab us on the weekend.