I would do anything to be…

So let’s say you could trade places with anyone.  Who would you trade places with?  You could be anyone in the world (currently living) but you have to take the whole package with whoever you pick.  You can’t keep your kids and spouse but you could be Nicole Kidman, Lindsey Lohan, or George Clooney. 

So would you switch with anyone?  How about Bill Gates – okay a little nerdy but I understand the guys got some dough.  Maybe Lebron James – fame, youth, money, personality, athletic, a very bright future?  Would you want to be the next president? 

I was listening to a radio show and the question was asked and the guy answered, Tiger Woods.  However, he also said there’s no way he would leave his wife and kids.  So now let’s take that stipulation off the question – you could be any living person and let’s assume that you can ignore the thought of leaving your family.  Who would it be?

I thought about the Tiger Woods option – relatively young, very talented, nice income, powerful. But remember you have to take all of his life not just the good parts.  So imagine you are Tiger Woods.  You are, it would appear, very motivated (obsessed?) not only to be the best golfer in the world, but the best golfer of all time.  Maybe he gets up and his motivation to be great is more of a demon.  He gets up (and puts his pants on one leg at a time just like you and me) and maps out his time based on the compulsion to hone his skills to the limit.  If he has a bad golfing week, he is in hell and if he succeeds, it’s only one step in a lengthy journey and must be put behind him because there’s the next tournament to think about.

If you are Tiger, you have a lot of money but a lot of obligations.  You can look at the schedule and there is a steady diet of corporate appearances, charity events, product development appointments, golf course development work and travel, and probably a fairly large amount of time to filming commercials and posing for photo shoots. 

And I think one feature of his life that would be especially troublesome for me, would be the inability to go anywhere without being recognized.  Okay, I guess if I am honest with you, this is already somewhat of a problem for a famous blogger like myself, but I can’t even imagine the number of times Tiger Woods gets asked for an autograph or a picture.  So do you want to be Tiger Woods or maybe you want to be someone else who has money, and skills, and youth but wouldn’t be recognized and potentially hounded where ever they went?  All things considered do you really want to be Tiger?

How about being someone who you think is especially virtuous?  Did someone like this cross your mind or were all the people rich, famous, powerful?  (Are there any widely recognized people who are virtuous?) How about if you could select someone who you knew lived a good (as in good in a virtuous way) life and they are on their death bed, would you want to switch to assure your chances of spending eternity in bliss? 

Does wanting to be someone else reflect that you are discontented with the gifts and life God gave you?  Does it maybe reflect a cultural value on money, fame, and power?

One final question, would you want to relive your life knowing what you know now?  There’s no guarantee that you’d find your same spouse or have your kids, but I’d hope you might have avoided some things you now wish you would have done differently.  I recall meeting and falling in love with my wife and never being so sure that I wouldn’t have changed one thing in my life because they all allowed me to meet her. 

Onward Christian Soldiers

I have listening to one book and reading another over the last week or so and I am a little confounded by the contrasting realities they present.

The book I am reading is written by Rick Warren (author of, “The Purpose Driven Life”) and is called, “The Purpose Driven Church.”  The book details his advice on how to create a church that will succeed, grow, and prosper.  His Saddleback Church has become very large and he is a very influential voice in the realm of religion and church management. 

As I have read, I actually found his advice agreeing with my posts on the need to have a church come to a clear understanding of its purpose, its mission, and its direction for the future (http://salvationeconomist.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/unity/).  But the real reason I am bringing it up has more to do with a contrast to another book I am listening to.  Warren’s book is filled with Biblical references and building an institution that very deliberately seeks those who aren’t attending any church and attempts to have them live lives that clearly reflect they accept what Jesus taught.

This message was a source of hope to a lowly church worker like me, who frequently asks whether or not my work really makes any difference with respect to changing people’s behavior for the better.  Do the members who come here live better lives because they are members?  Would they live the same life if they went to another church?  Warren’s book seems to indicate that if a church has its ducks in a row (is deliberate about what exactly its purpose is and has a specified strategy to accomplish it) that it can bring about some significant, tangible changes in behavior.

The book I am listening to  is called, “”God is Not Great.” (Editor’s note: I generally enjoy trying to understand disparate points of view on given subjects.  I might not necessarily agree with a point of view but try to expose myself to it nonetheless). The book, written by Christopher Hitchens, takes the point of view that religion is a fabrication of humankind and wrecks all. 

In listening to it and being reminded of all the bad that has come and will come from people motivated by religion, I began to really question the value of religion.  Does it make people behave better or allow/cause them to do things unimaginable to a faithless humanist who doesn’t practice religion? 

There was a long list of historical wrongs committed by people. However, what I found especially disturbing are those that are currently happening and particularly those done by Catholics.  The obvious is the child abuse scandal but then there is the clergies’ (or Catholics in general?) role in the Rwanda and also the advice to those in the third world that condoms cause AIDS.  Slaughters in Bosnia are also tied to the Church.

Perhaps I don’t pay close enough attention to the news and should have been aware of these things or perhaps the allegations in the book are not true, but if they are it certainly makes one wonder about whether you are on the right team or not.

I guess somehow I was thinking that there is an advance in understanding for those within the Church and the Inquisition and similar historical sins are only historical.  But are they?  Are the past wrongs a perpetual by-product of leaders who believe they are infallible?  Are future injustices predictable based on the governance culture and mechanisms?  

What is the role of your common person in the pew if you think someone in the Church hierarchy is doing wrong?  Should you revolt?  What were the Catholics in the pews doing in Germany during WWII?  Do you stay at home on Sunday and claim religion is a sham even though you believe in God?  Do you head down to the Evangelical church to get re-baptized and saved?

A lot of questions, and while I am generally understood to be the premier fount of wisdom in these parts, I can’t say I got a lot of answers just yet.

This just in…I am stupid

 God, send me some gas – quick.

Divine providence of the dumb enjoying luck? You decide.

I do not have to get gas very often.  I don’t like to get gas and dwell on the cost of it and whether or not I use it wisely.  I don’t like to freeze getting out of my car to pump it.  So I tend to drive as far as possible before I get more gas.  I guess I must also admit that there is some inexplicable thrill from riding in a car that might run out of gas.  It is a really stupid philosophy as was very directly pointed out on a couple of situations. 

On one occasion, I was taking a late drive from Winona to Minneapolis.  I don’t recall the circumstances other than I know I was getting low on gas, I know it was bitterly cold, and I know I was mostly in the middle of no where.  So I decide at nearly midnight I should get some gas.  The person with me figured out the situation and asked why I didn’t get some earlier and not risk freezing to death on a deserted highway?  I didn’t really have an answer but do recall how I had to bang on the glass to get the gas station to turn on the pumps.

There was a similar scenario that was equally stupid and I guess I don’t need to tell the story and, once again, there is no good reason why I chose to wait to get gas.  I guess the lack of reason is the thing I am trying to come to grips with.

On Tuesday I have class in downtown Minneapolis.  My beeper and low fuel light went off right as I took off.  I didn’t have time to get gas and was too tired to get it on the way back. 

Yesterday I left for my long, four-block trip to work with my car and I figured I would go out during the day and get some gas.  I got out of the parking lot and onto the main drag and my car dies.  I figure the problem might have been created because the car was on a incline and also figure if I can get a little head of steam I can coast back into the parking lot.  All of these decisions were very bad.  I end up with my car stuck in an intersection just as school is about to let out.  VERY NICE. ABSOLUTELY SWEET. ATTA BOY.

So the second car by is a guy that used to work at the church and he asks me what the situation is, I tell him.  He drives as fast as he can to get gas for me, returns as fast as he can, and so I end up being stuck for maybe four minutes. I didn’t have to walk miles to get gas, I didn’t have to push my car anywhere.  It ended up being pretty painless.  In fact, the last time I ran out of gas (at least 10 years ago), I think about the same thing happened.  Someone picked me up took me to the gas station and took me back to my car. 

So am I lucky despite being stupid.  Is it some strategic plan by demonic forces that will ultimately haunt me when I run out of gas and die?  Is it God watching out for me despite being stupid?  Does God look after stupid people who don’t know when to buy gas?

I probably won’t change my ways.  I will still drive the car until it’s teetering on empty and now that I know pretty accurately how far I can drive after my light comes on until the car dies so I can really push it to the limit.

 

 

 

 

Return of the Saint

So let’s say we have a church where everyone – at least most people – understand the purpose of a church and they understand in broad terms how this purpose is being defined in particular location (per my last post).  Then what?  

From my perspective as an administrator the question is, how do you allocate resources in the most effective way to move the organization to embody the mission.  To me you need more definition beyond a mission.  You need to define more specifically what you need to do but you also need to why you are going to do everything.  Why do we have a school relative to what we see our mission as?  Why do we have Bible study, Vacation Bible School, and Life Teen?

Once a church defines what is doing and why it’s doing it, then it must continually refine these activities.  What do we need to change, improve, adjust to better realize our potential.  

Very abstract isn’t it.  Let’s take a look at some examples – all very hypothetical.  So let’s say we understand our mission to be to form mature Catholic Christians by offering education, spiritual development, worship, and service opportunities.  So we decide we want to offer faith development opportunities for all but since our parishioner base is largely families we want to put more resources into the faith development of children and youth.

We offer a day school since having seven hours a day to help the children grow in their faith increases the chances that they will grow up mature in their faith development.  We should also offer classes to the children and youth not in the school.  These classes should make the best of the time they meet to develop the faith of the students.  There should be an identified pathway on how the collective attendance will lead the children to understand and practice their faith as they mature into adulthood.

So you could go on and on and analyze each of the activities and tie it to understanding of the mission.  Unfortunately, this is an exercise that few parishes undertake.  They do what they did last year which might be great but they tend to skip the part and ask themselves what does the activity do to further the mission.  Moreover, the participants themselves can lose sight of why they are participating.  We go to class because that’s what you are supposed to do.

There is one other notion about church activity that needs to be understood but seems to be mostly forgotten.  The notion is that people are at very, very different places in their faith lives and you must conscientiously plan your activity to get them from one point to another.  Some people are completely unchurched.  Some show up once in awhile as a novelty.  Others come to daily mass and volunteer hundreds of hours at the church and elsewhere.  These different categories of people are going to need different experiences to get them to the next stage of faith development.  

When a parish tries to determine what to do, it must very deliberately construct a strategy to address where different people are at with their lives.  The collective activity should clearly define a pathway toward becoming a person of faith.  Shouldn’t a church’s goal be to make people saints?  If we do what we are trying to do perfectly, wouldn’t we want to have members who are so in touch with God that they are able to act like Christ would?

I guess it’s something to think about.

Unity

So I got to thinking about what I wrote yesterday and from my lofty penthouse office suite, decided that I should start figuring stuff out in my own head and maybe it will spread to the organization somehow if it’s good or be silently ignored (which has been my experience for many of my ideas thus far).

There must be a defined and understood, UNITY OF PURPOSE.  The unity of purpose would come in two forms.  One would be an understanding of what a Christian church is supposed to do and the other would be a more defining statement on how it intends to do it.

I would suggest a Christian church should use Jesus’ direction to his disciples as a basis for their existence.  He said something like, go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples . . . teaching them to obey/observe what I have commanded.  -Matthew 28:19.

So the church is to make disciples who do as Jesus commanded.  The church, therefore, would be successful insofar as it has members who do as Jesus taught/commanded.  The purpose is then to get people to behave better and the better they behave, the better the church is at meeting its reason for existence.

The second part of the unity of purpose is the mission statement which obviously varies from church to church as each of the institutions respond to their purpose in ways unique to them.  At Holy Name, we have defined our mission as, “Sharing in the Body of Christ, we seek to: Know the heart of Christ, See the face of Christ, Be the hands of Christ.”

While this is memorable and directive on an individual basis, I don’t know that we have delved into sufficiently for it to guide us.  If you are going to discuss what the parish does and why it does it, does this statement on its face distinguish our parish from others?  For my money, I think we would have a greater unity of purpose if we were to unwrap the mission statement more. 

I could see equating the “Body of Christ” as the need to have community, build community, emphasize that we are not individuals and should do things that build relationships between parishioners.

I could see understanding “Know the heart of Christ,” with the need to encourage parishioners to develop knowledge of their faith and the issues of justice affecting the world.  This is why we have a school and faith formation and Bible study and why we should seek to educate parishioners in all activities.

“Being the hands of Christ,” could be defined within the parish as doing.  If you believe you must ACT.  We provide some opportunities for parishioners to act and we also include activities within our ministries so parishioners get this experience. 

There are other many other interpretations of the mission statement and I am not suggestion mine is the one but what I am suggesting is that if we are to have a unity of purpose we must come to a commonly understood and clearly articulated understanding of it.

 

Fishin for Mission

Church’s, like many organizations, tend to lose sight of the larger purpose and mission in a thicket of operational details.  This inadequacy can begin to erode the support and membership for many churches. 

People are not buying a Buick because they’ve always bought Buicks.  If the Buick doesn’t meet their needs and represent a value, they are going to buy a Toyota.  The problem is that many churches still try to sell their Buicks even though more and more people are not buying them.  Unfortunately instead of trying to figure out what people like about Toyotas, they are trying to figure out why people bought Buick’s 30 years ago and claiming those features will solve current problems.

There is no doubt a balance that must be sought.  A church must stand for things eternal and not remake itself to reflect trendy understandings.  Nor must it try to be another “Toyota”.  It must be something unique but something that is very conscientiously mission driven.  With that said though there are things that parishes must change to survive.

The most successful organizations are frequently characterized by a common understanding of what the organization is trying to do.  Moreover, each person associated with the organization can clearly articulate what this purpose is and, by vast majority, have an understanding of what their role is in achieving the larger mission.

This commonly understood principal of organizational success must be the mantra of effective parishes going forward.  What does a Christian church try to accomplish in the most generic way?  Save people?  How does the church try to ‘save’ people?  What could be observed in the behavior of someone who is saved? How would their behavior differ from someone who might not be saved?  How should the church evaluate whether or not there is evidence in the members behavior that reflects that they are closer to the behavior of a saved person?  What must they do as an institution to bring about the behavior?

I am suggesting (quite ignorantly as usual) that the parishes need to clearly answer these questions.  Christian and even Catholic churches may have different answers to these questions and so each parish must ask and answer these questions.  Moreover the process of asking and answering must be a community activity and it must be done periodically so that all can assess whether the answers are still valid and affirm their belief in and ability to articulate the mission of the organization.

What is it we are trying to do at my parish?  I don’t know.  We do a ton of stuff but I am not sure that the collective activity reflects a mutually understood sense of purpose.  I haven’t seen anything that defines characteristics or behaviors of the Catholic Christians we are in the ‘business’ to develop. 

Do the members of Holy Name of Jesus act more compassionately, justly, wisely, reverentially than those of other parishes?  Do they act differently than those who don’t go to church at all?  Maybe the parish should establish some expectations and make sure they are clearly and broadly understood.  So I ask you – the three or four readers that stumble on this site?  What would you list as the expectations of members at this (or another) parish?  Here’s my quick stab at it but I’ll think about it more and maybe lengthen and refine the list. 

1) They should believe in God.
2) Their behavior and attitude should reflect this belief.
3) They should believe in Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
4) Their behavior and attitude should reflect this belief by:
a. Having compassion towards others
b. Being generous with everything they have to those in need
c. They should pray in thanksgiving and ask for strength and wisdom.
d. They should have a desire to improve their understanding of their faith by reading, reflecting, and discussing it.
e. They should understand issues of justice and act in a way that reflects a sense for the advancement of the common good.
f. They should develop an enthusiasm for what they believe in – and the enthusiasm should compel them to share their faith with others.

At this point in the list I am wondering about what role the activity of the parish should play into being required.  Should the parish require the person attends events or gives a certain amount or should the real test be their attitude and lifestyle?  What do you think?

Thank Me Very Much

As I am sure you all concluded, the writers of the writers guild read my multi-post  effort on a reality based melodrama at a parish and knew that there were extremely talented scabs out there waiting to take their spots.  How else would you possibly explain my postings last week and their settling this week?  Coincidence?  I think not.

 

Yah, Yah, you may hear some garbage in the news about having the writers back to work so the Oscars show can go on, but I think we all both know I was the straw stirring the settlement drink. 

 

I am optimistic by next fall, we will all be happily taking in some new episodes from old shows and some rare episodes of crappy shows soon to be cancelled.  So when you are laughing your head off at the crazy antics at Dunder Mifflin next fall, have a kind thought for me as I was the one who caused it to happen.

Writers Strike (part 6 of 6)

Administrator sitting at his desk…

I am glad that’s over with, let’s see, ten emails, and two voice mails in two hours – not bad. With a little luck they won’t generate two much more work…

Yes, DD, what can I do for you?

DD: Well we got a bit of a problem, the water leak is going to take some time to clean up and we have groups scheduled to use those spaces and there are no other free rooms. Is someone meeting in the basement of the rectory?
Yes.

How about upstairs in the rectory?

I didn’t think we were supposed to let people every use that.

Well, it might be okay, who are the two groups? We have a teen group working on some tie-die t-shirts and a group working on a quilt for the raffle.

Put the quilters there, and put the teens in teachers lounge but tell them they can’t mess anything up.

Thanks.

Okay, were was I, email or voice mail, I guess the voice mail…

“Yes, I am not sure if you are the right person to talk to but I was at church last week and it was way too cold in there. I had my coat and a sweater and I was still cold. Please fix the temperature or I am going to have to look for a church where the heat works.”

JD: Excuse me, there’s someone here to see you about some kind of new technology that will set off an alarm if there is a water pipe break.

Great, ask him where he was last week. Seriously have him leave some stuff and I’ll look at it later. I just don’t have time for a cold calling salesman right now.

Okay, where was I – okay cold in the church. We turn it up people complain it’s too hot, we turn it down they are too cold – maybe an announcement that says we are going to keep the church at 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer – dress appropriately.

Phone call: Yes, this is Daryl Johnson, I got your number from the front desk, I just thought I’d see if you had a chance to read over the information I left you.

You just left it 3 minutes ago, did you really expect me to read it that fast.

Well, I sensed an opportunity and I didn’t want the stuff to get thrown out – do you have a minute and I can give you a quick overview of our space-aged system?

Daryl, dude, if I had time to talk to you, I would have when you were here. I’ll look at your stuff and call you if I am interested. If you call back or stop by without an appointment I will never do business with you or your company ever? Comprende?

Well see we really don’t have any competitors, we have a break threw technology that uses is a patented amalgamation of satellites, computers, valve solenoid lifters, and several other items that I can’t reveal as yet unless we get a signed contract. Suffice it to say, our product will save you millions in potential damages. If you want I could stop by I happened to be in your area right now?

I can see you in the parking lot you idiot, GOOD BYE.

Where was I, oh yah – temperature in the church…

Chris, why are you dressed up like an evil clown with a knife?

Partying All the Time

It  is with great hesitation that I write my blog today.  It has to do with party politics.  I am hesitant because: A) I am not politically active and realize I should be B) I work for a non-profit and the law prevents me from doing party politics at work and C) it’s a great way to make enemies.

With that said my issue is that some people must see the world through the eyes of a political party.  I wonder why they must do this.  They see someone on the street corner and comment the democrats would give undeserving people like that a check for not working, someone drives by in a Hummer and they bought it with Republican tax breaks for the rich.  For some the world it seems has to be interpreted through their political lens and what is more offensive to me is they feel obligated to comment on everything in these terms.  What makes you think I care about your political point of view?  Do you feel obligated to further the cause of your party?  Are you trying to bait all into a debate that you know you can win?  Why?

A cigar requires a comment about Bill Clinton, a mention of Alzheimer’s brings snide comments about Reagan, and on it goes with seemingly everything that comes up.  Why do people feel obligated to do this?  Is it that they have strong political feelings but don’t express them with constructive activity?  So maybe they side with the a party’s platform but all they might do to support their point of view is to vote rather than writing representatives and supporting candidates.  Is being politically active pointing our a partisian perspective to someone else every opportunity it arises?

Perhaps the most offensive thing about people who see the world through political party eyes is there closed-mindedness.  My experience is they don’t bring up issues to have an open discussion about them, its more an attempt to brain-wash whoever will listen.  If there is a discussion they inevitably cover unsubstanciated information that makes the discussion pointless.  “You know after Clinton left the White House they found….” or “Bush knew for a fact there were no WMD’s and lied to the public…” blah, blah, blah.

I guess I am bringing it up in the hopes that everyone will make an effort to have FACTUAL, open-minded conversations about issues affecting our future.  I think we would be far ahead of the game if we concentrated on the facts of real problems facing our nation and discussed potential solutions rather then siding with the solution presented by the party of choice.  

If health care continues to increase at double-digit rates, what will this mean?  If we run huge deficits and there continues to be huge trade deficits what problems will this cause?  Are any problems being truly addressed?

Writers Strike (Part 4 of 5)

Pastor reviewing the notes from the meeting on his desk, thinking to himself…

My goodness, I never thought there would be so many challenges when I was in seminary.  There never really prepared me for this and I guess it’s really tough knowing what to do.  It sure would be easier if I just drew up some plans or maybe me and about four others. 

Let’s see we have about 40 ideas on how to turn the tide and stop the loss of baptized Catholics to the church of the non-practicing and other forms of worship.  So which of the forty should I bring up at the next meeting.  Or should I just call this entire scheme off.  There was certainly a lot of angst at the meeting and a fair amount of pessimism.  Is it really worth it?  It would be much easier to continue on with what we are doing now.

I need to keep going – it’s going to be tough but I am called to lead these people and try to realize the reign of God. 

Okay, think Father, think – what should we concentrate on? 

Maybe we should just focus on drawing our own members in somehow and they will create enough mass to generate a sort of gravitational pull.   We need to light some fires within our own members, but how?  We need different strategies for different levels of members. 

For those who seldom attend, we need to call them or reach out and remind them of some things we have going on.  These people don’t seem to respond to the bulletin or any other written communication so we need to provide a personal invitation.

Now for those who are a little more active – maybe the group that might be involved in something but don’t attend so much.  What can we do to pull them in a little closer and maybe get them more securely pulled in and enjoying the extra time they commit to the parish?  This is tough because I can imagine they all have different reasons for their limited commitment.  Families, sports teams, travel, multiple living spaces, I don’t know if we are going to reach this big bunch with one strategy.  Maybe this group needs a multi-ministry strategy and so I am going to throw that one back to the group.

Let’s see, what other broad category of parishioners are there that could use a nudge toward the core members.   How about the people who only attend weekend masses but never do anything more?  I bet there are quite a few in this category and somehow they haven’t responded to all the invitations to get involved in something.  I am thinking this group might also respond to a personal touch as well.  Maybe some phone calls to invite them to an activity or ministry that we think we be the best match.

Okay, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but I feel better about it.  Now all I have to do is anoint two people, meet with a wedding couple, cook dinner, and prepare a homily – maybe I can get it done by 11 tonight if I hustle.