I was at a diocesan ministry conference a couple of weeks ago, sitting in the break room. I overheard someone ask one of the speakers what her presentation was about.

“Stewardship,” she answered.

“Ah, you’re going to tell them how to get parishioners to give more money,” her table-mate replied.

The woman went on to give a brief summary of her presentation, the point of which was, stewardship is not about money. It is about gifts.

Today’s Parish author Bobby Vidal made a similar point in a recent issue. He has developed a very interesting process for helping parishioners discover their gifts.

He writes:

Discerning charisms helps us to understand our personal significance within the mission of the church. By assisting others in discerning charisms, we are doing more than helping parishioners learn and understand their talents and skills. We are supporting them in developing and uncovering their apostolic identity in Christ.

Bobby developed his process because he kept encountering parishioners who were doing extraordinary things in their lives, but did not believe they had any special talent for contributing to the mission of the church. You have to read his opening story about a woman he interviewed who “was adamant that she was not gifted.” As the interview went on, he eventually discovered the woman spent 40-60 hours a week serving the homeless in her neighborhood. And more!

You can read his article on the Today’s Parish website.

Actually, this could be about how not to run any parish meeting. Social media and communications expert, Chris Brogan lists five things that derail most meetings. In my experience, the most common is that meetings veer off the agenda. People start wandering off onto other topics, and no one calls everyone back to the task at hand. Clear, timed agendas are essential to effective meetings. But they only work if you stick to them!

Brogran’s other four derailers include scheduling too much time for meetings, not staying focused on making decisions, letting someone hijack the agenda, and confusing meetings with work. To see his full description of how to keep meetings productive and on track, click here.

Youth ministry is an area where we find a lot of great leadership practices. I asked John Rinaldo, director of youth and young adult ministry for the diocese of San José, California, to share his top ten. John also hosts a blog, Mpower28, where you can read more of his thoughts on leadership.

1. You are the keeper of the youth ministry vision. Own it, articulate it, spread it, share it, let the world know what the vision is.
2. Youth ministry is not an island, so play well with other pastoral staff members.
3. Minister to the youth ministry team and allow the team to minister to the teens.
4. You are the face of the church to many people. Make sure your Facebook page reflects that.

5. Connect with other youth ministry coordinators and diocesan youth ministry staff. The support you receive from them will go a long way through those tough seasons in ministry.
6. Create a long-term plan for youth ministry. Three to five years is a good place to start.
7. Read 30 minutes a day from a book that will help you personally or professionally grow.
8. Pray everyday. Get a spiritual director. Read the Bible.
9. Don’t water down the faith. Young people want authenticity in the message you share. They are up for the challenge.
10. Let go! The world of youth ministry at your parish does not solely depend on you. So free yourself from that pressure.

Last week, I wrote a post urging parishes to focus on abundance. Today, one of the bloggers I read a lot, Seth Godin, urges us to seek scarcity. However, I think we are really saying the same thing. We want to say to the world that we have—in abundance!—the very things people find to be scarce in the world.

What are some of the things we have in abundance? Hope, for one. Authentic community and friendship. Salvation. Forgiveness and reconciliation. Unconditional love. All of these things are scarce in the world but overflowing in our faith communities.

What would you add to the list? What are you providing, in abundance, that meets a scarcity demand?

Shane Hipps’ Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, tackles several complex subjects. His main point is to help the reader see the world—and faith—differently. He attempts this not for novelty sake, but because the massive shifts in media and technology are changing the lenses we use.

He does a good job of describing how an earlier world-changing technology—the printing press—changed the way the world understood faith at that time. He maintains that the linearity of printed text reshaped our understanding of the divine economy to be linear as well. When the printed word began to dominate over oral and visual communication, faith became much more focused on an assent to doctrine. He says the new, abstract, linear formulations of faith (versus the older, visual representations in elaborate stained-glass windows), began to take precedence in a world that was increasingly immersed in an abstract, linear communication style made possible by the printed word. He even goes so far as to say that the linear, dual-column alignment of pews in churches reflects the two-column layout of books that were being printed in the world.

You would think, then, that he might be a fan of the sift we are undergoing now. Our media are becoming much more visual and much less text-based. But the difference between this image age and the pre-print image age is the images of today are much more powerful and much more literal. Hipps writes, “In a very real way, image culture is eroding and undermining imaginative creativity…. This goes way beyond the creation of good art or entertainment—our imaginations are what help us change the word.”

In his chapter interestingly titled “Y’all,” he offers a series of biblical solutions to this problem. Essentially, the way to break free of the tyranny of both print and excessive imagery is by bonding with “y’all”—that is the body of Christ. Together, as a community, we become a living, breathing image of Christ for the world that transcends all other media.

Hipps is the pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and his writing, examples, and stories all reflect an evangelical Christian background. But I found his insights to be surprisingly “Catholic.” This book might not change the way you do ministry, but it will certainly change the way you think about your ministry.

People are never illegal

Father Allan Figueroa Deck writes of his time in Boise , listening to Bishop Michael Driscoll speak about his concern for the immigrants in his diocese.

It was very poignant to hear him speak about his concern for immigrants in his diocese. He noted that the very use of the term “illegal alien” by even some good Catholics is very disturbing. He points out that people may commit illegal acts, but they are certainly never illegal. To use that term is to dehumanize persons not unlike the dehumanization of the unborn….

Do you ever preach on the Opening Prayer?

Father Paul Turner reviews Daniel McCarthy’s new book , which is a compilation of his “Listen to the Word” column in The Tablet.

Even non-subscribers to the journal can now benefit from McCarthy’s labor of love. Listen to the Word: Commentaries on Selected Opening Prayers of Sundays and Feasts with Sample Homilies, is a most welcome scholarly and pastoral aid for appreciating the opening prayers of the mass.

For each Sunday and major feast of the liturgical year, McCarthy provides the English text of the opening prayer from the Sacramentary together with the Latin original from the Missale Romanum of 2002. After a brief introduction, he explains where this prayer comes from, its grammatical structure, its vocabulary, its scriptural allusions, its meaning, and its spiritual bearing. For people who think the opening prayer of mass has been time for a quick snooze, this work is an eyeopener.

Do more of what you want to do

Today’s Parish author Jason Womack is interviewed on how to implement strategic best practice behaviors to focus on priorities, manage change, and successfully plan for the future. Note that he is not a fan of “work-life balance.” The audio is a little soft, but it’s worth a listen.

What do people need?

Parish leaders are in the need-fulfillment business. We know people need Jesus, and we’re about filling that need. However, Seth Godin points out that “need” is not the same thing as “demand.”

If you want to help people lose weight, you need to sell them something they demand, like belonging or convenience, not lecture them about what they need.

If we want to help people find Jesus, we have to provide them with something they demand.

Spread your homily “by all means”

The Church Marketing Sucks website offers a terrific plan for spreading the Good News, using the Sunday homily. This plan would require a serious commitment to a communications strategy, but imagine the results!

The mission has never changed: Get the gospel to the world. But the tools have multiplied many times over, allowing us to do it more efficiently than ever before. Which means we can spend less time fighting to create more content at all costs and spend more time simplifying our message and distributing it effectively.

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out my free offer to help pastors start a blog .

Is your web presence effective?

Susan Wolf, SND, says that even if you have a “great” website, that alone is not enough to create an effective web presence.

An organization, religious community or ministry also needs to be interacting with their constituents via email and social media. An organization does not need to be using every form of email communication or social media, but I think that it does needs to be using at least two platforms in addition to the website to be present to as many different generations and stakeholders as possible and to facilitate various forms of engagement.

Be sure to check out her examples of organizations that have an effective web presence. There are two parishes listed.

On The Daily Saint, Today’s Parish author Mike St. Pierre has compiled a list of the posts that his readers have most enjoyed related to blogging. He says:

One of the easiest ways to be creative is to blog. It’s nearly free and takes so little time that it’s any wonder everyone isn’t blogging. But they aren’t and that’s too bad because it’s a wonderful outlet for ideas and conversation.

Earlier, I made the point here that I thought pastors must blog. That drew a comment from pastor and writer Fr. Austin Fleming, which you can read on his blog, A Concord Pastor Comments.

I agree with Mike, that just about everyone would benefit from blogging. But I think pastors (or associate pastors who will one day be leading a parish) must blog because of their central role in the parish’s mission of evangelization.

Some parishes have lay people or deacons who serve in the role of pastor. I would say that they, too, must blog for the same reason a pastor must.

Free offer

To help you with this, I want to make you an offer. If you are a pastor, associate pastor, or serving in the role of pastor, I’ll help you get started. I’ll meet with you by phone and answer any questions you have. I’ll walk you through the process of setting up a blog. The phone call is free, the blog software is free, and my time is free. E-mail me, and we’ll set up a time. My only request is that if we meet together, you come to the meeting with the intention of blogging at least twice a week for 30 days. That’s roughly eight blog posts.

And if you are already tech savvy enough to get started on your own, then start. And let us know about it in the comments section. We’ll all come visit your blog!

If you need a list of ideas to blog about, click here.

How can lectors be leaders in their parishes? Here are 10 suggestions:

1. Every Advent, become an expert on the gospel for the liturgical year. Read the gospel. Take a workshop. Read a commentary. Start a study group.
2. Every time you are scheduled to read, learn or relearn about the book or letter you are reading from. You can find introductions for each book of the Bible on the United States Bishops’ website.
3. Affirm other lectors every Sunday.
4. Challenge yourself to excellence. Choose two skills to improve every year. Work on projection first—even if you think you have that skill mastered.
5. Never proclaim a reading you haven’t rehearsed (unless you need to fill in unexpectedly).

6. Arrive early.
7. Dress up as a sign of respect and honor for the people you will be serving.
8. Ask for feedback. Act on what you hear.
9. Don’t assume anything. Check the microphone. Check the batteries. Check that the ribbon is in the right place. Check that the intercessions are in place. Even if these things are not your job.
10. Be believable. Believe what you proclaim. Live what you proclaim.

In his chapter, “Developing Stewards in a Parish Setting” (The Parish Management Handbook), Charles E. Zech says one key to cultivating Christian stewardship is to focus on an attitude of abundance, not of scarcity.
 
 
 

Assuming a world of scarcity does dreadful things to people. They become afraid. They focus on their own survival. They become selfish, competitive, and protective of their own narrowly defined interests. These practices destroy community. The biblical traditions pose a radically different assumption: if we seek first the reign of God, all that we truly need will be provided. There was enough manna in the desert. A few loaves and fishes were enough for Jesus to feed the multitudes. By affirming the whole of life as a gracious gift and a sacred trust Christians assume abundance and exercise the gift of giving.

I believe this in spirit, but the flesh is weak, as St. Paul says. I haven’t cut back on my contributions to my parish during these difficult economic times, but I have deferred gifts to a few other charities I usually support until my finances are more certain. I’m wondering how you are doing with envisioning a world of abundance in the face of daily reports of high unemployment, a weak housing market, and a ballooning national deficit. Are you able to focus on living in a world of abundance? And how do you help your parishioners to overcome the dreadful things that assuming a world of scarcity does to us?

 
This video of Benjamin Zander, from a 2008 TED Talk, has two effective take-away points for parish leaders. Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and the coauthor of The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life.

Liturgical flow

In this video, Zander demonstrates how Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor is a piece that begins at “away” and travels a journey that ends at “home.”  This can be a good lesson in liturgical flow. The liturgy begins with the gathering and ends with the dismissal. How do we play the notes inbetween in such a way that we move from “away” to “home”?

Servant leadership

The second point to pay attention to is Zander’s description of leadership (toward the end of the video). When he was 45, after he had been a conductor for 20 years, he realized his job was “to awaken possibility in other people.” He says he knows he is succeeding at this if the eyes of the players in his orchestra are shining. When the orchestra is not performing well, he asks himself, “Who am I being, that my players’ eyes are not shining?” And we can ask ourselves, as we leave the liturgy, “Who are we being, as we go into the world?”

The video is 20 minutes long. After you watch it, please share your comments, because I’d love to know what you think.