Mission & Organizational Structure
Dear Fellow Parishioners,
Christ promises us that He will make all things new. We see that promise fulfilled in a small way before our eyes. We have a new Pope, a new bishop, and this weekend, two more new priests in the Archdiocese, just ordained. A seminarian who is new to seminary will be living in here at the rectory with me at St. Vivian’s with our Family of Parishes this summer during his summer break. Many things are new. In our Family of Parishes, we continue to celebrate new communicants, as our children receive the Eucharist for the first time, and are united to Christ in a new way. Let us keep them in our prayers, praying for them, and for ourselves, that the one hundredth communion or ten thousandth communion is just as exciting and loving as the first.
In the days ahead, I hope to see many new things. Over the upcoming months, we will be moving to a new staff structure in the Family. In the past, the priest, the secretary, and one or two other key personnel ran each parish. A few people did many different things. One staff person, for instance, may have helped run the festival and helped prepare people for receiving sacraments, and done everything in between. However, that model has become unsustainable, because the need for mission in the world today is greater than ever. As fewer people attend Mass, and technology advances and society changes, it is necessary to change our perspective from maintenance to mission. We need to organize the staff more effectively, in a new way, to become more free to practice discipleship.
Jesus chose one of His followers, Peter, to lead all the rest. And then, He had a chosen group of three—Peter, James, and John—who were the leaders of the others. And then He had the twelve, and then the seventy-two, and then the large crowd of followers. This creates an effective structure for mission: there is a chain of command, and every level of command is wider in scope than the one above it, like the river grows in size as it flows downstream. The head leader identifies and communicates a single, unified goal. He communicates that down the chain of command, and then as the vision descends, it multiplies and is implemented with the greatest effectiveness at all levels. It is the job of the leader to communicate goals, parameters, and most importantly, why we are doing what we are doing; then it is up to the lower levels to implement and carry out the vision practically. In military terminology, this model is called “decentralized command,” where everyone is empowered to be a leader because the leader communicates a vision, sets parameters, explains why, and then allows decisions about implementation to be made at the lowest level. In Catholic Social Teaching, the same idea is known as “subsidiarity.”
A change in the structure of the staff will make this “decentralized command” or “subsidiarity” more possible. In the new model, staff directors will oversee different areas or functions of the parish life. One director will oversee communications, one will oversee evangelization, one will oversee administration and finance, and so on. These directors will have staff under them, and each of them will report to the pastor. That way, the pastor himself can entrust the leadership of the parish to these individuals, who can then entrust it to their staff, and so on.
We must all become evangelizers! That is the mission. Our community is hungry for God and for the hope that the Gospel offers. We have eternal youth and everlasting joy to offer in response to this hunger. It should be an easy sell! Let us engage our community and learn to lead ourselves and our families and neighbors to the fullness of truth, joy, and peace in Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Henry
