Home 9 Uncategorized 9 Session Three: October 19th 2020

An article shared by

Dio Comms Team

Published on

October 22, 2020

Part 2: Structure

“forming and communicating a vision takes time, and with the pressing concerns facing our parishes and dioceses, leaders may resist investing that time; they just want to get going, even if they have not yet established a clear direction. However, it does not matter how fast we move if we have no destination in mind!” (97)

“as essential as vision is to renewal and renovation, it is but the beginning. We need a framework that can support that vision, a way of deploying the various levels and organisational structures of the Church that focuses our efforts.” (97)

“This is not about adding layers of work to this process of renewal but about laying a foundation that can sustain growth and transformation that will nurture fruit that lasts.” (97)

“We are now firmly at the end if Christendom – a time in Western history when popular culture and faith were aligned.” (98)

“many of the basic models of how we do Church – our policies, procedures and structures (including, literally, our buildings) – are built upon presumptions that no longer reflect reality. Our parishes and dioceses are designed to reach a world that no longer exists. And we wonder why we are not bearing fruit.” (98)

“we live in a new apostolic age, an era where missionary territory is not in some far distant land but outside our doors. In fact, missionary engagement might also be required within the walls of our buildings, as we cannot assume that people in the pews have a living, intentional relationship with Jesus Christ or that they think with the mind of Christ.” (98)

“Not only our structures but also many of our principles, pastoral modalities, and methodologies are based on reaching a non-existent world … The question of structure aligns with the question of model. Any organisation more attached to its model than its mission will soon die.” (98)

Models of Restructuring
Clustering
– Regions
– Amalgamation

 “the models, processes, and organisational architecture we use must, in themselves, remove obstacles to the function of leadership: decision making, communication of vision, accountability, growing leaders from the next generation, to name a few, so that the Church may be able to fulfil her calling.” (123)

“parish transformation is perhaps the primary way through which dioceses will experience renewal, because transformed people transform parishes, and transformed parishes transform the diocese of which they are an integral part.” (123)

Four responses

  1. Agnosticism
  2. cynicism
  3. a return to the past
  4. breakthrough

If we can help just 30% of the new parishes begin to evangelise and bear fruit, transform their cultures and move to a place of health in the next 10 years then efforts will be successful. (127)

“In many places in the world, the Church lacks a sense of urgency, often because leaders there have yet to acknowledge the problem.” (128)

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