The Conference
As most of you know, last week I was at this conference down in Dallas run by the Evangelical Catholic, and I can tell you it was one of the most challenging weeks I have had in a long time. To be clear, the conference was excellent, and I was floored by how much expertise and zeal was contained in one room. But it was challenging because the ideas were so good that they challenged my status quo, which I thought was already pretty resilient to complacency.
My major takeaway was that we need to be serious and concrete about switching our model of parish life from one that assumes that most people are involved in a church to one that assumes that most people are not involved in a church. We cannot allow our missionary evangelization programs to be something added on to parish life, something that is a secondary consideration when we have time. They have to be the driving force and foundational paradigm of everything a parish does.
If you want to understand what I mean by that, I strongly recommend that you read this white paper, which I will soon be circulating amongst parish leaders. It is only 51 pages long and took me about 90 minutes to read and absorb. I will also be reading this book once it shows up in the mail – the author spoke at our conference and he was incredible, plus this book basically prompted the outlook of the entire conference.
What does all of this mean for us concretely at Assumption? I have been praying intensely about that for the last week. As a first step, I am working with our staff to free up a bit more time on my calendar so that I can really dedicate myself to shepherding our Reach More program, which is essential for the future of our parish. But after that? Come Holy Spirit!
Staffing Updates
Since my last update, we have filled two of our staff positions. Dan Welickovitch has been hired as our part-time custodian, while Maria Tapia has been hired as our new receptionist. We are still working to fill the Interim PAA position.
Spanish Bulletin
Due to the staff transitions in the front office, and the low readership of the Spanish edition of our bulletin, we are temporarily suspending the Spanish translation of our bulletin. Please let me know if this is a hardship.
Debido a las transiciones de personal en la oficina principal y la baja cantidad de lectores de la edición en español de nuestro boletín, estamos suspendiendo temporalmente la traducción al español de nuestro boletín. Por favor, hágame saber si esto es una dificultad.
Fr. Moore 