Every year, around Thanksgiving, we celebrate stewardship here at Nativity. Here’s the basic blueprint for what we do and why we do it. What Is It? Stewardship Weekend is an extended reflection and celebration of giving in our parish. Stewardship, when it comes to discipleship, also includes gifts of time and talent, but we talk […]
Missions Weekend You are my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. – Acts 1:8 The final instruction from the Lord to the Church clearly teaches there are to be no limits to our missionary service. The three-fold nature of the instruction indicates that the Christian community has […]
Rebuilt has always been about sharing our real-time experiences in a real-life parish. Now that we are solidly into our fall semester here at Nativity, it seems like a good time for an update on what’s new and what’s next. If I had to identify one central theme of this update it would be that […]
What has become undeniably clear over the last months, and especially the last weeks, is that a return to pre-COVID church attendance is not happening anytime soon. We’ve discussed possible reasons why in previous posts. But what we didn’t completely anticipate was how the re-opening process would happen in fits and starts. In many places, […]
Every church I am in conversation with has seen a setback in their in-person weekend attendance this past year. Typically, I’m hearing between 20% to 50% of pre-COVID attendance. Currently, here at Nativity, we are consistently seeing 35% of our previous attendance at our reduced weekend Mass schedule (three Masses down from five). In case […]
In one recent national poll, respondents were asked to identify their mindset towards the next step in what I have come to call the COVID ordeal. The poll found that people fall into four distinct categories: 45% Vaccinated and ready for a return to normal 25% Vaccinated but not ready for a return to normal […]
Recently I was reading one of my favorite “church” blogs, Pastor Tony Morgan (The Unstuck Church Group) and came across this striking aphorism: “My church is for me, but it’s not about me.” I am often asked what was the single most important thing we did, decision we made, or turn we took, that had […]
In my last post I argued the ongoing importance of our online presence, including live streaming weekend Masses. It will be more important post-COVID than it was before. At the same time, this in no way suggests that attendance, physical presence, and, of course, the reception of Holy Communion at church are unimportant. They’re critical. […]
This past week we celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. The gospel read at Mass takes us back to Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and we hear again the words we hear every time we come to Mass: He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, saying,“This is my body.”Then […]
The season of summer can be a quieter time at many parishes. Unless you’re in a resort community, attendance inevitably drops as faith formation programs end and parishioners go on vacation (or just sleep in). While summer should be a time of rest and refreshment for pastors and parish staff, it is also an important […]
