I have a friend who is Pastor of a big Church. He says it “sleeps” 700. This is a sadly common description of many Catholic congregations: asleep. Churches that need waking up have prevailing cultures of detachment and shallow commitment which almost always includes large numbers of people coming late and leaving early for weekend services […]
Category: Discipleship
The annual observance of Lent brings a two-fold theme of repentance from sin and selfishness, thereby renewing our baptismal commitment, as well as our annual preparation for the celebration of Easter. Traditionally the Church has taught us to turn with renewed discipline and dedication to the spiritual pillars of prayer, penance, and giving. Prayer The […]
So long awaited and eagerly anticipated our second ever Conference, Matter14, is now history. And it was historic too. With 150 member ministers helping to host our standing room only capacity crowd of 550 + guests from about 20 different states and 5 countries, it was an amazing two days. And we had so much […]
Everybody is talking about Evangelization and Discipleship these days. There are also no dearth of people willing to tell us how to do it (sometimes carrying a hefty price tag for doing so). Then there are the people who are successfully doing it. As I travel the country speaking to parishes and diocese, I have […]
For a few years now we have been consistently preaching and teaching about the value of faith-sharing groups we call Small Groups. A while back we started using the mantra that we don’t just want to be a church with Small Groups, we want to be a church of Small Groups. Why? Well, it’s not […]
Probably the number one question we receive in speaking, nearly any place we go, revolves around the question of people leaving the church. Inevitably, church folk will ask us, with sincerity and innocence, “If we change our church strategy, if we change our church’s direction, won’t people complain, maybe even leave?” Sure they will, and […]
All this week we have been in Denver for the first ever Amazing Parish Conference, and it was, well, amazing. The brain child of several Catholic lay leaders including, most notably, best selling author and business consultant Patrick Lencioni, the basic idea was to bring together parishes from across the country to share ideas and […]
This week we were at the beautiful University of Notre Dame to speak to a gathering there, including church leaders from every part of the country. We began our presentation the way we always begin: with a qualifier. We claim only to know what works when it comes to growing a healthy church in Timonium, […]
This week I had a great opportunity to spend the day with pastoral leaders in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey (they’re a great group, by the way). One question that a number of people asked me in a variety of ways was, “Why are people leaving Church?” That’s a very good question and part […]
That is an interesting question, which I once heard Pastor Perry Noble ask, and answer. It was actually a friend of his who asked him the question originally and his answer was “start a church.” Which is exactly what he did, planting what is now easily one of the largest, fastest growing churches in the […]
