Well, we had a beautiful and inspiring celebration this year at the Maryland State Fair for Christmas Eve. Several observations noted in passing, in no particular order: – It was our 10th year there and to mark the occasion we had perhaps about 10,000 people, fairly well distributed between the two Masses. There were 4,484 […]
Category: Making Church Matter
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 […]
If you were to ask me to pin point the exact moment in time when we changed course as a parish community and started deliberately moving in a more successful direction, I could tell you without hesitation. One day, several frustrating years into working here, Tom Corcoran, then our Youth Minister, walked into my office […]
MATTER 14 is our second ever Church conference for parish leaders. It is scheduled for November 6 & 7. Here are some important reasons you should attend, and bring your team. Reason #7 This year the conference is a two-day event, we begin on Thursday evening and run through Friday afternoon. As such, it’s going […]
Little more than a month from now (November 6 & 7) Church of the Nativity will be hosting our second ever Church Conference. It’s called Matter and I’ve been blogging about why you should attend (see previous post for reasons #1-3). Here are some more reasons to attend: Reason #4 You should attend Matter because […]
10 Reasons You Should Attend Matter Reasons 1-3 On November 6 & 7th we will be hosting our second ever Church Conference, we call it Matter. Here are reasons why you should attend. Reason #1: Matter is a unique event for pastors, parish leaders, staff and volunteer ministers, interested parishioners, anyone who is interested in […]
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 […]
I’ve mentioned before that there was a Protestant Church here in our community (our very vibrant community) that recently closed. The congregation got too small to sustain the place and they agreed to close up shop and put the place up for sale. The thing about this particular church is that it sits on one […]
If you are a church leader probably you have given thought to your mission and vision, perhaps a lot of thought. And that’s great, you should. Perhaps you’ve even gone ahead and given flesh to those bones with specific strategies and goals to fulfill your mission and vision. But there’s another piece that still needs […]
