As we gathered together with Parish staff and leadership last week we spent some time looking at things we’ve learned from others, especially the very best practices of some of the most successful Churches in America. As an exercise, and for purposes of our current discussion, we identified 7…obviously there are many more, but 7 […]
Saturday our Parish Staff gathered together at Loyola College with about 40 leaders from our Church: members of the Parish Council, Financial Council, Cooperators and some of our ministry leaders. The group was truly outstanding in terms of talent and commitment. We meet to begin looking ahead. Why now? Well, this month we are finishing […]
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. I know that description fit this Church was not so long ago. Churches that need waking up have prevailing cultures of detachment and shallow commitment which almost always […]
In this weekend’s message we reflected on John 6 where Jesus lays out some pretty heavy teaching and then watches as many of the people following him grumble and complain and eventually leave. They quit being his disciples. Guess what? It hurt, it felt bad, Jesus hurt and felt bad. Just like we do when […]
From Michael I think Friday is my most difficult day, because the message has to come together by the end of the day, no more excuses. Sunday, though a marathon for us, is actually easier than Saturdays for some reason I can’t quite describe. There is a lot of energy on Sundays so maybe that’s […]
From Michael Memorial Day is the traditional start to the summer season. It usually represents the slowest season for many retail operations, including churches. Summertime usually means empty pews, weak collections, loss of energy, loss of focus…stuff like that. Nothing could be further from the truth here. I am really looking forward to this summer […]
From Tom This past week we had a strategic planning meeting. We have a great team of people who are helping us look to the future of the Church. At the meeting, one of the members of the team was talking about Pepsi and their strategic planning. He said their simple mission statement is this, […]
From Michael This week we took our annual staff retreat. I was surprised by how much work it turned out to be. We went to Avalon, New Jersey which is a beautiful place, but it was cold and rainy (actually a good thing, because no one was tempted away from our agenda). The group is […]
Easter was amazing here at Nativity. The Holy Week services were moving and uplifting; at the Vigil we baptized and confirmed 25 people into the faith, Easter Sunday saw thousands of people at our morning Masses (nobody actually took count, but there was a huge crowd), people graciously filled our video venues, parked off campus, […]
From Michael Palm Sunday was an incredible day here. There were over 4200 people but it was so prayerful and spirit filled it was almost intimate. When Charlie and Al started singing “Were You There” I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. Lots of high school students have been putting in […]
