From a Maintenance to a Missional Parish - Reading Guide
Chapter 4 Guide
Clearing out the Junk: What We Need to Jettison if We Are Going to Rebuild
Key Theme ~ Rediscover and reclaim the Good News that we are saved by Jesus and are called to holiness.
Corresponding Videos ⇒
Forming a Leadership Team - Session 3 - Divine Renovation
An Interview with Fr. James Mallon
Takeaways
• “Grace, manifested in faith and love in the life of the believer, is what saves us.” (p. 65)
• “Pope Francis has repeatedly described the Church as a hospital for sinners and not as a kind of club for the perfect. It is clear that the Good News of Salvation resounds and is received as Good News only if we have truly grasped the bad news of our fallen condition.” (p. 67)
• “Sometimes even Catholics have lost or never had the chance to experience Christ personally; not Christ as a mere paradigm or value, but the Living Lord: the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). This hints at the very human tendency to reduce the Christian faith to some form of moral rigorism, or mere ethics. (p. 69)
• It is the kerygma that opens hearts; it is the kerygma of the Good News of salvation that needs to be articulated clearly for people to hear and understand.” (p. 71)
• “I am a sinner who the Lord has looked upon… [this] is our fundamental identity.” (p. 72)
• “Clericalism is ultimately a suppression of baptismal identity,” bestowing on only the ordained or professional lay ministers the call to holiness, mission, witnessing, evangelizing, and maturing in faith, which is the responsibility of all the baptized. (p. 73–74)
• “Saint Paul explicitly tells us that these charisms (spiritual gifts) exist “to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Thus the primary task of the Pastor is not to do all the work of ministry himself, but to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.” (p. 82)
• “As a pastor, I constantly seek to focus on the three fundamental tasks of the priest: to preach the Word of God, to celebrate the sacraments and to lead the Church. All other ministry not only can be pushed out, but ought to be pushed out to others.” (p. 83)
• The goal of the ministry team, lay and ordained, is “to call forth and equip others to do the work of ministry so that the Church may be built up.” (p. 83)
• “Only a Church filled with an army of missionary disciples can change the world.” (p. 83)