Start here.
I have written here since 2010 on evangelization, parish life, Scripture, apologetics, and the moral life. These six are the best place to begin.
Go Home and Live as Missionary Disciples
If your faith feels humdrum, you may not have entered the mission yet. A talk to men on what that asks of you.
Formed By Distraction
Eliot described minds pulled from one distraction to the next. We now carry that in our pockets. What is it forming in us?
What Is a Catholic?
A plain answer: who belongs to the Church Christ founded on the Apostles, and what holds that Church together.
Why You Need Your Men’s Group
Before asking whether men’s groups work, ask what problem they are meant to solve.
Why Protestants Are Becoming Catholic at My Parish
What draws evangelicals and mainline Protestants into the Catholic Church, as they told me in class.
How God Speaks in Human Words
The first of four articles on how the Bible is at once a human book and the Word of God.
The Professional Church: Introduction
Introduction: An Unprofessional Story
A few years ago a parish ministry leader asked me to be in one of her big events as an Emcee. The event was just not my cup of tea, at all. I did not want to be in it, and so, politely, I told her just that, which should have been enough. A few days later, however, I was greeted with an email saying that, oops! she went ahead and wrote me into their official program and printed off 1,000 of them with my name in there. "So," she said "I guess you're stuck!"
I was furious and astonished that someone would do that.
In my reply I told her how unprofessional it was to try and paint me in a corner to do something I already made clear I did not want to do. Her reply told me volumes about parish work: "Professional? It's not like we work at Exxon or something! This is a church. You don't have to be professional."
Wow. Just wow.
So with that lead in, I would like to bring up some questions and draw upon the wisdom of the private sector to find answers to some pressing parish worker questions, like:
- Where is the line between being pastoral and being professional?
- How much should your local parish reflect the life and culture of a successful business?
- What practices, if any, should a parish incorporate from the business sector?
- What is the role of numbers in terms of audiences reached and money budgeted?
Book Review: Youth Ministry 3.0, by Mark Oestreicher
Mark Oesteicher, aka "Marko", in his new book, confronts our commonly held assumptions on youth ministry and offers prophetic guidance on moving forward that can benefit greatly the new evangelization. He launches into this project with these disturbing words: "The problem is this: The way we're doing things is already not working. We're failing at our calling. And deep down most of us know it. This is why we need an epochal shift in our assumptions, approaches, models and methods." Youth Ministry 3.0 proposes to help guide 21st Century youth ministry into just such an "epochal shift".
"The way we're doing things is already not working. We're failing at our calling. And deep down most of us know it."Adolescence is a recent phenomenon. In the last 100 years we have watched at the holding period between childhood and adulthood has increased, from G. Stanley Hall's mere 18 months in the early 1900's to 15 years of adolescence today, starting with puberty and ending in one's 20s! This lengthening in of adolescence caused the evolution of youth culture in America. Knowing the experiences that define the adolescent years are crucial to responding authentically in youth ministry.