The Heart of the Matter

The power of the Word

A parishioner sent me an e-mail about something she witnessed while entering our church last Thursday.  To understand, it's important to know what a number of years ago our parish went through a process of discernment to decide if we would move out of downtown Boulder to a place outside of town that would offer us more room to expand our school and our parking lot.  We discerned that we would stay in downtown Boulder.  Here's what happened last Thursday:

As I approached SHJ today for the 4:00 hour of Adoration, I saw two young men walk past the [stone sign] in front of the church, back up and one take a picture with a cell phone.  "What's so interesting?" I asked.  "The saying on the rock," they both said, "It's so cool."  I laughed thinking they must be CU freshmen exploring Boulder and everything is cool. But, the one with the cell phone said, “No, seriously, that Bible quote is so cool."

   Seriously, this is why we needed to keep SHJ in downtown Boulder; the subtlety of its presence, of His presence.

  It's so cool: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, Jer, 1:15 

 

Priorities for SHJ, Part 2

This is now my fifth posting to you describing the work of our Sacred Heart of Jesus Pastoral Council over the course of this year.

         

In my previous posting we looked at our Vision Inspired Priorities.  There are also Problem Solving Priorities and Developmental (or Organizational) Priorities that our Pastoral Council and I came to agree upon as our agenda for the coming year, and by which we will evaluate the endeavors of our parish a year from now. 

      

Now let’s look at the problems we face. One is that we need to augment our common sense of competence and confidence as Catholics, especially as our world is becoming more disengaged with God and religion.  The other problem we face is that sometimes it can feel like we have three parishes: those who attend Mass on Sunday and are English speaking; and those who attend Mass on Sundays and are Spanish speaking; and those who send their children to our school.  So, let’s see what we came up with:

Problem Solving Priorities

 

• Create competent and confident Catholics.

         

Identify doubts and questions that separate Catholics

from Christ and His Church. Determine and use what

motivates people to be confident and competent

Catholics to answer the identified doubts and

questions.

      

• One SHJ parish: English-Spanish-Church-School

             

Review successful examples of integrated

communities; assess existing barriers to unity and

parish efforts to promote unity. Prioritize next

steps in order to celebrate our unity in Christ.

Now let’s look at our Developmental (or Organizational) Priorities:

Developmental (Organizational) Priorities

  

• Harmonize parish processes with Archdiocesan processes.

Identify Archdiocese processes relevant to SHJ and

determine where SHJ is not in compliance.

Determine required changes in order to bring SHJ into

compliance.

   

• Improve facilities to be more conducive to Christian formation.

Review and evaluate the current SHJ Master Plan.

Prioritize improvements to support SHJ ministries and

to help people find God present in all SHJ facilities.

Sometimes we can have so many irons in the fire and so many aging elements of our facilities that we can not know where to begin.  With these priorities set, we can take some new leaps in being better how we serve each other.

Lastly, what are the next steps?

1. Subcommittees will be formed for each of the Priorities  
2. Each Subcommittee needs to identify specific tasks for its priority.

Tasks need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable,

Achievable, Relevant and Time-Based.

3. We need the help, wisdom and investment of all of our parishioners. In the coming months you will be notified of the specific areas for which we will be needing volunteers.

     

Please prayerfully review the priorities and see if there is one you would like work on.  Then, consider volunteering for one of the subcommittees. We need both specific expertise and a willingness to help.

Priorities for SHJ, Part 1

This is my fourth posting about the results of our Pastoral Council’s labors, specifically:

             

• Creating our Parish Purpose Statement
• Clarifying the values we want to inculcate among all of our parish groups;
• Defining the acceptable behaviors for living by these values;
• Establishing our parish priorities on which to focus in the coming months.

Yesterday we finished looking at the values we want all of our efforts to live by, and now we will look at the priorities our Pastoral Council and I came to agree upon for the coming year, and by which we will evaluate the endeavors of our parish a year from now. 

We created 6 priorities, two for each category:

  

1.       Vision Inspired Priorities

2.       Problem Solving Priorities

3.       Developmental (or Organizational) Priorities

  

We’ll look now at the Vision Inspired Priorities.  Before we look at them, think of a grasshopper, caught and put into a jar, with the lid on the jar, closing the top of the jar.  The grasshopper, which ordinarily can jump very high, but with the lid on, can only jump the height of the jar’s lid.  If you remove the lid after a few days, the grasshopper will only jump as high as if the lid were still preventing higher leaps.  When we have no vision inspired dreams, we will not leap as far as we could otherwise. So, here’s what our council’s dreams produced:

 

Vision Inspired Priorities

 

• Effective evangelization

Review existing programs, assess parish needs and

prioritize future direction by February 2010 to

provide a permeating effective evangelization.

  

• Develop a new way to fund our school

Determine annual cost and research models of

success in funding of parish schools. Identify next

steps to achieve greater accessibility for all SHJ

parishioners.

  

Quote: "We're at a point for our Catholic school system where we really need to hold on to what's a treasure. But we also need to look at new models of governance, of financing.” Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, Superintendent of Chicago Catholic Schools.

Values, Part 2

This is the third posting detailing this year's results of our Pastoral Council’s labors, specifically:

• Creating our Parish Purpose Statement
• Clarifying the values we want to inculcate among all of our parish groups;
• Defining the acceptable behaviors for living by these values;
• Establishing our parish priorities on which to focus in the coming months.

In the last posting we looked at the first 2 values: Being Catholic and Inspirational.  Today we look at the other two values: Being people of Service and being Faith-filled. Here’s how we defined these values and here are the sets of behaviors we will look to inculcate in all of parish endeavors.

 

Value 3: Service – Equipping each other for every good work (2 Tim 3:17).

• Definition: Jesus came among us to serve; we are to do the same.
• Behaviors 
  • We actively form parishioners to discern their gifts in service to God and the community and to generously share those gifts. 
  • The virtue of Charity guides all our interpersonal relationships, decision making, and our actions. 
  • We create awareness of and engage in the Catholic teachings on Social Justice. 
  • We publish a monthly evaluation of parish spending relative to parish mission and goals.

Value 4: Faith-filled – So that we know the Lord, love the Lord and serve the Lord together.

• Definition: Having been given the gift of Faith in Baptism, we live in a vital and personal relationship with the living and true God.
• Behaviors 
  • We nourish our Faith through learning, prayer and participation in the Sacraments. 
  • As Saint Francis taught, we will proclaim the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.

Scripture: “For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)

Values, Part One

Yesterday I shared with you some of the results of our Pastoral Council’s labors, specifically our defining our Parish Purpose Statement.  In the upcoming postings I will share with you other fruits of the council’s deliberations:

• Clarifying the values we want to inculcate among all of our parish groups;
• Defining the acceptable behaviors for living by these values;
• Establishing our parish priorities on which to focus in the coming months.  

Now we look at two of the 4 values we agreed upon as the means by which to assess our progress in living by our Parish Purpose Statement. Here are the first two values and the behaviors we look for to see if these values are permeating everything we do in our parish;

 

Value 1: Catholic – Open to all in keeping with the whole.

 

• Definition: Accompanied by Christ, we are sent out by Him on a mission to the whole human race.
• Behaviors
  • We use all available means, including the latest technologies, to educate people about our Catholic faith. 
  • We celebrate and welcome all people.
  • We rejoice in our ability to provide a Catholic school to educate and inspire our young people.

Value 2: Inspirational – Living the truth in love (Eph 4:15).

 

• Definition: We are a joyous people of hope drawing all people close to Christ and His Church.
• Behaviors
  • The Eucharist is celebrated in such a way as to draw people into a greater union with God.
  • We share our stories of Faith with each other. 
  • We approach all challenges with the optimism that comes from Faith.

Scripture: “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” (Proverbs 28:18)

Our Parish Purpose Statement

All year long our Pastoral Council has been meeting frequently and intensely to help me guide our parish in such a way that all of our parish efforts can be “on the same page.”  Together we cobbled together our Parish Purpose Statement.  This was important to do because too often the various pieces of our puzzle can be running off on their own and miss the need we have to all work together.  A purpose statement helps us discern whether or not every effort in our enterprise is helping us succeed with our purpose.  Having a clear purpose statement helps us keep our focus and helps us be the best possible stewards of our parishioners’ generosity.  Here is the statement we created:

Our parish purpose is to use our baptismal

gifts of faith, hope and charity to inspire

and serve the world so that through us

people will see that God is credible and

present in our time.

Creating this statement of our parish’s reason for being was a great challenge.  We could have simply have quoted as our purpose the Great Commission of Matthew 28: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  However, there are certain needs in our time that we want to emphasize as we continue to follow this Great Commission. Let me explain:

• “Use our baptismal gifts” – By the very act of our Baptism we were infused with the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, so that everyone of us in the parish is being called upon to exercise these gifts given to us for a particular end, namely:
• “to inspire and serve the world” – Being parishioners of this parish (which is a part of the world-wide, 2000 year old Catholic Church) is not just for our own inspiration and consolation.  We are called to be Christ in the world, wherever our journey takes us. Many of us travel the world for business or pleasure.  Each of us is to exercise our Catholic faith, be an ambassador of hope, and electrify with deeds of charity whoever we come in contact with, wherever we are.  Why? This is why:
• “so that through us people will see that God is credible and present in our time” – This phrase was not one we dreamt up.  It comes from Pope Benedict XVI, who has pinpointed in this phrase the key problem of our time: that too many people no longer think of God as believable or as having anything to do with, or say to, us today. Our purpose, therefore, is to let the Lord’s grace work through us as a whole parish, and through us as individual members of this parish, to help people come to believe in God and find Him in their own lives.

In the coming postings I will share with you other fruits of the council’s deliberations:

• Clarifying the values we want to inculcate among all of our parish groups;
• Defining the acceptable behaviors for living by these values;
• Establishing our parish priorities on which to focus in the coming months.

By the way, the members of the Pastoral Council are as follows:

Neil Schiffhauer, President

James Cavanagh

Melissa Haapala

Betty Jancosek

Joe Kubler

Tommy Lorden

Catalina Mendez

Pat Palaich

Pam Jackimiec

Ex officio: Our pastor, our parish administrator and our school principal.

An end of an era

Today is the last day of the fiscal year, and it marks the end of an era at Sacred Heart of Jesus as we transition to a volunteer based model of a parish.  This means good-bye to some wonderful, talented, dedicated staff members who have given their all for the people of our parish:

 Mark Evevard, our youth minister for 7 years.

Denise Roberts, our liturgist and music director for 7 years.

Magdalena Harrach, our minister for the Hispanic community for 7 years.

Pat Marcotte, our receptionist for 19 years.

And Jan Altevogt, the principal of our school for 5 years, who leaves SHJ for medical reasons.

Finances seemed to be the driver of the four staff decisions, but if I look at this with eyes of faith, then I must see that somehow the hand of God is at work.  At this early stage of this transition, my thoughts are that we have moved away from a professionally-trained staff whose expertise drove the care of the parishioners; and now we are moving into a manner of pastoral care that will be the parishioners taking care of their fellow parishioners. 

This is a major change in how to care for a parish, more typical of a country parish than a city or suburban parish.  I had been afraid that it wasn't going to work, but the volunteers have been responding in droves.  So, the early signs are very hopeful.  In the meantime, on this day of departure, I'll let myself grieve the loss of outstanding co-workers; and I hope and pray their new locations will be as much a blessing to them as they have been to me and to our parishioners.

Here they are: Denise Roberts, Mark Evevard, Magdalena Harrach, Pat Marcotte, and Jan Altevogt.

Hvala

Hvala.  It's my first Croatian word; and I use it to welcome our new parochial vicar to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.  He was just ordained in May (5/17/08) and his name is Miljenko Pavkovic.  He is from Trigor which is on an island along the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. 

Hvala means "thank you" and I say to Father Miljenko, "Thank you for your vocation and for sharing your calling with me and the members of our flock.  May your time here in Boulder be a great blessing for you and for all of us in the parish.  Hvala!"

If you would like a tour of Father Miljenko's home town, click ">here. 

More on our Parish Town Hall Meetings

This week's Parish Town Hall Meetings were held to bring everyone in the parish up to speed on the crossroads our parish is facing.  We discussed conclusions that have been made and how implementing these conclusions will bring about the future sustainability of our parish and a greatly increased reliance on each other as well as a greater reliance on the Lord.

Here is an update about our Parish Town Hall Meetings.  If you click here, you will be able to view the slides of presentation made by members of our TAG Team (Trusted Advisors Group).  If you click through the slides, you will get a good take on what was discussed. 

And if you click these YouTube links, you'll see me giving a thumbnail sketch of an explanation of the slides.  There will be two parts, so be sure to click both links.  Th view needs to be better lit, but it's not all that bad for my first attempt at doing a YouTube manner of communicating with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ4GXsKdLI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdgZtb8HdT0

Parish Town Hall Meetings - this week!

I'm sure our parish is not the only one needing to go through a paradigm shift in how we operate.  For years we have operated as a "Program Parish," with paid professionals in the fields of Liturgy, Youth Ministry, Religious Education, and Hispanic Ministry.  We also have a school with 28 teachers.  To help me look at the best possible way to manage our sustainability and the revitalization of our parish, a TAG Team (i.e. Trusted Advisers Group) researched and spent 6 months looking into best practices and good business and parish models.  We also had a RAG Team (Revenue Advisers Group) made of a number of SWAT Teams looking into specific areas where we could enhance our parish income.

We are now ready to present the decisions we have made to honor the 132 years of our parish's members who have handed on to us the patrimony of dedication and investment in keeping the Catholic faith alive and well in Boulder, Colorado.

All members of our parish and school families are invited to come to our Parish Town Hall Meetings this week.   All meetings will be in Jubilee Hall; and all four meetings will be cover the the same information, so just choose the one that is best for you:

Wednesday morning (4/30) at 8:30 AM (for school parents); 

Wednesday evening (4/30) at 6:00 PM; 

Thursday evening (5/1) at 6:00 PM; 

Sunday afternoon (5/4) at 2:30 PM (for our Spanish speakers)