What Some Catholics Are Learning

Like most Protestant churches, Catholic parishes (churches) are also declining. In fact, the third largest official religious category in the United States is "Former Catholics."

Most intriguingly, this Catholic story is identical to Protest churches that make a turn around - the only difference is their Catholic context. (I guess humans don't change - no matter what pew they sit in.) Here are a few of their nuggets worth contemplating:

What Did We Get Wrong (about their first years of non-productive turn-around efforts):

• We assumed if we did more and did it better, people would grow in their maturity and commitment.
• We looked to our stalwart church-goers (senior adults) as our natural allies as we tried to move forward. Boy, oh boy, was that wrong!
• We didn't understand how marginalized the whole enterprise of faith ...had become in the life of our people.
• We didn't understand how profoundly uninterested the non-church-going population had grown, how distrustful of any outreach efforts we made, and how cynical they could be about all organized religion.
• We were not turned toward God. We were not willing to gain insights from other churches where He was blessing.
• We thought this would be easy.

Why Did We Have It Wrong (from his list of mistakes):

• Mistake #1   Controlling everything and trying to                             be perfect.
• Mistake#4    Fixing problems...instead of systems.
• Mistake #5   Trying to please everyone.
• Mistake #6   Putting projects before people.
• Mistake #7   Hiring too quickly...and firing to                                      slowly.
• Mistake #9   Fearing to lead.

Growing churches of growing disciples is never easy, but always rewarding. If you would like to talk about your church getting back on track, let's talk. After all, that's what Middle District does - start and strengthen churches.

- Jim Hamacher