Divine Renovation: Parish pivots from maintenance to mission
July 1, 2022
The seeds were planted about four years ago at a breakfast meeting.
Two parishioners and Father Chris Hartshorn talked over a cup of coffee about how to engage people to build a more vibrant parish at Sacred Heart Church in West Des Moines.
Around the same time, Father Hartshorn had been reading Divine Renovation, by Father James Mallon, and other books about innovative ways to be a parish.
“Covid put a magnifying glass on a lot of things,” said Father Hartshorn. “People are not responding to the faith in the way they used to. We need to be thinking and doing things differently.”
Sacred Heart began re-envisioning parish life following the model of Divine Renovation. Research was done and groundwork laid. Now, the parish is preparing to draw its 2,800 registered families together for a July 23 summit to talk about new ideas and the future. Details are on the parish website, sacred heartwdm.org.
“Father Chris put us on a journey that challenged us in many ways to think about what role the parish plays in the community, in the Diocese, and in the wider world,” said Chris Halterman, of the pastoral council.
The parish model described in Divine Renovation seemed to fit the direction Father Hartshorn and his two parishioners were heading. They wanted to pivot the parish from a primarily maintenance mode, meaning continuing to operate as they had been, to more of a mission mode, meaning they needed to take the Gospel message beyond the church doors and into the community. While there will always be a certain amount of maintenance in providing the current pastoral care, they wanted to do more outreach.
A small leadership team was formed, members read Divine Renovation, and realized that it’s wasn’t about a program; it’s about finding the gifts/personality/charisms of the parish and building on those.
A lot of groundwork had to be done first: The parish leadership team examined strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the parish; and it needed a mission statement and a vision statement of where it wanted to go. “Sharing the Good
News of God’s love through active apostleship” is the new mission statement.
The leadership team passed the effort on to the parish pastoral council, which now focuses on strategic planning and visioning.
The summit, proposed by parish priest Father Litto Thomas, will offer a platform for ideas so long as those ideas fit within the mission of the parish and help the parish create disciples willing to go beyond the walls of the church to spread the Good News.
The ideas aren’t intended to be carried out by staff but by parishioners who propose them or will serve as leaders and can help find resources to execute the ideas, said Loralee Chase, parish business manager. It’s a bottom up approach, rather than a top down approach.
As the parish continues its effort, it’s understanding of mission work is evolving.
“I think we started thinking about Divine Renovation as a continuous improvement thing,” Chase said.
For each parish, the plan will look different.
“Each parish has its charism and what they’re good at. It has to be reflective of what makes each parish who they are,” she said.
Halterman is hoping for a big turnout at the parish summit.
“We need to harness the presence of the Holy Spirit that’s there,” he said. “I think our Father Chris and the clergy assigned have been helping us develop a greater vision of what we could be and I think that’s the most exciting part.”
Staff at Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart Parish in Ankeny is exploring Divine Renovation and how it might apply to their parish.
“We recognize that this is not a program,” said Becky Robovsky, OLIH’s business manager. “It’s an attitude, a way of being.”
What attracts OLIH’s Adult Faith Formation Director Patty Mayer is that it’s about thinking outside the proverbial box.
“It’s not doing what we’ve always done. It’s making us re-envision ministry and reaching out to our parishioners,” she said. “By doing that, our goal is to be able to engage our parishioners in the life of discipleship and mission.”