Fr. Divine on Creating Pastoral Teams
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As Father Nathan mentioned last week, we are in the beginning stages of creating Pastoral Teams consisting of 8-10 prayerful and engaged servant-leaders from each Church. These leaders would be intergenerational and represent all facets of our church family: hospitality, worship and spirituality, outreach, evangelization, faith formation, youth and young families, seniors, buildings and grounds. These leaders will be invested with:
1. Working with a Parish Staff Leader (pastor, parochial vicar, or pastoral life coordinator) and meet at least once monthly to identify and act upon their own spiritual and leadership gifts and then do the same for others in the parish family to nurture identity, community, and ministry.
2. Working with the Parish staff leader to identify needs of their church, set short and long-term goals and collaborate/communicate with parishioners on church events, activities, ministries, worship, and faith formation.
3. Acting as a bridge and liaison between their church and the parish for parish-wide events, networking with the other leadership teams, planning, fellowship, communication and ensuring the wider parish vision (CLI) is integrated.
Please keep the following words of Pope Pius XII in mind:
"… the lay faithful, find themselves on the front lines of the Church's life; for them the Church is the animating principle for human society. Therefore, they in particular, ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the head of all, and of the Bishops in communion with him.” (Christifideles Laici, no.9).
In conclusion, all Christians are invited to join in the ministry of strengthening the bonds of faith, hope, and love that unite God’s Family as one by placing their gifts in service t/bulletinso the Church and collaborating closely with the Church’s ordained ministers. In this way, the laity contribute mightily to the health and vitality of the Church’s inward life and her outward mission.
