What good are brand new buildings if you don’t have a vibrant and healthy community of people to use them?  No, I’m not saying that St. Joseph’s parish is not vibrant and healthy.  We are blessed with many active and dedicated parishioners.  However, I think that as pastor, I could do better at inspiring and focusing each of us as members of this parish to dedicate ourselves more fully to following Christ in our daily lives and in our parish community.  As I have related to you before, my involvement in the Good Leaders, Good Shepherds leadership training for priests has sparked my imagination and fostered my courage to try to improve how I lead and shepherd our parish so that it meets the spiritual and personal needs of its members.

During the celebration of Corpus Christi Mass, on June 6th, I shared a description of my “perfect world” which I was asked to write at my last leadership workshop.  I wanted to share that again by putting it in print and to see if what I wrote matches with what your thoughts are about what sort of parish we should strive to be.  Please keep in mind that this was my first effort and very much a rough draft, but one that captures a numbers of my visions for our parish

“My perfect world is one in which my parishioners would speak of their parish as one that contributed to the good of the community in which they lived with a clearly defined mission or cause or activity.  That they see their parish as a location for growth in their faith with opportunities for learning; that their parish provides them with opportunities to do something when they feel the impulse of the Spirit to inspire them; that the parish is a place where the get to know one another better and meet new members to form relationships; that it is a community which strives to deepen the faith of marginal Catholics and create ways to make them feel more welcome and more interested in becoming involved and deepening their relationship with God and becoming excited about the possibilities that exist for them and their families.”

As I said at Mass last weekend, I will begin working with members of our Pastoral Council to try to create a Parish Pastoral Plan that helps us become a stronger community.  I would also like to construct a Parish Vision Statement that becomes a guiding thought for each of the groups in our parish to help them contribute to the overall vision of our parish in their unique undertakings.  As I also said at Mass, I could really use your help in making this happen.  Please share your suggestions or observations with me or a member of our Pastoral  Council.  Let’s pray that God grants us a vision!