Welcome to another Starting Conversations article! These articles are designed to be shared and discussed together, with staff, councils, committees, and teams. Enjoy and click the tag “starting conversations” for more of these quick reads that open up good questions.
I’ve worked with parish leadership in discerning God’s vision for their parish. There is one thing that I think doesn’t get noticed nearly enough.
Catholics tend to think each parish’s mission is different–after all, how many parish mission statements to we have out there?–and that’s not quite right. The mission is always the same: Go, share the good news, witness to others God’s love, and make disciples of all people. Mark 5:19, Matt 28:18-20, Luke 24:48…these are all divine commissions that say the same thing. Live as the Lord’s disciple and spread the news that God has drawn near to save us!
That is why when parishes get excited about creating a mission statement, I gently remind them they already have a mission statement. Choose one of the three scriptures above, and you’re all set. That is your mission statement. You don’t need to rethink it. The Lord gives his mission to you as a sacred trust and call. You don’t need to dream it up–in fact, you shouldn’t. The Lord has given all of us the same mission: to be disciples who share the good news. Mission is the fundamental “go and do statement.”
(Now, if you are reading this and thinking, shoot. We just created a new mission statement! Don’t panic. You may have been thinking something closer to what’s below–keep reading!)
However, if God’s mission is universal, God’s vision for your parish is specific and unique. What thriving in that “go and do statement” looks like is entirely dependent on your given mission field, the people within the geographic boundaries of your parish. Vision is the inspiring goal you can see, literally visualize, of mission fulfilled. And God’s vision of your parish living as mission fruitfully should shape how you act on the universal, scriptural mission.
This is why I strongly suggest every parish not just memorize the Great Commission (although do that!) but to take time to discern God’s specific vision for your parish. Because the evangelic commission to go and do makes a lot more sense when the vision that holds the why is in sight.
Many good people balk at this. “Discerning God’s vision?” Isn’t that a tall order, to know the mind of God? Yes, but I’m not suggesting sharing omniscience! I’m suggesting God’s vision for your fruitful parish, that he has–and wants you to know. And that’s great news!
1) The call to discern God’s vision reminds us that He has a vision for this parish that is good and powerful, and allows the parish Church to be the outpost of the Great Commission.
2) He wants us to know his vision for the parish. He does not want us to fail in the mission he has given us!
3) We need to pray to receive his vision for the parish, put aside pet projects and egos, and let him lead. We do this by asking together with humility: Lord, what do you want? What does thriving in your love look like here?
4) This prayerful discernment is part of the religious patrimony of our faith. Part of a parish becoming a “school of prayer” (John Paul II’s expressed desire in his apostolic letter of 2001, Novo Millennio Ineuente) means actually praying in this way.
5) Once you all have discerned God’s vision for the parish, God’s vision becomes your “north star,” and mission planning becomes so much easier. You suddenly have an instant tool for assessing your mission plans–do they lead you to the vision? Or not?
Perhaps this is obvious. But I suspect it isn’t to many of us: why tend to default to what is familiar from our past rather than what will get us to the desired future.
If you still need convincing, perhaps pray with one of my favorite passages of scripture, Jeremiah 29:11: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord: plans of fullness, not of harm, to give you a future and a hope. This was written by the prophet Jeremiah to the Jewish exiles in Babylon after Jerusalem was destroyed. We cannot overstate how devastated those exiles must have been, seeing their home crushed, their King killed, and then pulled away in chains. Yet the Lord had a vision and a plan for them. If your parish feels like it is in difficult or complicated straits–even in exile in our current world–the words of the prophet may be both consolation and challenge. The Lord has plans of fullness for your parish.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
Mission and vision are related terms with different definitions. Does it change the way you see parish life, parish opportunity, and parish challenge to focus first on discerning God’s vision?
Have you considered the scriptural truth (Jeremiah 29:11) that the Lord has plans of fullness and hope for the people of your parish? What difference does that prophetic word make in your current conversations?
How is discerning God’s vision for the parish different from a team creating a parish vision?
