As individuals and as parish communities, we like to feel that we are going somewhere, that we are making progress in and with our lives.
We live with a wholesome tension that can be described as follows. On the one hand, we like to look backwards. What have we accomplished? This suggests that we have a vision in relation to which we measure ourselves in regard to what has been achieved. A vision challenges us to ask ourselves where we want to be in the future, say five years from now. By itself, a vision can be overwhelming. For this reason, a vision needs to be broken down into goals or basic directions toward which we work to realize our vision. In order to determine whether or not we are making progress in realizing the goals that we have set, we need to develop strategies or measureable actions which indicate that we are making progress toward realizing envisioned goals.
It is good to reflect upon strategies that have been carried out. These suggest that we are making progress. A hoped-for effect of reviewing what the Lord has enabled us to carry out is to lead us to become excited about planning for the future. Parish life is a complex reality. This is why we have persons who represent several facets of parish life.
Those who represent each facet of parish life are invited to re-evaluate the vision, goals and strategies of the respective facets of parish life that they represent. Communication among the persons who represent the various facets of parish life is essential for development that is wholesome.
It is both frightening and also exciting to look ahead. Within each of us, there is a part that wants to remain where we are. We tend to settle into a routine that is comfortable. A danger of giving in to the inclination to remain where we are is that we can get into a rut and become stagnant.
In our lives as individuals and as faith communities, the Lord works to lead us to where He wants us to be by placing within us a sense of restlessness and incompleteness with where we are. We chomp at the bit to go forward and to make progress. With the challenge to re-evaluate vision, goals and strategies, the strategic planning process offers us an opportunity to do this in a manner that is effective and efficient.
A common goal that we all have as individuals and as parish communities is that of being where we are meant to be, or where we sense the Lord wants us to be. This aspiration is a process and not a state at which we can fully arrive on this side of death. A sign suggesting that we are making progress along this line comes to expression in a growing sense of vigor and enthusiasm in regard to what we are about.
We can only experience that sense of vibrancy for which we long in an on-going willingness to go forward, to think and act at times outside the box, to do that which we have not done before. The strategic planning process offers a framework for doing this.
Let’s be grateful for what the Lord has enabled us to accomplish thus far as a result of participating in our strategic planning process. May our review of what we have allowed the Lord to accomplish in our midst make us eager to go forward with one another into the great unknown. In this way, our own faith will have a sense of vibrancy that will invite others to want to be one with us on our common pilgrimage in this world.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor