Divine Renovation Meeting Notes 1.8.2019
Divine Renovation Conversation
How do Pelagianism and Jansenism undermine our proclamation of this good news?
*People need to feel that they are doing things to feel they are a good person….it is the environment that we live in…someone is always looking….we are always evaluating people….looking on the outside….
*We need to have a more mature faith where we understand that we serve not only because of the end game…we do it because we are responding out of our love for God….
We often get caught up in the doing, thinking “if I do just one more thing” rather than letting God’s Grace in.
The idea of being a “good person” is just enough is becoming very prevalent.
*Why do we serve? Do we do it to ensure we are getting into heaven?
*Everyone is guilty in varying degrees of thinking we can do things on our own…Jesus becomes and after thought and he should never be an afterthought.
*People come to Mass as part of filling out their scorecard….the more you do it…it should become more of who you are and you start to integrate it into your life and live out your faith…
*Time can be an issue to getting more involved….it is hard to take time to deepen your faith commitment
*At some point in time, we have to move from filling in the scorecard to taking the step…this is how I want to respond to how God has been good to me.
*You have to be an example and invite people to Mass with you….
*As a Mom, I make sure my kids go to Mass with me. I suggest that they pray for someone in need…or go for gratitude…thanking God for what they have. We have to be examples for our children….when I grew up, there was never a question about going to Mass so now I teach my kids that is the way it is…
How do complacency, passivity and inactivity affect ministry in your parish?
*As a choir member, it is very sad to not hear people singing and participating in the Mass
*Family Mass helps to combat the complacency and inactivity.
*Parish transformation was one way that people were invited to participate in parish activities.
*It is important how the invitation is done….you cannot force someone to get involved. Having a bad experience of the invitation, you can be turned off.
*The person who is doing the inviting needs to be sensitive to what is going on in the person’s life.
*The question is “How do we form our next leaders?” We have to ensure people that their commitment is for a certain term…and we need to constantly cycle people in…
*We are not asking….who can be the next people involved?
*When you start something, we need to be thinking of who can we bring in…
*We need to respect if people cannot make a commitment and then get back to them in the future….we need to mentor and help people get involved.
*We should explore more about how to be a good mentor…to help us develop people in the faith…it is really all about personal relationship….getting to know each other at a deeper level…so we can be sensitive to what is going on in their life and then inviting them to become involved.
*Community building helps….serving together…creating good experiences…will encourage people to get involved again.
Many people don’t know about their baptismal call.
Building community is key.
We have a call to involve and evangelize.
It’s more than the doing. We need to connect people to their baptismal call and God’s grace. Inviting somebody should be more than doing, it should be an invite to experience grace.
The idea of consumerism and how people shop around.
The idea of passive spectators, how most people just consume without contributing to the parish/liturgy/life of the parish.
Thinking outside the box, doing more with less.
It’s very easy to be a passive parishioner.
Social Issues: there seems to be a lack of interest in that here. Is it because the neighborhood has gotten more affluent and therefore less connected to these issues?
People are less likely to see the Gospel as an imperative. They aren’t connected with the Gospel, Jesus, and therefore the Church.
Finding things to get people in the door.