Rebuilt, a review

Rebuilt is a "Do It Yourself First-Aid Kit" for priest, parishes and parishioners struggling with declining

membership, enthusiasm for the gospel and resources to do anything about it. The subtitle points to

some possible answers: "Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost and Making Church Matter."

It is the story of the Church of the Nativity, a real parish, in Timonium, MD, written by Fr. Michael

White and Tom Corcoran, a Catholic Pastor and his Lay Associate. This once prosperous suburban parish was

near dying when they first arrived. Trying to revive it became a trial and error process. Before they

discovered things that worked right, they learned a lot lessons. As the authors say in the

Preface, "Dumb does not even begin to describe the false starts and crash landings we've made." Their

failures are familiar, but the lessons are valuable. They realized that it was not the parish itself,

but the way we think about the parish, the culture‚ of the parish that is the problem.

The key insight that I found was their analysis of how the parish and its parishioners had evolved from

the 19th century immigrant serving community of old‚ first into a community of compliant consumers‚ of

hospitals, churches and schools, and then, in the last half of the 20th century, into demanding

consumers‚ just like much of the rest of today's society. But while consumerism, as the authors say, may be great if you are a retail establishment making money‚ its not so great if you're a church.

Few in the Church or culture have understood how unstable and profound this change had impacted

the parish. Recognizing this, they then set out to change the culture.

It is well worth the read for anyone concerned about curing the spiritual health of our parishes and

parishioners. While may call for a certain leadership style and skill of the pastor, the heavy lifting falls

to the laity. That is why it should be read by both.

Whether it was the Catholic Church, the Elks or the bowling league, people had stopped coming to

traditional institutions the way they used to. Older mainline churches face fierce Sunday competition

from the NFL, youth soccer and now new Mega churches. Much of what the authors learned came

from studying secular corporate marketing (ie. keeping your focus) and, especially, on understanding

what the Mega churches might be doing right (making people know it matters that they are there).

The authors then selected five biblical focus areas: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and

evangelization.

Just as Jesus told us to "Love God with your whole heart ... and your neighbor as yourself," and after his resurrection, to "make disciples of all nations," so the parish focused on "using the liturgy to make disciples, ministers and evangelists out of parishioners. ("Discipleship" here refers to efforts to change those already in church while "evangelization‚" is to reach those not yet in the church.)

The book documents strategies and tactics that worked for them. They caution that simply copying

them may not work, but they do provide a point of departure for any parish wanting to embrace this

path as a starting point. At each step there are links for further discussions and ideas. The authors

have also written a follow-up book "Tools for Rebuilding‚" and there are numerous You Tube and other

videos on the Internet that can help walk any parish through the effort, including "small communities".

In this review I will focus on just one area the weekend liturgy.

The authors clarify that, of course, the essence of the mass liturgy is the Eucharist and, of course, that role

remains primarily that of the priest. But the weekend liturgy, the way they describe it begins in the

parking lot and it is primarily the role of the laity. The "Parking Team" organizes flows and manages

special needs, but also establishes a welcoming environment. The "Host Team" doesn't just say hello, they make sure the visitors know that they are welcomed and where any special services might be located. The "Information Team" stationed in the lobby with their own desk, provides visitors with details about programs and services such as mass cards, baptismal requests, etc. (As an unintended consequence, this convenience greatly reduces rectory foot traffic.)

The "Cafe Team"‚ if your parish gets to this level, buys, stores, distributes and manages the

coffee, donuts or pizza that you might make available. The Cafe Team may also be able to interact with

parishioners in a more personal way than many other ministries. The next team, for lack of a formal

name, was called "The shoulder to cry on Team". These are not people expected to solve problems so

much as to simply become aware of concerns ( death in the family, hospitalizations, etc). These are

prayer intentions or things the parish leadership might otherwise not know about. Then the

Operations Team‚ is there to set up and break down programs when needed and to notice if cleaning

or maintenance that may be required. If no one else does it, they clean themselves. "Simple churches."

they say "are fine, dirty churches are not."

I would be interested to know what parishes locally have had experience with this and will be on the

lookout for them for this column on Best Practices. One early example that I found was when I

pulled in to go to St. Alexis Church in Wexford, PA. I was greeted three times before I reached the

church door. The first was in the parking lot, in the rain, by a man with umbrellas. "Now that," as my son Andre,

a campus minister said, "was evangelization". If the church is to be a field hospital, Rebuilt, is a great parish first-aid starter-kit. And, according to this book: "You can do it!