8 fold path

This is my take on things related to priests doing ministry in parishes. In this time and age, various challenges are being posed to us priests assigned in parishes. I guess one cannot just say that the current various demands of ministry are not the things we have signed up for, we cannot even dare command the world to adjust to us. One can only take the plunge if one is to follow the command to cast into the deep, one can only plant the seeds if one is to hope to bear fruit. Again, this is not to say that these are things that I have done, rather, these are aspects that I am personally subscribing myself to, and I think all these will take a lifetime, or more, to undertake. I believe that I just have to take those fearful yet exciting baby steps to learn and balance the basics of what I fondly label as the 8 fold path to effective pastoral leadership that would hopefully lead all of us, priests and communities, towards the kingdom.

Spirituality: How does a priest pray? How does the lay pray? How do we live out our Spirituality and spiritualities and relate this to our communities’ every day life thereby providing meaning and hope?
Pastoral Theology: How do we do theology today, taking into consideration the socio-economic and political aspects of the country and even of the world?

Dogmatic Theology: What are the current trends in theology that would hopefully help shed light in our desire to read the signs of the times?

Canon/Legal Law: If Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law, what are the laws of the land and of the church today that we need to fulfill, to avoid, at the very least finding ourselves behind bars, legally and ecclesiastically speaking?

Communications Skills: If one of our assets, or liabilities, is our being speakers, homilists, how do we train ourselves to become effective in our being talkative?

Management and Leadership Skills: A parishioner explained to me the difference between sales and marketing – sales is one on one, while marketing is sales done through a system. To put our ministry in this way - confessions, anointing of the sick, counseling, etc, are our effective sales pitch of our product which is a loving relationship with our Lord. These are very important, for they help define and renew our priesthood, our relationships with community and God, in a very basic and personal way. But to be even more effective, what skills are we learning in order to effectively manage and lead our systems, most especially our best resources (parish leaders and volunteers), towards a systematic and organized marketing, witnessing to others on how Jesus has transformed each one of us?

Financial Literacy: Money should not be our primary concern but that does not mean that it should be taken for granted or that we relinquish all responsibility towards it. Since we have been given stewardship of parish and even our own personal funds, how do we effectively manage them so as to be accountable to the Lord when he goes back to check on the talents entrusted to us?

Computer and Technology Literacy: If they say before that he who has the gold makes the rules and if they say now, he who has the information makes the rules, can we say we are rulers, or followers, or worst, out of the loop?

I want to learn all these to develop the best assets that the priest can have in doing ministry– loving and thinking. These are very obvious and basic, I know, but most difficult, based on personal experience. I guess that’s why some experts say, very few people do it! But with best efforts and of course, God’s grace, nothing is impossible…