Florida Catholic | National Ministry Summit

National Ministry Summit | April 22

Expanded role for lay ministers emerges as a summit topic.

DENISE O’TOOLE KELLY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 04.22.08

ORLANDO | An expanded role for professional lay ministers is high among possible models for pastoral leadership emerging from an unprecedented gathering here of 1,200 Catholics — clergy, vowed religious and laity — preparing for the future of a changing church.

Ideas for recruiting, training, utilizing, valuing and rewarding lay ministers abounded in Orlando April 22, as representatives of six national organizations reached the midpoint of their first-ever National Ministry Summit, a three-day process of setting an agenda for responding to new realities in parish life.

“Lay ministry is not about filling in the gap because of a shortage of ordained ministers and it’s not about a struggle for the rights of people,” said Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Rapid City, episcopal adviser for the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project, a collaboration of the six groups. Bishop Cupich, speaking in an interview during a break, said the growing emphasis on lay involvement is a sign of maturation and ongoing conversion in the church that “flows out of a call to holiness in which we see ourselves as the body of Christ.”

Though the numbers of priests and vowed religious have declined, more American Catholics have been responding to the call to holiness by becoming more educated in their faith, seeking professional lay ministry opportunities or joining the clergy as permanent deacons. Meanwhile, the U.S. Catholic flock is increasing in both numbers and cultural diversity, leading to questions about who will address which pastoral needs and how. Participants in this week’s summit are proposing answers.

On the first day, they heard the findings of a four-year study, funded with a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, of how the American church has changed, then broke into groups to brainstorm specific recommendations regarding various strategies that might fit into the response to those changes. The strategies included assigning pastors to more than one parish, employing lay parish life coordinators, reaching out to young adults, revising human resources policies, managing for cultural diversity and establishing best practices for parish leadership.

On day two, the groups presented 72 recommendations, many of which related to lay ministry. Examples included developing a marketing campaign for lay, ordained and religious ministries using “career” language in addition to the traditional “vocation” language and collecting more complete data on the ethnic makeup of multicultural parishes. By day three, that list is to be narrowed into a plan.

Bishop Cupich said the summit is providing new links among the six groups — the National Association for Lay Ministry, Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development, National Association of Church Personnel Administrators, National Association of Diaconate Directors, National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association and National Federation of Priest Councils. He said the meeting also is giving the various groups a common language.

“We can’t use the language of the business world when we talk about the practical issues. We have to use the language of the church,” he said.

He said, though, that what’s being created through the summit is a leaven that the participants can take back to their parishes and dioceses to see what develops.

“How the cake comes out — how the bread comes out — will be in different ways,” he said.

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National Ministry Summit | April 22

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