The easels were going missing. Someone had to solve the problem.
This is so often how getting stuck in parish maintenance begins.
Not with pointless work, but with something small that legitimately needs attention.
Then another thing needs attention. Then another.
Pretty soon very capable people are spending enormous amounts of time making sure everything keeps working the way it already works.
Pope Leo spoke to the Diocese of Rome last week about the need to evaluate pastoral activity honestly:
| “ | It is not enough to ask whether an activity is well organized, whether it is well attended, or whether it has been running for many years; we must ask whether it truly leads to Christ, whether it brings the Gospel into contact with the real lives of the people. |
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Read the full address→
This is a different question than the ones we usually ask:
Did we get everything done? Did the calendar run?
Was the process followed? How many people attended?
Did the easels make it back to the closet?
Those are not bad questions.
After all, somebody does still have track down easels when they go missing.
But how much of parish life is consuming our attention simply because it has become ours to maintain? And what is that attention is costing us?
It costs us time, yes. But also relationships we never had time for. People we never really got to know. Prayer that became one more item competing with everything else.
Maybe pastoral evaluation is not primarily about deciding what new thing to add.
Maybe sometimes it begins by looking honestly at what already fills the room.
And asking whether it still deserves the space it takes.
Peace,
