When my book came out arguing that lay people can save their parishes, I was surprised by the angry response.
My comment section filled up with people telling me that saving the parish is the priest’s job, not laypeople.
While priests do bear a responsibility for the success of their parishes, that does not mean we have a license to sit back.
Our parishes are our responsibility, too. If we want something to change, we need to act.
Where this attitude comes from
The attitude “my parish is not my responsibility” does not come from a place of virtue, but rather a place of pain or fear.
Many people have seen their churches shut down. They’ve had a great pastor get moved and replaced by a sucky one. The liturgy got worse. Their Latin Mass got shut down. They’ve experienced the bureaucracy and the heavy-handedness that sometimes comes with the institutional Church.
So, they grow jaded, and I get it. I’ve experienced that too.
However, at a certain point I decided those negative experiences were not going to stop me from doing what needs to be done in my parish.
Because if I give up, they’ve beaten me twice. They beat me once by doing what they did, and they beat me a second time by making me think about it for the rest of my life.
I’m not going to let that happen.
You’re right. Now what?
We are in an all-hands-on-deck situation in the Church.
If we sit around discussing who’s to blame for the decline in the Church, we might figure it out. Then we’ll all have a great time blaming the priests who aren’t there to say Mass for us—because there’s one priest for every 8-10 parishes.
If you say you’ve found the problem, great! You’re right.
It was Vatican II or the sexual revolution or Martin Luther or Pope Francis or or or.
Now what?
When you’re a kid, and there’s a problem, if it’s not your fault, you feel relieved. The person who is at fault will get in trouble, and an adult is going to fix the problem.
But when YOU are the adult, and there is a problem you didn’t cause…you have to fix it.
A child says, “I demand that you fix this for me.”
An adult says, “Here’s a problem I care about. How can I fix it?”
But I can’t solve this problem!
Many claim laypeople can’t fix their parish because they can’t do the things that would fix it.
That’s because the only solutions they can imagine are priest-shaped: hire a conservative music director, fix the homilies, etc.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the only solutions you’ll consider are the ones requiring priest buy-in, then of course you’ll conclude the laity can’t do anything.
Instead, come up with ideas lay people can do, and all of a sudden lay people can save their parish.
Someone in one of my parishes started an evangelization team that brought 300 Catholic families back to Mass.
Two of my friends started a young adult ministry at their parish where there wasn’t one. Now they serve hundreds of young adults.
My wife started a family ministry at our church that is completely volunteer-run and going phenomenally.
Nobody needed permission from the parish office for any of that, and you don’t need permission either. You can just find a gap, find a solution, and run with it.
Where does your parish need you?
If you do think your parish is your responsibility, I want to help you.
I put together a tool for the average layperson to find out where their parish needs them and what they can do about it.
It’s called the Parish Checkup.
It’s 12 questions and takes about four minutes, depending on how fast you answer.
You get back a nine-page report (not AI-generated) on the biggest gaps in your parish, concrete things you can do to fill them, examples of how to do it well, and an email you can copy and paste and send to your pastor.