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Ablaze: 5 Essential Paradigm Shifts for Parish Renewal
Our Catholic faith teaches that we should experience new life, abundant joy, and exuberant hope. Yet sadly, many of our parishes lack any of these.
Drawing from decades of experience and service to over a hundred parishes, Deacon Keith Strohm breaks down the often complex and overwhelming task of parish renewal using a simple-to-understand framework that can help put your community on the path to vitality.
Whether you ve just begun the journey toward parish renewal or your parish is well on its way toward new life and mission, this book will provide critical insights and tools to help you on the way.
"Ablaze gets to the heart of the matter in challenging parish and diocesan leadership to step up and, in spite of the cost, lead a transformation of the culture of their organizations." —from the foreword by FR. JAMES MALLON, author of Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission
Drawing from decades of experience and service to over a hundred parishes, Deacon Keith Strohm breaks down the often complex and overwhelming task of parish renewal using a simple-to-understand framework that can help put your community on the path to vitality.
Whether you ve just begun the journey toward parish renewal or your parish is well on its way toward new life and mission, this book will provide critical insights and tools to help you on the way.
"Ablaze gets to the heart of the matter in challenging parish and diocesan leadership to step up and, in spite of the cost, lead a transformation of the culture of their organizations." —from the foreword by FR. JAMES MALLON, author of Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission
137 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 19, 2019
10 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2019
Exceptional short book on parish renewal, and the necessary paradigm shifts needed to move forward in becoming parishes centered on evangelization and mission.
The paradigm shifts proposed here are:
1. From Institutional Faith to Intentional Faith: "A living faith in Jesus Christ cannot be inherited." (p.45)
2. From Engagement to Encounter: "From this perspective, action and activity becomes confused with vitality ... as if motion were synonymous with mission," "It doesn't matter how active it is if it is not producing fruit." (p. 51,52)
3. From Maintenance to Mission: "In a maintenance-oriented parish, mission-focused proposals are sometimes seen as potential threats to the well-being of the community."(P. 66)
4. From Programs to People: "Textbooks don't make disciples, events don't make disciples, and programs don't make disciples. People make disciples." "We must ... return to the art of personal discipling." (p.81,85)
5. From Avoidance to Accountability: "On the surface, the paradigm of avoidance keeps the peace; but in reality, it leads to a lack of accountability and to sustained dysfunction, bitterness, woundedness, and poor morale." (p.94)
Highly recommended to all involved in the work of evangelization, and especially to parish leaders, pastoral councils, and pastors.
The paradigm shifts proposed here are:
1. From Institutional Faith to Intentional Faith: "A living faith in Jesus Christ cannot be inherited." (p.45)
2. From Engagement to Encounter: "From this perspective, action and activity becomes confused with vitality ... as if motion were synonymous with mission," "It doesn't matter how active it is if it is not producing fruit." (p. 51,52)
3. From Maintenance to Mission: "In a maintenance-oriented parish, mission-focused proposals are sometimes seen as potential threats to the well-being of the community."(P. 66)
4. From Programs to People: "Textbooks don't make disciples, events don't make disciples, and programs don't make disciples. People make disciples." "We must ... return to the art of personal discipling." (p.81,85)
5. From Avoidance to Accountability: "On the surface, the paradigm of avoidance keeps the peace; but in reality, it leads to a lack of accountability and to sustained dysfunction, bitterness, woundedness, and poor morale." (p.94)
Highly recommended to all involved in the work of evangelization, and especially to parish leaders, pastoral councils, and pastors.
September 22, 2019
This is just the book to shake parish leaders out of their comfort zones and get them talking about why any previous efforts at parish renewal or refocusing on disciple-making have hit a brick wall. By analyzing how parish culture can block change and suggesting ways to analyze it and begin to work on the real underlying issues that prevent parishes from becoming places that make intentional disciples, Keith Strohm does a great service. He leads the reader through a realistic analysis of models of failure and success and provides suggestions for what it takes to turn things around in a parish that continues to do things "the way we've always done it" in the face of conclusive evidence that those things are no longer as effective as they once were. This is a must-read for any parish leader who feels that it's time to do something about what is not working.
August 24, 2022
This is an extremely easy read on parish renewal, focused on a very Christ-like attitude of changing the “stuck” parishes and directing them toward a disciple-making community of love. Every parish volunteer, staff member, and clergy should read this book. If all parishes set about these changes, our world would be transformed. And boy does our world need transformation!
December 13, 2023
Excellent resource for ministry leaders
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews