Helping Catholic Parish Ministers unlock their ministry and defeat burnout forever. ❤️🔥
Facilisis Elementum
Quisque luctus nec sem quis vestibulum. Sed neque est, ornare eu laoreet in, molestie vitae augue. Donec porta eros sit amet consequat bibendum. Duis sit amet augue urna. Aliquam a vulputate neque, sit amet pretium sapien. Suspendisse sagittis odio id lacus dignissim, in auctor felis rutrum. Cras sed lobortis libero. Pellentesque arcu lacus, dignissim ut porta in, interdum vel risus. Curabitur non est purus. Ut adipiscing purus augue, quis elementum dolor convallis id. Duis vitae sodales massa, et pharetra massa. Phasellus consectetur neque non ante ultricies rhoncus. Fusce ac rhoncus lorem. Vivamus molestie erat metus, at aliquam ipsum ornare sed. Nunc eu auctor enim. Cras in risus eu velit feugiat porttitor ut non risus. Nulla vel est diam. Proin commodo ligula eu elit porta, non viverra justo ullamcorper. Curabitur at tellus erat. Vivamus tincidunt congue felis, aliquam fringilla nunc bibendum laoreet. Fusce fermentum posuere tincidunt.
Etiam vehicula nisi id dui consequat, non pellentesque diam ornare. Nulla turpis dui, vehicula nec tortor nec, molestie aliquet arcu.
Vivamus rhoncus ante velit, ac lobortis lectus tristique ut. Duis rhoncus lectus a urna hendrerit fringilla. Sed cursus mollis mattis. Praesent volutpat euismod nisi, vel elementum mi. Maecenas id velit nec massa rutrum dictum. Aenean eget massa pretium elit congue accumsan et eu turpis. Morbi imperdiet viverra leo, non imperdiet dolor fermentum nec. Nam pretium volutpat viverra. Donec a gravida magna, at gravida metus. Cras hendrerit tincidunt tellus, sit amet semper purus tempus at. Nullam dignissim venenatis nulla eget congue. Etiam vehicula nisi id dui consequat, non pellentesque diam ornare. Nulla turpis dui, vehicula nec tortor nec, molestie aliquet arcu. Mauris bibendum condimentum libero, eget posuere enim tincidunt eget. Maecenas aliquam tempus sem, sed lacinia ligula accumsan quis. Fusce turpis neque, auctor sed pellentesque quis, pretium eu ligula.
Suspendisse diam
Phasellus venenatis venenatis velit ut ultricies. Cras porta dignissim malesuada. Etiam auctor, justo et facilisis ultrices, justo mauris imperdiet ligula, vitae tincidunt justo quam fermentum nulla. Nunc interdum porta ligula, eu malesuada nunc tristique eu. Integer sed mi ac velit congue vulputate sed quis lacus. Fusce tellus sem, ultricies consequat porta at, ultrices in odio. Nullam a sapien vitae erat porta faucibus rhoncus eleifend dolor. Mauris semper rutrum ante a auctor. Nullam non arcu erat, vel sollicitudin felis. Nam erat nisl, mattis euismod lacinia at, tempus quis nunc.
Donec luctus odio eget ipsum lacinia lacinia. Suspendisse porttitor laoreet sagittis. Nulla mi justo, auctor sed posuere sit amet, pretium ac metus. Nulla porta justo ac velit accumsan faucibus. In dignissim, orci nec ultricies elementum, erat mi tristique dui, a tristique ligula quam non est. Suspendisse mattis aliquet est, at tempor ipsum lacinia a. Cras enim sapien, dapibus sit amet iaculis sit amet, pharetra non diam. Curabitur sed nisi in metus eleifend fringilla. Aenean viverra sem in quam luctus eget gravida diam scelerisque.
The Lost Gentlemanly Art of Insult
An enjoyable piece by the affable George Weigel on the lost art of rough critique. Here's a taste:
"One of the (many) signs of our cultural decline is that verbal insults, these days, are almost invariably scatological or sexual, provoking a blizzard of asterisks whenever A wants to put the smackdown on B. Once upon a time, it was not so. Once, the ability to come up with a clever insult that could be repeated in polite society was thought an important, if not necessarily essential, component of being a gentleman.
... Told over dinner by Lady Astor, the American-born female member of the House of Commons, that, “If you were my husband, Winston, I’d poison your soup,” Churchill immediately replied, “And if you were my wife, Nancy, I’d drink it.” And then there was the great man’s take-down of the austere Labor minister, Sir Stafford Cripps: “He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
It's The End of The World
[youtube=http://youtu.be/Z0GFRcFm-aY]
Have a Happy End of the World!
How to Get 112% Parish Engagement
What if 112% of Parishioners read your Church bulletin/website/Facebook page?
"No one reads the bulletin" is a commonly heard lament in Catholic churches, right up there with "No one cares about our parish website" and "No one ever knows what is going on in the parish". Our churches have plenty to offer and plenty going on, but getting the members of your church to listen can be like trying to yell through a brick wall.
In 2001 in the small town of Dunn, North Carolina the local newspaper The Daily Record achieved 112% market penetration. In laymen terms: they were selling more newspapers on a consistent basis than there were homes in the town. Either people from outside Dunn were buying the newspaper, or some homes in Dunn were buying multiple copies. (Not enough to go around the house maybe?)
To say everyone read The Daily Record was literally an understatement.
How does a small local newspaper get over 100% penetration in their town?
Enter Hoover Adams
In 1950 the World War II veteran Hoover Adams founded The Daily Record. Hoover began coordinating a military-like campaign to make his paper the best and most read newspaper in town. Hoover's strategy: "names, names, and names."
Hoover had a laser-like focus on two things: getting as many names in the paper as possible and reporting on local news over and above everything else.
Names
Hoover was known for stating that if The Daily Record printed the entire phone book in the next edition of the paper, people would pick it up and read it just to see if their name made the cut. He impressed upon his staff that reporting on the lives and events of people in Dunn took precedence over everything else.
It is a simple fact of human psychology that we are interested in ourselves first and foremost, then people we know, and then events or people indirectly related to us. Think about it - when you see a group picture of you and your friends, whose face do you look for first?
Community
The local story, no matter how mundane, was more important than anything happening outside of Dunn. For example, in 1995 fifteen people died in an airplane crash in nearby Raleigh. The front page of The Daily Record covered the story of a bear hit by a pickup truck in Dunn.
This created a strong community aspect of the paper. You felt in touch with the community by reading about people you knew about. In a way, the entire town of Dunn connected to each other through the newspaper. And it made sense that the people of Dunn were interested in the local story. If you see two news stories online, one about your neighbor and one about a man from another state, which do you read first?
Being Relevant
In a past post, I argued that being relevant means addressing the cares and concerns of people above anything else.
Hoover Adams knew people in Dunn had plenty of options when it came to newspapers, but The Daily Record would speak to the most important concerns and cares of his readers more than anything else. No event was too small, and if you go to their website you'll still see pictures and stories on everything from the local salvation army to birthday parties.
To figure out how to address the cares and concerns of your parishioners when creating a bulletin, website, Facebook page, or any other communication media, ask yourself the question "Who is involved?" and "Why would people care about this?".
If you build community and connections by addressing what people care most about (themselves and the people they know) they will feel more connected to the church community and be more willing to listen to what else is taking place in the parish - the event you really want everyone to know about. _____________________________________________________________________________
Some practical Do's and Dont's...
Don't
Don't write only about what YOU care about, write about what THEY care about.
Okay: Bible Study Group this Wednesday Better: Want to meet young married couples your age? Newlywed Bible study is this Wednesday.
Don't only communicate events and schedules to people.
No one reads a newspaper because they want to know what every single organization in their area has planned for that weekend. If you want people to be interested in what is going on in the parish, include names and stories.
Okay: Rosary Making Group - Every Sat. at 7am Better: Mary Jane is starting a "Rosary Making Group" with Sue Smith and Billy Bob that meets every Saturday at 7 a.m. They would love your help!
Do
Build community by connecting people to each other.
Include lots of pictures of people and events over and above cool graphics or stock images. Even if that photo of the basketball team isn't that great, people will recognize little Timmy and care instead of seeing a posed photo of some kid model no one knows.
Give people what they want - stories about them and the people they know.
Report more frequently about the people in your parish community. Add photos of parishioners to your Facebook page and website. Tag people on a regular basis.
+JMJ
Fr. Mitch Pacwa Epic Debates
[youtube=http://youtu.be/E5VDG2nb5h0] I want to make sure all you great Catholics out there are aware of what is, in my opinion, a few of the best Catholic debates of all time - Fr. Mitch Pacwa on the John Ankerberg Show.
I learned a heck of a lot from Fr. Mitch Pacwa watching him handle these tough Protestant issues on the John Ankerberg Show, with a less-than-unbiased moderator. Fr. Pacwa is so precise and clear; in the words of one of my professors "He's got a brain the size of France."
There are too many videos to post them all here, but to get the rest, go to youtube and type "Fr. Mitch Pacwa debate".
Go learn something!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/EU2K9HQFxso]
Fr. Mitch Pacwa Debates Protestant about Mary
[youtube=http://youtu.be/cOVWL2AHh18]
### What are your favorite Catholic debates? Any other good ones on youtube?
+JMJ
“Say What?” Monday Catechism Series #8 - Sacred Heart of Jesus
A new series on this blog. Each Monday I’ll be posting a gem from our Catechism of the Catholic Church that is interesting or remarkable.
This week's interesting catechism is about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
478 Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me." He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, "is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception.
+JMJ
_________________________________________________________________
Like this Series? Subscribe here to get it in your email and you’ll never miss any Catholic goodness from this blog! Do it here!
U.S. Postal Service and Relevant Evangelization
In 2009 the United States Postal Service was struggling financially, as it still is today. After noticing stamps of Elvis Presley sold better than stamps of Millard Fillmore (who?), the USPS decided to add more contemporary characters to their 2009 lineup of sea kelp and the state of Alaska (yay sea kelp!).
At the suggestion of a citizens panel, the USPS printed 1 billion (1,000,000,000) commemorative stamps with portraits of Simpsons characters: Homer, Marge, Maggie, and Baby Lisa.
It seems like a great idea and no brainer: millions of Americans watch The Simpsons, and the merchandise for the cartoon show is a hundred million dollar industry. If Elvis sells better than Millard Fillmore, than Homer should sell better than Elvis. Homer is more relevant to more people.
Between 2009 and 2010 the USPS sold only 318 million Simpsons stamps of the one billion they printed. That leaves 682 million unbought and costing the USPS $1.2 million during a period of already deep debt. What happened?
The appearance of a culture is not the values (of the people) of a culture, even though they are related.
This needs explaining, because it is a subtle concept and the difference is nuanced.
Millions of Americans watch the Simpsons. And the USPS was tempted to believe that if they translated the appearance of that culture into the snail mail world, the audience would follow and buy Simpsons stamps.
But the type of people who watch the Simpsons are not people who value sending letters in the mail, or who even receive letters in the mail. The people who are part of a culture that watches the Simpsons place little to no value on physical mail. They are a younger generation brought up on email and texting. The visual trappings of the culture are not most important, the values of the people of the culture are most important.
The word relevant, according to Merriam Webster, is defined:
Relevant: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand
All the trappings of any culture - hipster, indie, goth, rock and roll - are the outward expressions of inwardly held values and convictions. They are outward expressions of a perspective on the matters at hand - the matters that are most important to that particular culture.
Roots and Veneer
The Church wisely instructs us in a document specifically about evangelization:
"...what matters is to evangelize man's culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots),... always taking the person as one's starting-point and always coming back to the relationships of people among themselves and with God." Evangelii Nuntiandi #20
If the pastor of a Church decides to start dressing like this:
for the sake of being "relevant" to hipsters, but never has any significant bearing on the matters most important to hipsters - nonconformity, radical independence, and shameless self-expression - then he is just applying a thin veneer to the Gospel. The pastor who does this is not taking the person as the starting point, but the clothes and appearance as the starting point of evangelization.
The appearance of a culture originates in the values the people of that culture are most strongly rooted in. Sure there are phoneys and fakes, but the core of any culture is born in a value held by a person. Any attempt at evangelization must take into consideration the deeply rooted values of the people being evangelized.
How to Be Relevant
As a twenty-four year old baby-faced youth minister who wears jeans, I get tired of people over the age of 30 telling me again and again "It's so good you are a youth minister, because you are young and relevant to the kids." I know plenty of people my age who would NOT be relevant to high school teens, and I know plenty of people over 50 who are extremely relevant to high school teens.
Just for one small example: hundreds of thousands of youth flocked to World Youth Days, wherever they were held, to see a 70+ year old Pope who captured the hearts of an entire generation of young Catholics. I would consider Pope John Paul II pretty relevant.
What is the secret to coming across as relevant when speaking to teens, hipsters, the shuffleboard club, or democrats? Having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matters at hand, that is, the deep rooted values these people hold.
If I talk to high school teens about the intricacies of mutual funds using their lingo and wearing their clothes and referencing their culture, that is not relevant. If I am 60 years old and talk about how much it sucks to breakup with your boyfriend, THAT is relevant.
And when you address the deep rooted values and concerns of people, you open up an opportunity to present them with a truth they are hungering for, a truth that transcends cultures and is not only rooted in Jesus Christ, but IS Jesus Christ.
This is how we make Jesus relevant.
"...man always exists in a particular culture, but it must also be admitted that man is not exhaustively defined by that same culture. Moreover, the very progress of cultures demonstrates that there is something in man which transcends those cultures. This "something" is precisely human nature: this nature is itself the measure of culture and the condition ensuring that man does not become the prisoner of any of his cultures, but asserts his personal dignity by living in accordance with the profound truth of his being" Veritatis Splendor #53
How to Make a Catholic Meme
So you're upset because of something you read on the internet, or one of your friends is spewing hate against Mama Church, and you wants to show them the what for in a punchy, trendy, hip sort of way. What's an internet new evangelist to do?
A good (and probably a little sarcastic) ol' fashioned meme is the way to go (pronounced "meem" like team. Not "mee mee" like what you call your grandmother). They're like the religious tracts your protestant friends used to hand out, except without all the pages, and funnier.
So you went on catholicmemes.com looking for the perfect one, and after 8 hours of browsing, you still haven't found the perfect fit. Well, if no one has done it right, you gots to do it yourself.
MAKE YOUR OWN CATHOLIC MEME
Step 1: Look for a background picture.
Go to google and find a good picture. You can use any picture, or you can use an existing popular meme picture.
Get a BIG picture. The bigger the picture the better. BIGGER. We want everybody and the people next to them to see this bad boy. We're talking fill-up-an-entire-facebook-news-feed-make-your-smartphone-explode kinda big.
Jackie Chan is a good place to start.
Step 2: Copy the photo into paint.
Open up paint. (Sorry mac users, I pretend you don't exist)
Whoops. Um, just ignore that... awkward....
There we go.
Step 3: Add text.
Think up a really pithy and incendiary message to get your Catholic point across. It's got to have some bite, and maybe expose some logical fallacies. Put it in big chunky white letter with the caps lock on. WHEN THINGS ARE TYPED IN ALL CAPS PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION. 
Whoa there Kirk Cameron, too incendiary. First rule of fight club, have some class. Name calling won't work. Point out the insanity of a situation instead.
Step 4: Make it public.
Add the fruit of your labors to your favorite social networks. I suggest Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit for starters. The Reddit beasts in the Catholicism group love them some memes. While waiting for people to comment/like/share/retweet your creation, rejoice and listen to some o' this because you have done your part to spread truth in a culture of lies.
Make your own!
Do your part! Take part in the New Evangelization by spreading truth to the 10-second-attention-span-facebook-browsing culture, the Pope will thank you.
No really, make a meme and send it to the Pope. #OnlythePopeUnderstandsMe
Or you could just go to www.quickmeme.com/make/ and make one on there or whatever....