We begin our process of prayerful discernment to form our combined Parish Council. Discernment is a way of decision making that will allow our communities to be led by the Holy Spirit through a process that honors the place of God's will in our parishes. In the upcoming messages, I will describe the role of the Parish Council and the gifts that will be most needed.  Consider your own gifts for service to the parish and prayerfully consider if you are called to serve on our Parish Council.

All members of the Churches of St. Richard, St. Peter and Assumption are invited to enter into this intentional process to serve on our combined Parish Council. If you or someone you know is interested in serving in this essential ministry, click here
or email your nomination to [email protected]g or call 612-440-7573 or submit a printed nomination form into the boxes that are provided at the church doors. Nominations will be accepted through February 24^th. 

Those nominated will be contacted to attend a consultation session to learn more about the Parish Council before deciding whether or not to remain a nominee.
 
The role of the Parish Council
02/07/2021
What is our mission, and are we accomplishing it?  Those are questions that every organization should keep in mind; parishes are no exception. If we lose sight of our goal, we won’t know if what we’re spending our time and energy and money on is doing any good, and our parishes will suffer for it. What is our mission, and are we accomplishing it? Those are the questions I envision the combined Parish Council keeping front and center.

Our mission is not something we need to discern; we have been given our mission by Jesus Christ: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” (Mt 28:19) Our mission is to reach out to everyone, and make disciples of Christ. How to best do that is where the Parish Council comes in. There are empty places in our pews. What can we do to fill them?
 
This will mean having an open mind and a big imagination. The path of least resistance is to keep doing what the parishes have always done, only now together. But is it possible that together, we can accomplish something even greater? Can we work together in new ways to reach more people and make disciples? That is the mission we've been given, so we can't ignore it. The Parish Council is not for those who are content with those empty places.

For whom is it, then? Stay tuned! Next, we will speak about the qualities that are a good fit for this role. Please, continue to bring this to prayer, and ask the Holy Spirit to inspire those He has chosen to answer the call.

02/14/2021
As you have read in this space, one of the first steps we’ll take to support the growing collaboration of the Richfield parishes is form a combined Parish Council. A big part of that formation is finding those with the right gifts and inviting them to serve. And when I say “right gifts,” I don’t mean to imply that there are “wrong gifts.” God has made each of us unique, has given us gifts to share in ways that only we can, and that’s beautiful. We all have a part to play in the mission of the Church.
 
Gifts that would serve well on the Parish Council include the gifts of leadership and visioning. Other qualities that are a good fit for the Parish Council role include:
*  They are prayerful, open to hearing the Holy Spirit’s calling to bring their gifts forward to serve.
*  They are outward looking, visionary and focused on the mission to reach out to everyone and make disciples of Christ.
*  They are humble servants, actively participating in Parish life.
*  They have integrity, are honest, open, and respectful.
*  They are accountable and have sufficient time to devote to supporting the collaboration efforts.

 Please pray that the Holy Spirit will touch those he has called to serve on the Council!

02/21/2021
The formation of our combined Parish Council is moving into the next stage. Thank you to those who submitted nominations; everyone who was nominated has been invited to a group meeting to hear more about the vision for our combined Parish Council, and to ask any questions they might have.  If you meant to nominate someone, but didn’t get around to it, there’s still time! There are more group meetings scheduled for this upcoming week, so please submit those names.

As a reminder, I envision the role of the Parish Council as helping us to stay focused on our mission of making disciples. This means both reaching out to make new disciples, and helping those already here to grow as disciples. Knowledge of how we already accomplish this at each parish will be important, as will be the ability to then set aside individual parish affinity and consider the good of the whole.

This will take a lot of creative thinking and openness to the Holy Spirit! Please continue to pray that those with gifts of vision and leadership will prayerfully consider stepping forward to join our combined Parish Council.