Happy Mother’s Day! To all the moms among us — spiritual, adoptive, or biological — thank you! We are grateful for how you gave us life. May today be a joyful day with you. May you see the hope of eternal life shine on your children, and one day thank God with your children forever in heaven! (I adapted this from the blessing for mothers at the end of the order for the baptism of children.) To one and all, please join us for a free breakfast provided by our Men’s Club this Sunday, May 12, from 8 a.m. to noon in the St. John the Baptist cafeteria at 4200 Delor St.

I’ve been having some wonderful conversations with parishioners lately. Some have asked me: “Are we really going to keep all three churches (SSP, SJB, and IHM) open long term?” Yes, that’s really my plan.

I have lots to say on this topic, because it’s one of the most important strategic choices that I’ve made for our parish. I’m always interested in what you have to say about this strategy. Does it make sense to you? What are the great parts about this path? What are the hard parts about this path? Is it working? What would make it work better? What questions do you have? Anytime and anywhere, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Today, let me share why I made this strategic choice and what it will take to make it work.

I made this strategic choice because I believe God wants our parish to grow. I believe that growth depends on all of you who pray with us on the weekend. Your life as a Christian, your invitation to people whom you know and care about, and your worship of Jesus at the Eucharist: these count the most for whether we grow or not. To be clear, I’m not talking only to that person whose charisma, eloquence, or spirituality you may see as greater than your own. I’m talking to you. Bringing Jesus to others and others to Jesus is a job for all of us, not just some of us.

Since I believe that, I also think that our best shot at growth relies on our worship together being joyful, life-giving, and transformative. For each of our churches, many people said during All Things New that this particular church mattered so much to them. After prayer, I decided that it looked possible to keep all three churches open in our parish. Keeping all three open seemed like a basic, practical, powerful way to make our weekend worship joyful, life-giving, and transformative. So I consulted the Archdiocese and others, and then chose this strategy: one parish, three churches.

Managing three campuses brings headaches —kudos to our dedicated staff and volunteers who make this work! — but I’d rather have three campuses and the headaches that come with them, and also the energy and joy we have now. Yes, the transition has been hard. Many of us have felt loss in various ways. Still, I am grateful for what we have now. I’d much rather fight for the kingdom on the ground we have now, than on the terrain I see as the alternative: a community where for the next three years half of us are walking wounded, grieving the loss of a beloved church.

Naturally, as time goes on, we’ll have to evaluate if this strategy actually works. To make it work, we’ll need widespread commitment to our parish mission and vision. Basically, we need three things to make this strategy work long-term.

First, we need spiritual growth. Actually and not just aspirationally we need to see more people praying with us year by year, and people who pray here loving Jesus more and more, year by year.

Second, we need financial stewardship. We need to receive enough worship offerings in the collection, then use them wisely to fund our mission, pay our bills, and keep our churches beautiful.

Third, we need organizational health. We need our parish life to be devout and caring, respectful and functional. I think that we can achieve those goals; I’m glad I’m here to help with them; I hope to be here in 2044. But someday a new pastor will come, and he’ll make his own evaluation about whether the strategy worked. I hope he says, “What a wonderful, messy, alive and growing community, one parish in three churches! What a great place to be a Christian! What a great place to be a priest!”

May God bless you! Please pray for our parish!