BECOMING A

St. Josemaria Escriva’s reflection about Our Lady is a thoughtful reminder of how each of us should respond to God’s calling in our own lives. Listen, deliberate, discern, act. What a wonderful example that Mary sets for us during the moment of our parish’s patronage - The Annunciation.

This template should be applied as a model for our personal lives as well as a model for the life of our parish community. What does our parish need? Where is God calling us? How does the purpose of our parish differ in today’s world from its founding in 1927? Where do we see it going in the near and distant future?

Father Loomis volunteered Annunciation BVM to be one of very few parishes across the country to participate in a program led by the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) to help create a “Parish Priority Plan” for the future of Annunciation BVM. This program, known as Next Generation Parish, gives a guided framework as to how we can answer all the questions proposed above and creates a plan for our parish moving into the future.  The plan prioritizes our specific needs, while following the example of our mother, Mary.

Listen. In order to answer these questions, we first needed to listen to the needs of the parish. Last spring, our parish was given the opportunity to participate in the Disciple Maker Index Survey from CLI. This survey asked questions about spiritual beliefs, teachings of the church, effectiveness of parish support, support of our parish’s leadership, and the Sunday experience.

Equipped with the results from this survey, as well as other data sources on demographics and key insights about the community we serve, including our neighboring parishes, Father Loomis called on a team of parishioners for the “Envisioning Team” to move forward through the Next Generation Parish process. That team consists of Father Loomis, Andrew Amrhein, Mary Barry, Dan Boyle, Jericha Dethlefs, Jim Hoffman, Jenna Rastatter, and Jeff Sherry. The parish planning process was led by our CLI facilitator, Scott Staelgrave.

Deliberate. The Envisioning Team began to decipher the survey results, each member bringing forward their own experience in the parish from the perspective of the demographic they represent. Over the span of six months, the team created a plan for the parish to rediscover our baptismal dignity and live out our mission as disciples with clarity and direction, in a way that will serve the needs of our parishioners and community at large. This process began with asking, “What is our purpose?”. Father Loomis prayerfully wrote the following:

“The purpose of Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Parish is to give local expression to the Universal Church wherein the faithful discover and deepen their baptismal identity by encountering Christ through liturgy, the sacraments, faith formation and fellowship, and prepare to respond to Christ’s call to evangelize for the salvation of souls.”

Discern. With the Parish Priority Plan created, the work of the Envisioning Team is complete. Now a new team has been formed; the Implementation Team. It is composed of the following leaders: Mary and Kevin Barry, Jericha Dethlefs, Andi and Joe Ferry, John Kirkland, Nick Ogle, Dave Patten, Dave Redmond, and Victor Smith. This team will be responsible for taking on each of the goals created in the plan to better serve our parish and the community and to live out our purpose. This is where your own discernment comes in. Do you have time and talent that you are willing to share with the parish to help see these goals through? Are you willing to be a guide for other parishioners and for future generations of our parish in your participation in implementation? These are questions that I invite you to discern for yourself. If you are feeling called to participate in the future of our parish, we would love your help putting the plan into action.

Act. The final step of Mary’s model for us is her willful acceptance to God’s plan for her life- her fiat- “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Mary chose to act, and in that moment consented to all of the blessings that God had in store for her. Our parish can do the same and who better to emulate than the mother of Christ? The framework is laid out, the goals are set, our purpose is stated, our vision is clear… but it means nothing without action. It is our duty to respond to the calling that God has given our parish.