Fr. Simon Lobo - Divine Renovation Apprentice: Learning to Lead a Disciple-Making Parish

Praise for

Divine Renovation Apprentice

If you care about the local church, you care about its health and renewal. Thats why Im so thankful for Fr. Simon Lobo and his mentor, Fr. James Mallon. They are catalysts for renewal that is spreading across the Church, breaking down traditional categories and boundaries. This book will take you on a journey to revitalization, both personal and congregational, which is exactly the kind of thing our churches and its leaders need.

Carey Nieuwhof, founding pastor, Connexus Church

The Church has a great need of people like Fr. Simon Lobo speaking very practically about how to transform parish life into all that it can and should be in the 21st century. With great humility, a sense of humor, and wisdom, Fr. Lobo offers many pearls of wisdom here.

Fr. John Riccardo, pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Plymouth, Michigan

When, as his superior at Companions of the Cross, I sent Fr. Simon to Saint Benedict Parish, I asked that he find a creative way to share the wisdom he was learning with our whole community. In response, he began bloglike updates. I am so pleased that they are now adapted to a wider audience. I have absolutely no doubt that they will greatly enrich the ministry of all who implement what they read.

Most Rev. Scott McCaig, CC, Bishop of the Military Ordinariate of Canada

Every page of this book is a testimony both to the fierce intentionality required to keep first things first in pastoral ministry and the overwhelming faithfulness of God when you do.

Brett Powell, Archbishops delegate for development and ministries, Archdiocese of Vancouver

Fr. Simon Lobo documents in a simple, practical way what he has come to learn at Saint Benedict. What makes this book accessible and transferable is after each chapter, he invites the reader to consider, What do I want you to know? What do I want you to do? These two considerations help personalize the nuggets of truth and activate them into ones own parish community.

Andr Regnier, cofounder, Catholic Christian Outreach

In Divine Renovation Apprentice, Fr. Lobo distills the best insights from business leadership, parish renewal strategies, and his own personal experience. A valuable resource for any pastor or parish team embarking on parish renewal.

Dr. Bob Rice, professor of catechetics, Franciscan University of Steubenville, and author of Between the Savior and the Sea

The crisis in parish life is a real and urgent problem for the Church in the West. But the good news is that we dont have to figure out the solutions by ourselves. In our very midst, we are seeing a very small number of incredible and dynamic parishes that shine out as beacons of hope and inspiration. Divine Renovation Apprentice gives you the inside look at one of these model parishes.

Michael Dopp, president of Mission of the Redeemer Ministries and founder of the New Evangelization Summit

An excellent book full of key insights and so much fun to read. Practical wisdom on every page that will change the way you do things. A must-read for every priest and ministry team.

Fr. Mark Goring, CC, director of the Catholic Charismatic Center, Houston, Texas

Fr. Simon Lobo writes with clarity, insight, and wit. His observations are theologically grounded and forged in real-life experience, and he offers them with both humility and confidence. Lay leaders will value this books practical strategies for accomplishing church renewal based on the Divine Renovation model.

Donna Davis and Rob Currie, lay leaders at Saint Benedict Parish

Divine Renovation Apprentice is a highly readable crash course in leadership and parish renewal by a gifted leader who has an amazing way of processing what hes learned and then implementing it.

Kate Robinson, Saint Benedict Parish director of communications and member of the Senior Leadership Team

FOREWORD BY FR. JAMES MALLON

Divine Renovation Apprentice

Learning to Lead a Disciple-Making Parish

Fr. Simon Lobo, CC

Copyright 2018 by Divine Renovation

All rights reserved.

Published by The Word Among Us Press

7115 Guilford Drive, Suite 100

Frederick, Maryland 21704

www.wau.org

22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN: 978-1-59325-336-3

eISBN: 978-1-59325-511-4

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture texts used in this work are taken from The Catholic Edition of Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Janaya Seath

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the author and publisher.

Made and printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017962847

To Fr. Bob Bedard, CC (19292011)

Founder of the Companions of the Cross

After Jesus himself, you have been my primary model of priesthood.

and

to the parishioners and staff of Saint Benedict Parish and, in a particular way, the original Senior Leadership Team: Fr. James Mallon, Ron Huntley, Rob McDowell, and Kate Robinson

Thank you for apprenticing me in the art of parish leadership. I still have much to learn.

Contents

by Fr. James Mallon

Foreword

Fr. James Mallon, author of Divine Renovation

T he great Canadian media guru Marshall McCluhan once stated that the medium is the message. The very existence of this book, Divine Renovation Apprentice: Learning to Lead a Disciple-Making Parish, communicates that we can learn something about parish renewal and the art of leadership. Leadership is the gift that unleashes all other gifts within any group of people and within a parish. For too long, however, we have shackled the possibility of successful parishes to charismatic personalities and workaholics, as if only a select few can actually move a parish to a place of health. The reality is that we can learn, contextualize, and apply particular principles that can move a parish to a place of health. This should provide hope to many in the Church.

I believe that God desires, infinitely more than we do, that the Church fulfill the mission entrusted to her by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is alive today as much as in the past. The Holy Spirit is blowing as in past ages, and the Word of God still cuts sharper than a two-edged sword. The Eucharist is still the Eucharist, and the sacraments continue to be privileged moments of encounter with the Lord. The essence of what the Church has to offer is still of infinite value, still wondrous and beautiful, and still the answer to the deepest desire of the human heart. In spite of this truth, however, countless numbers of churches across the Western world are experiencing decline. In the majority of these cases, churches continue to wrap the unchanging Gospel message in a package that once spoke to a society that is now a distant memory. We continue to do things exactly the same way as they were done fifty years ago. In spite of the evident proof of our failure to connect with the culture around us, we continue to maintain the status quo, insanely doing the same things over and over again while expecting different results.