From an outside perspective, it seems that the Catholic Church is in a permanent state of emergency. Just when one scandal fades, another rears its embarrassing head. Pope Benedict is alternatively reviled and demonized. People of other faiths—and Catholics themselves—aren’t being taught the fullness of the Catholic doctrine. In the midst of all the bad press, the Catholic Church has seen a steady, precipitous decline in attendance. The aggregate number of American Catholics is staying level only on account of a rapid influx of Hispanic immigrants, who are incrementally shifting the Church’s teaching in a more Pentecostal direction. In other words, Catholicism is in the midst of institutional and identity crises.

William J. Byron, writing for America, a nationally-distributed weekly magazine for Catholics, puts it a little more bluntly: “The church in America must face the fact that it has failed to communicate the Good News cheerfully and effectively to a population adrift on a sea of materialism and under constant attack from the forces of secularism, not to mention the diabolical powers that are at work in our world.”

But Byron isn’t just haranguing the choir. He sees a solution for the Church’s dwindling attendance in the bureaucratic practices of corporations and human resources offices across the business world. “An exit interview, if used creatively,” writes Byron,

could help church leaders discover ways of welcoming back those who have left, even as it helps leaders find ways to strengthen the current worshipping community. This interview could also help identify what else might need to be taught to those called to positions of parish leadership. The church would have nothing to lose by initiating exit interviews.

So what would you ask a disillusioned churchgoer? Byron brainstormed a few questions, and mentioned that the questionnaire would be fluid to meet specific problems within any given parish. Here are a few potential queries for sheep leaving the flock.

• Why have you stopped attending Sunday Mass regularly?
• Are there any changes your parish might make that would prompt you to return?
• Are there any doctrinal issues that trouble you?
• Are you in a mixed-religion marriage?
• Did you ever really consider yourself to be a member of a parish community?

Exit interviews, he argues, would be less Spanish Inquisition and more proactive listening.

Source: America 

Image by Jim, the Photographer, licensed under Creative Commons.

You’ve probably heard of borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbor, but what about borrowing skills, talents, and support? In Yes! magazine, John McKnight and Peter Block convince us that utilizing the gifts of the people in our communities can help rebuild families and neighborhoods.

Although the term “dysfunctional” is often used to describe a unit that is not working, McKnight and Block say that the problem with today’s families and neighborhoods is not dysfunction, it’s non-function. The essential roles once played by kinfolk and neighbors—babysitters, caregivers, listeners, teachers—are frequently outsourced, leaving us isolated and disconnected. The benefits of reinstating community function are clear, say McKnight and Block:

Where there are “thick” community connections, there is positive child development. Health improves, the environment is sustained, and people are safer and have a better local economy. The social fabric of neighborhood and family is decisive.

But how, exactly, do we repair our non-functional communities? McKnight and Block point us toward a success story propelled by a group of six neighbors who named themselves the Matchmakers. The group was born after Naomi Alessio witnessed a simple act of kindness: A friendly, older neighbor named Mr. Thompson invited her son Theron into the metal-working shop in his garage and taught him how to fashion a few pieces. Naomi and the Matchmakers wanted to pair up other like-minded members of the community and began taking stock of their neighbors’ various talents.

It took three weeks to visit all the men on the block. When they were done, they were amazed at what they had found: men who knew juggling, barbecuing, bookkeeping, hunting, haircutting, bowling, investigating crimes, writing poems, fixing cars, weightlifting, choral singing, teaching dog tricks, mathematics, praying, and how to play trumpet, drums, and sax. They found enough talent for all the kids in the neighborhood to tap into.

The kids on the block had their own usefulness, too, teaching older folks how to use computers or listening to their stories and writing down the oral history of the neighborhood.

Beyond skills and talents, neighbors can share other resources, like food or yard space. What can result is a neighborhood that feels connected and capable—a new kind of functional family. So when you hear your next-door neighbor practicing “Slow Ride” on his Stratocaster for the twelve thousandth time with cheers from his toddler in the background, don’t think of ways to silence the offender; think instead, I wonder if I offered an hour of babysitting if he’d teach me that sweet lick? 

Source: Yes! 

Image by Islam Elsedoudi , licensed under Creative Commons.