Father Jim Livingston from St. Paul in Ham Lake was looking for a solution to what he called “the demographic winter:” People not coming to Church the way they used to. Some of his priest friends talked about the need for eventual downsizing.
“And I thought to myself, ‘Wait a minute; I thought we had the power of the Holy Spirit behind us in this particular church,’” he said, which already has a certain dynamism. He realized much of the parish’s focus was serving active members. What about those empty pews?
Fr. Jim Livingston
During a recent interview with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley, Father Livingston used a swimming pool as a metaphor.
“We have a lot of people in the deep end of the pool, but what about those who are outside looking in?” he said. “How do we get them from the outside into the shallow end of the pool? And how do you get people from the shallow end into the deep end? And … how do you get them out of the deep end into a lifeguard chair or to become a swimming coach?”
Saying “next steps are needed for everybody,” which is part of “the whole evangelization picture,” the parish hired Nick Brady to lead its Next Steps program.
Father Livingston describes Next Steps as a “culture,” walking in someone else’s shoes to find the root cause of lack of parish participation.
If reluctance stems from “science versus religion, we need to address that in a thoughtful way,” he said. The same is true for younger Catholics who believe the Church is for their parents and grandparents.
Nick Brady
“Sometimes you just have to think again, what’s it like for the person who hasn’t been in this church? What’s their experience, and just try to see it from somebody else’s eyes. That, to me, is kind of the charism of hospitality.”
Brady said the cornerstone of what’s happened with Next Steps is rooted in relationship and community. “If we’re not spending time building relationships and creating community with those that we’re trying to serve, and those already within the Church, then we just can’t be successful,” he said.
Father Livingston said the benefit of plugging into and being rooted in a parish community is that’s where the maturity and growth happen.
“You get a variety … on the shallow end of the pool, but it’s not until you get into the deep end of the pool, that you really experience a greater growth, spiritual growth and so on,” he said.
Brady gave examples of how Next Steps plays out at the parish. To hear examples and learn more about Next Steps, listen to the full interview. It debuts at 9 p.m. Jan. 28 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. The episode also airs at 1 p.m. Jan. 29 and 2 p.m. Jan. 30.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Yen Fasano and Gayle Stoffel from the archdiocese’s Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, who describe how Catholics across the archdiocese can celebrate, support and encourage those in Catholic schools; and Brian Ragatz, president of Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (CSCOE) and Mike Gerard, manager of the University of St. Thomas’ Catholic-STEM (C-STEM) lending library, who describe CSCOE’s initiative to factor faith into science, technology, engineering and math courses.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at
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