ESSENTIALS OF A PROCESS

PRAYER AND COMMUNICATION

Prayer:  Root this project in prayer!!!!!

·        Rotating petitions in the Prayers of the People every Sunday.  We could have the committee write a petition.  Read them aloud before deciding if they are acceptable since they will be heard and not read.

·        Kairos Community Prayer

Jesus, come join us in our journey as we seek your will for this community in this environment.

Teach to love each other as you love us, to give ourselves as you give yourself that the kingdom of God might be made present to all.  Amen.

·        A special prayer just for this project.  Have two or three people on the committee collaborate to bring a recommended prayer for the committee’s review.  Some things people do with this prayer:

                        1.  read it at the end of mass all together

                        2.  make bookmarks to pass out to people

                        3.  leave it in the Eucharist chapel for people there to pray it

                        4.  give it to the home bound or infirm to pray daily for the committee and                                              the professionals that work with them

                        5.  encourage formal prayer groups to pray the prayer

                        6.  brainstorm how else you could use it knowing your people

·        The committee should take turns leading prayer themselves.  Encourage various prayer forms, responsive interactive, scripture, musical.  This is a good experience for the person leading it and for the committee.

·        Some projects end every meeting with Compline.  It is printed up and everyone keeps it in their folder and takes turn leading it.

·        Invoke the Holy Spirit at every opportunity.  Trust the power of prayer.

Communication: is what you say to them…information dispersal

·        Bulletin blurbs before and after each meeting

·        Newsletter MAILED quarterly to each registered household

      Recommend you have an editor and a separate publisher so this is not a                         burden for just one person.

·        The sound bites from the altar from the pastor (so valuable!!!)

·        Website information – keep it fresh and updated – try to find a webmaster just for this project…find one of the young guys that are so computer

·        savy…

Dialogue:  two way conversation

·        Bulletin board with the latest posted and committee members attending it every weekend

·        Listening sessions – after mass for 15 minutes (a come tell us what you are thinking or wanting to know)

·        Attend pastoral council and other committee meetings for questions and feed back

·        More gathering sessions for the recommended design plan before you take it to the parish in general.  This is for discussion and ‘advice’.

·        A formal parish presentation on one weekend after you have assimilated the information accumulated at the gathering sessions.

                  1.  A newsletter should precede this to every household with the                                          designs and proposed cost estimates so people come to this                                          weekend informed.

                  2.  Pass out cards to everyone attending the weekend liturgies with                                            key elements of the design and have them rate them                                                       excellent, good, fair, needs improvement.  Also put a place                                           for comments.

                  3.  Collate these cards.  This is your feasibility study on the                                                  readiness for the capital campaign.  If you have ‘lightening                                              rods’ that are going to give the campaign trouble, the                                         committee needs to deal with them. 

                  4.  If you have large disparaging issues, maybe the design will                                        need to be revised before the campaign.  Listening to the                                              people brings in a lot more money.  They will give because                                            they see value in what you are doing.

·        Dialogue usually precedes communication in the normal course of things, but in a building process they usually run simultaneously.  The trick is to make certain you are not communicating something that has not been adequately dialogued.  Only good instincts will tell you how to balance that.  I believe instinct like coincidence is God’s vain attempt to be anonymous.  So if the prayer is true and good, the instincts usually are also.