Dynamic Parish

10-27-2019Pastor's CornerRev. Robert J. Deehan, V.F.

For the last several years, Holy Family Parish has passed out books and promoted resources from Dynamic Catholic. The Dynamic Catholic Institute was founded in 2008 by Matthew Kelly with the mission of re-energizing the Catholic Church in America through developing world-class resources that inspire people to rediscover the genius of Catholicism. It seeks to help parishes become truly dynamic through the adoption of best practices and the distribution of these excellent resources. Matthew has dedicated his life to helping people and organizations become "the-best-version-of-themselves." Born in Sydney, Australia, he began speaking and writing in his late teens while attending business school. In fact, very early in his career, Matthew came here to Holy Family and spoke on two occasions. Since then, four million people have attended his seminars and presentations in more than fifty countries. Today, Matthew is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and business consultant. His books have been published in more than twenty-five languages, have appeared on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and have sold more than twenty million copies. He oversees 3 organizations: Dynamic Catholic; Floyd Consulting, a Chicago based management consulting firm; and Wellspring Books, which publishes books that inspire individuals to become the best version of themselves.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Scott Landry about a new initiative of Dynamic Catholic called Dynamic Parish. Dynamic Parish is an effort to help every parish in America not just survive, but to truly become a dynamic parish. Our Director of Faith Formation, Jeanne Cregan and I met with the team from Dynamic Catholic, and they made our parish an offer they would only extend to 5 parishes in our archdiocese. In exchange for being part of a five-year pilot study, Dynamic Catholic would provide our parish with free world class resources in books, programs, parish best-practices and regular coaching for our parish leadership team. After consulting with members of our parish staff and lay leaders, they unanimously endorsed our participation, and I said "yes" to this offer. I said "yes" because I believe Holy Family Parish can be bigger than our past, trusting that God will help us become everything He intends it to be. And so, our parish will formally announce the beginning of this exciting new initiative, Dynamic Parish, at all Masses next weekend. This five-year effort will provide us with the tools to help all of us grow together in faith. It is one powerful way our parish can implement the Archdiocese of Boston's Pastoral Plan for the mission of evangelization, entitled "Disciples in Mission," which we began formally last spring. This is an exciting opportunity and a privilege to be one of only 61 parishes across the country to have been selected for Dynamic Parish! We look forward to sharing details with you next week.

God bless you!
Fr. Bob