Five Years as Your Pastor -- Looking Back and Looking Forward

06-30-2019Weekly ReflectionFr. Chad King

I can hardly believe that as of July 1, it has been five years since I began at Corpus Christi as your pastor! As I like to say, time flies when you’re having fun! It truly has been a fun and blessed five years. This parish has been a community for about 30 years. Some of you have been here from the beginning and others have come more recently. It has been great to see such a strong community of faith already formed by the two previous pastors – Fr. Sigmund and Fr. Hoorman – and to see it flourish even more over the years. I am excited to lead us as we grow and thrive still more in the years to come.

Along with the parish staff and Pastoral Council, I have been looking back at the past five years and looking ahead to the next year and beyond. When I first arrived, many people wanted to know who I was and what I would bring to this parish, which is normal curiosity when a new pastor arrives. To answer those questions, I remember one of the first things I did as pastor was to ask the staff and Pastoral Council to read Forming Intentional Disciples. I had read it a couple of years earlier and it articulated the overall state of the Church that I had seen in many other parishes. It also helped to illuminate who I am and why I am a priest. The premise of the book is that many Catholics have been “sacramentalized but not evangelized.” In other words, many Catholics who have received the Sacraments have not established a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the catalyst of their faith in order to experience the full grace of the Sacraments in their everyday lives. The reason for my faith and why I am a priest is because of the person of Jesus Christ, who I have encountered, known, and received through the Sacraments and life of the Church. As the title suggests, the book describes who a disciple is and how to help form intentional disciples. I consider a disciple to be someone whose relationship with Jesus is the center and first priority of his or her life and who chooses and strives to let Him influence and give direction to every aspect of his or her life, no matter the cost or change that might be needed. Therefore, the book not only describes who I am and why I am a priest, but also the purpose of the Church and of every baptized Christian, and thus the purpose of every parish. After all, the last command of Christ was to go and make disciples of every nation (Mt 28:19). Thus, I was extremely pleased and appreciative that over 450 books were sold and over a hundred people participated in the discussion we had about it in the first year or so that I was here.

Four years ago, the parish staff and Pastoral Council met with a representative from the Diocesan Pastoral Center to facilitate a SWOT analysis, which assesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and to develop a five-year plan. We also came up with the current Mission Statement: Corpus Christi strives to be a welcoming community which fosters a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church through Scripture, Sacraments, and Service. We then determined two main goals: (1) Become a more welcoming community and (2) Establish a parish-wide mindset of life-long faith formation. It is my sincere hope and belief that we have made great strides the past few years in these areas in various ways, such as the coffee & donuts hospitality, the parish game nights, Discovering Christ, Lord Teach Me to Pray, the books we’ve given out, and many others.

Please pray for me, the Parish staff, and the Pastoral Council, as we review what we have done and look towards ways we can continue to improve in forming a stronger community and providing life-long faith formation.