Parish Pastoral Plan: December 2024 Update

Update on the Parish Pastoral Plan (PPP): Priority Planning and Implementation Process
Shelley Benson
December 2024
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The PPP steering teams have been working hard this fall and we’re making great progress on developing strategies and actions for the seven priorities of our pastoral plan for St. John XXIII parish. Here is a recap of the three workshop focuses so far.

Workshop I – September 14
“Getting Started”
This workshop we brought all the steering teams together for the first time to do a deep dive into the PPP priorities. We started with reviewing the PPP timeline, the role of the steering teams, what makes a high-performing team, and creating agreements on how to work effectively together. The assignment for the coming weeks was to do some ‘best practice research’, keeping in mind parish, people, and resources for their research. They also were to select a chair and a co-chair for their team.

Workshop II – October 12
“Strategies and Feedback”
The steering teams reconvened for our second workshop to share the ‘best practice research’ they had done. Each team had chance to share with the full group 2-3 things that could be possible strategies for their priority. We introduced the definition of strategy and actions, and their next assignment was to pick their top strategies and work out a plan.

Workshop III – November 16
“Strategy, Feedback, Overlap”
This workshop we grouped the priority teams. The groupings were 1) A Culture of Stewardship and Fostering Parish Unity, 2) Youth Engagement, Catechetical Advisory Board (CAB), and Faith Formation for Children, 3) Faith Formation for Adults and Discipleship and Evangelization. We had members of the Liturgical Life team split up so they could represent at all the tables. Each steering team shared their top strategies and action steps, and the other team could offer feedback. They could also determine if there was overlap or redundancies and find ways to collaborate on some of the action steps. It was very exciting to see the teams working together and there is a real sense of visioning and unity taking place.

Workshop IV is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15, 2025. We are also scheduling listening sessions in January/February and will invite all parishioners to hear the draft priority strategies and actions. We will be looking for your feedback to ensure we’re moving in the right direction. We continue to ask for your prayers for the Parish Pastoral Plan's priority steering teams!