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Pathways toward a Thriving Parish

Imagine your parish as a...

Welcoming Family

where every member lives out their God-given mission with joy and purpose.

Nurturing Environment

where faith blossoms and spiritual renewal takes root.

Compassionate Community

where members and leaders listen with open hearts to help all thrive.

Vibrant Tapestry

where each person’s unique gifts are woven together to create a beautiful whole.

If these are your hopes and dreams for your parish, we have a process that can help make this a reality!

This process recognizes that the parish is where the Church lives—it is the heart of our Church. Every parish strives to be a vibrant community where faith flourishes, the Gospel is lived, and believers encounter Jesus in word and sacrament. Every parish experiences the challenges of being a community where the Church lives. Pope Francis reminds us that a parish capable of renewal and adaptation remains “the Church living in the midst of her people’s homes.” There is no one way to make this happen, no one path to follow, no one way to be a thriving, vital community of faith. There are many paths to thriving.

The Pathways toward a Thriving Parish project helps your parish create its own path toward a thriving, vital community of faith that is living its mission in today’s world by

  • equipping a parish leadership team with the knowledge, skills, and practices for creating pathways toward thriving.

  • forming leaders and the parish community in the processes of listening and interpreting the needs of the community, and in the spirituality of discernment.

  • embracing and discovering the shared vision and mission of the Church, and the gifts, abilities, and resources of the parish community and equip them as individuals and teams for ministry and service in the parish and in the world.

This is a three-year experience where your parish will be blessed with

  • a profound experience of Church as the people of God, embracing a common mission with love and purpose.

  • pastoral accompaniment and training for your leadership team, helping them shepherd the parish as they develop a plan toward a thriving future.

  • enriching formation resources to deepen your ability to listen with compassion, understand your community’s needs, and prayerfully discern God’s will.

  • inspiring resources and tools to discover the gifts of the parish community.

  • practical resources and guidance to create and implement the parish’s pathways toward thriving.

Learn More

Funded by a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., allowing the Loyola Institute for Ministry and the National Community of Catechetical Leaders to provide all the workshops, consulting assistance, and services of the Project to participating parishes for free.