Renewing the Church to make Disciples
Bishop Gerard Battersby and Deacon Michael Houghton
One can only imagine how overwhelmed the eleven disciples may have felt when our Lord gave them the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations . They likely wondered how they , this ragtag group of fishermen , a tax collector , and a zealot , could possibly carry out such a monumental task .
But after being emboldened by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost , they found the courage to go about doing what the Lord had asked of them . They did it like a family . They lived in community , traveling , preaching , and teaching in groups . By working together , they were able to mutually share their gifts and talents as they rapidly grew the Church .
The Lord didn ’ t tell them about the trials that lay ahead : persecutions of Christians , shipwrecks , martyrdom . He didn ’ t have to . The only thing the apostles needed to know was their mission — a mission they were committed to carrying out no matter what obstacles confronted them .
From those early days until now , the Church has always been on mission to go and make disciples of all nations , and she has always had to adjust her approach in response to the circumstances in which she found herself , including heresies , world wars , and even pandemics .
Our challenge
Today , some 2,000 years after the Great Commission , the Church still must overcome obstacles as she seeks to make disciples . We certainly have our share of obstacles . Scientific fundamentalism , moralistic therapeutic deism , and secular messianism have crept into the belief systems of society and have caused seriously misguided understandings of who God is and what he means to our world ( Unleash the Gospel Pastoral Letter , Marker 3.3 ). The COVID-19 pandemic has left a trail of death and pain that we could never have imagined just a few short years ago . And an ever-dwindling number of priests has prompted us to rethink the structures by which we minister to the faithful .
Are these obstacles insurmountable as we seek to become more missionary in response to our call from Synod 16 ? No , they are not . They are not roadblocks , but rather just bumps in the road . The Church here in southeast Michigan marches forward as a family of joyful missionary disciples despite any circumstances we may confront . We do so because we too are on mission to go and make disciples of all the nations , starting right here in southeast Michigan .
Families of Parishes
In July of this year , we will begin a significant change in the structure of our Churches in the Archdiocese of Detroit , designed to help us become a more missionary community of faith . We will adopt the Families of Parishes model for twenty-six Families , or roughly half of our parishes across the archdiocese . The second half of our parishes have been grouped into twenty-five Families which will be launched in July of 2022 .
There are several reasons for the formation of these Families . Among those reasons is the urgent need to free up our priests from some of the
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