Pastors of Smaller Parishes

Priests
are to look
after the
spiritual
needs of the
parishes
entrusted to
them with
the concern
of caring
parents who
tend their
families with
love.
Constitution on the
Church
#28
from Vatican II in
Plain English

Dear Father,

Welcome to the web site which supports you in your work as you do pastoral
planning for your parish! We know you work in small, rural parishes, and most
of you in clusters of small parishes. You carry a heavy load, to be honest. And
even though we hope you have joy in your ministry, yours can be a lonely and
difficult ministry.

Thank you for everything you offer your parish. Chances are there's more
talk in your diocese about linking, clustering, and closing small parishes. If that
happens, you know very well that you'll be the "bringer of bad news." (In
ancient Greece, they used to kill such messengers because they thought it
made the bad news go away! Yikes! Let's pray that won't happen to you!)

We hope you've read Dreams and Visions. This is a powerful guide to help
you do pastoral planning in your parish. Pastoral planning is what will help you
put lifelong faith formation on solid footing. Planning well will help you make it
more than a "new trend." New trends come and go, but like the reform of the
liturgy in the 1960s, the move to lifelong formation as the norm for Catholics is
here to stay!

To read the annotated table of contents for this book, which gives you a good
flavor for what to expect when you read the whole thing, click here. Or to read
the book's introduction, click here. Everyone of the excellent, helpful links
mentioned in Dreams and Visions is found here.

Father, even though you do work among several locations, everything we're
talking about in Dreams and Visions can be applied to your setting. We do
have a group of pastors who have volunteered to chat by telephone with you.
A couple of them are in rural settings like yours. Click here to get to that list.

Working with them, we've developed a set of principles for forming ministry
group s among two or more parishes, along with a wonderful prayer service to
use for that purpose. Click on either link above to get to these resources.

If you are getting ready to do some pastoral planning for lifelong formation, we
have just what you need: a FREE planning resource tool kit that you download
from this web site and are free to reproduce as you need. It comes complete
with worksheets for planning for each group of youth and adults in the parish,
a step-by-step planning process, and a guide to "listening prayer" to be sure
you're being led by the Spirit! Click here to get this resource.

So once again, Father, thanks for everything you do for your parish. We're glad
you're making use of this support web site, and please let us know if there are
other ways in which we can help you!

Good wishes for your ministry,

Bill Huebsch
and the Pastoral Planning Crew

Free and Private Telephone Chat
If you'd like to make an appointment to chat directly and privately with Bill
Huebsch about pastoral planning for your parish, send him an e-mail and set
that up by clicking here.

I'm the Pastor
I work in small rural parishes.
We don't have a staff. We don't have big buildings.
We do have people of great heart and faith!

Have a Member of Our Team Visit Your Deanery or Region,
or Cluster of Parishes, or both
to help folks
(1) understand this better
(2) get excited about implementing it
(3) agree to help.
And also to meet with your (volunteer or paid) "staff" in order to help create
the parish pastoral plan?
If so, send us a message and let's talk dates and arrangements!
Click here to get started.

Grad Courses for You or Your Volunteers
There are grad courses being offered in two excellent Catholic Universities
which provide complete background and practical solutions
for anyone working in this emerging ministry today!
Contact Diane Blair at Loyola University New Orleans.
Or Brian Schmisek at the University of Dallas.
Click above to send them a note of inquiry. Ask for the course called
"Models of Catechesis"
taught by Bill Huebsch.

Fathers,
See below
for resources
designed
especially for
you!

There one
listed here
specifically
directed at
pastors of
multiple
parishes!

A Powerful Resource
There aren't too many resources for pastors working in clusters and rural
areas, but we recently found a great one:
Priestly Ministry in Multiple Parishes
by Katarina Schuth
who teaches at the St. Paul Seminary.

It's available from Liturgical Press:
800.858.5450.

Resources offered
on this site

Share
your
parish
story!

If you have
been working
with whole
community or
lifelong
catechesis or
faith
formation
and you have
a story to
tell, we want
to hear it! Go
to this page
and send us
your story!
Give us the
link to your
parish web
site at the
same time,
please.

And thanks!

Pastoral Planning
A step-by-step guide:
Dreams & Visions:
Pastoral Planning
for Lifelong Faith Formation
A new book which includes a
chapter outlining those
all-important Planning Team
Meetings.

Training
How to teach your parish
about lifelong formation
including excellent PowerPoint
presentations to download and
use, complete with presentation
notes.

Implementation
How to state and sustain faith
sharing throughout the parish using
the
Question of the Week
With free prayer sheets.

Prayer Services
to accompany faith sharing.
You can download and use these
in 5 minutes!

Outlines for adult
or intergenerational
Faith Gatherings
linked to your children's textbook
series.

Outlines for adult
B ible Studies
which are in plain English!
Download each session and get all
you need in one item.

Complete plans for
Parish Based Retreats
in several practical scheduling
formats.

Background Material
All the current books
you need to better understand
lifelong formation, plus free articles
you can download, copy, and use.

Vatican II
Lots of strong resources
to help you teach about the
Council.
We are approaching the 50th
Anniversary of the date on which
John XXIII called Vatican II: Jan
25, 1959.

By the way, we just posted a note to the blog about pastors
working in small rural parishes and clusters or groups...
Please read it and send your comments! You can find it here.

Take me:
to the
H ome P age

to the
Resource
Center

to
"Getting
Started"