 Let's start with a prayer shall we and the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen Let's just take a moment to become aware that we're in God's holy and loving presence Lord you are so good And we thank you so much for your love for your call For allowing us to come to this conference for a little pause in our work To come together for fellowship for learning for strengthening as you send us back into the field of ministry I Pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to guide my words to open our hearts To give your people that which they need Blessed mother cover us with your mantle protect us intercede for us Holy guardian the angels intercede for us We ask this through Christ our Lord Amen, and the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen So my name is Marianne Visinger Pueig and just so you know just a little bit about me. I Went to school here. I graduated in about 2008 I worked in the diocese of Oakland where I have my homies over there from Oakland for about nine years Very closely with Scarlett and then at the end just at that very end a little bit with Joseph, but it's good to see you while here It's like Family so it's good to see you So I worked there for nine years in catechesis and evangelization Then I went to the Archdiocese of Miami and I was a director for evangelization there for three years And I've been working for the catechetical Institute now for four years, which is incredible And I'm the coordinator for Spanish language initiatives So I've learned so much again being here. I feel like I I myself am in school again As I was preparing for this talk, I happened to be reading the biography of the founder of Franciscan Let the fire father Michael Scanlon the biography is let the fire fall and it's such a good Biography and I was like, oh gosh, this guy is a superstar and he kind of embodies everything I want to say So for this first part that we're talking about characteristics To cultivate virtues to cultivate in leadership. I really want to talk about his leadership in his model I don't know how much you know about Franciscan, but it was getting ready to close its doors. It was losing students it was having a lot of different kinds of financial difficulties and other difficulties in 1974 when father Mike and Michael Scanlon came He inherited a school that was really really in crisis so because of his leadership because of his Attentiveness and response to the Holy Spirit the school is what it is But I wanted to begin the talk with just a little piece from his book And this is what father Mike and Michael father Michael Scanlon says he says I have come to see More clearly than anything else the imminent drama of life a Savage war is raging and we are part of it The work we do is of eternal importance because Like it or not People will have eternal happiness or eternal misery According to what we do Every person we work with talk to and pass on the street is a spiritual being who will live forever Spiritual armies are arrayed in the heavens on the earth and in our hearts to seize territory We are both soldiers in the battle and the battleground the war is fought on What will we talk about in heaven We will talk about the war and The role that we played in it I do not go about my daily tasks with a grim intensity of a soldier under hostile fire. I Have also come to see that we can have perfect joy in the midst of troubles and That the battle can be fought with grace and peace This is something that st. Francis the founder of my order Demonstrated to the world more clearly Than any other follower of the Lord all that mattered to Francis was being in Jesus Christ That's all that should matter to us And I wanted to begin here and I wanted to highlight just a couple of things although I could spend an hour Just talking about that that those couple of paragraphs is that What we plan and how we plan is Really important it will have eternal consequence because we have been entrusted with souls So as we plan We have to always think What will most help the souls that have been entrusted to to me What will be the thing that will help them Get to heaven and become more like Jesus How can I help them? Become the missionaries the missionary disciples that my diocese so urgently needs That should be at the forefront of our minds when we begin planning the other thing that I loved about This passage is that even though Father Michael Scanlon, you know paints this picture of this dramatic war He also says that we can live it With joy and peace and grace and that's something to aspire to and I think like how do you do that? And I think you know the secret sauce is still right there in the beginning as we do it in Jesus You know as I think about the people that I admire most that have Accomplished great things and planned great things so often I see in them like this resplendent joy Which is you know, I I admit I'm not I'm like a nervous person and I'm not always able to you know maintain that peace and joy I remember like most recently in the die arch diocese of Miami I planned this big RCIA event and I had just arrived in the diocese and I had forgotten some copies at the diocese and center So I ran back to get the copies before the set before the event started and It was the first time I used the alarm and then I put the alarm in according to what I thought it was and It didn't work. I set off the alarm the fire alarm or the like security alarm for the entire chancery and I was so tight on time that I you know, I called everybody that I could nobody answered I had to call the chancellor and just tell her I left the alarm on in the chancery. I have to go by And then I got to the event and my presenter was like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, and he's like Remind your face that you are, you know, happy to be here and that you're ready to welcome Everybody that's coming in the door. I was like, okay But you know, it's like so hard because I think there's like such a big struggle and there's such a just all those elements of Spiritual battle and chaos in all that we do to remember that when we live it in Jesus He will give us the joy and the grace and the peace that we need to execute That which he has entrusted to us. Well, okay so These characteristics to cultivate as we begin to plan are five And I wanted to begin with freedom to fail You know when father Michael came in With his plan to the you to the university as the new president. He made a crazy pitch He was talking to stakeholders who mostly wanted to close down the school and What he bet on was a true authentic Catholicism as I mentioned There was a lot of problems he describes them as you know He he he described them as you know extreme loneliness There was predatory sex. There was destruction on campus There was all of these things that said that the student population was really really struggling not to mention all the financial burdens and He came in and he told the board of trustees that what he wanted to do is really Begin with a spiritual renovation. He wanted to give priority like an a special priority To the spiritual life of the campus and he made this pitch to the board of trustees that they were not all even Catholic Some of them were Jewish some of them were agnostic a couple of them were Catholic, but he said you know the First in the primary thing we have to do this and give it a press it a precedence even over the renewal of the academic life on campus and He thought you know, they're never gonna listen to me. They're never gonna go for this, but as it turns out he was the unanimous vote of the committee and He said when he accepted the position and explained And explained it to the board of the trustees. This is what he said if we do all of the things that I have planned and Still the college fails and I am the last president of the College of Steubenville It won't bother me at all as long as we did the right things So he came into this failing university and said the thing that we need most is spiritual renewal And he was willing to make this big big gamble on the school and he knew that he might fail But he really didn't care because what he said is I'm going to do the right things I'm gonna do the things that I think that the Lord is calling me to do here And if it fails, it's okay because I know that I'm responding to what the Lord is asking freedom to fail The next virtue is wisdom So st. Thomas defines wisdom as right judgment in according with the eternal law another way to say it is To learn to see things in the way that God sees them. I remember at a Bosco conference a few years ago I was walking up the hill and I happened to see this Elderly woman and I was like oh, I'll go walk with this person And it turns out it was sister and shields who was one of the early collaborators of father Michael Scanlon and I just was walking with her and the thing that occurred to me was like to ask her to tell me a story And so I said sister will you tell me a story of the early life of the university? And she shared with me how father Michael Scanlon when he first came to the university as its president Would go into the room go into his office and shut the door and pray and he would pray until he got his marching orders from God Which sometimes took a very long time when we're talking about hours But his direction always came from the Lord She was she said it was a very inefficient way to run an office Because sometimes there were you know people lining up that needed to talk to him or resolve issues or resolve problems but if you look at it in the long term and The changes and the grace that has come through this university. It was actually a very efficacious use of time I was also reading an article In which there were different testimonies and they said you know father Scanlon's foundation for everything immediately Father father Scanlon's foundation for everything Immediately stood out for sister and he she said the first thing was his commitment to put the Lord first And to turn to the Lord for every decision for the development of that campus. She said Another person father Davis The orders provincial said that in community father Scanlon would be up Way before most of us and in the chapel before the blessed sacrament He's had he'd have his daily planner and would be focused in prayer asking What should he do with this and? Any decision that he made was always rooted in the Holy Spirit Have one more testimony from sister and again sister and described how father Michael was an instrument of God and willing to be used by God How could it work? He kept asking the Lord not that all his gifts talents and abilities didn't come into play He was able to use them, but it was really his dependence on God That was what is engraved on my life and everything I do now. I Can't do anything without a long time before the Lord. I have to make sure that I have the right priorities So where does wisdom come from? How to how do I learn to see how God sees and? It's prayer. I know as a diocesan director, you know, there's always like So much stuff Always and I would sometimes, you know, I like a lot of times my prayer was linked to my computer or My cell phone and I would like look up my apps And then I'd see all of these pressing emails and then from the very beginning moment of my day My day was flooded with problems and issues and Situations so much so that even though like I desired to pray It became very hard at times to focus now I'll always think like all right now. I'm the director of this or now I'm in charge of that now I really really really really have to pray But somehow there was always this battle of like how do I make significant time for real prayer? How do I put all of my decisions and all of my plans before the Lord? And I really want to learn this from Father Michael like prayer is a non-negotiable It's where we should be getting our marching orders And it's where we learn to see how God sees and where we get the confidence to act boldly in his name The third one was creativity. I Mentioned before how the status of the city the college was terrible in terms of student life He spent his first three months as college president He spent them going to as many sporting events parties Mealtimes as he could with the students and he just came to see that there was just this rampant Loneliness like the students didn't even know the names of The people in their dorms so many of them said you know I don't have any friends on campus and where he said the predatory sex would happen is like the new Freshman fresh women would come on campus and the men were immediately like hello You are wonderful and you know there was all this Pain among the young college women and he said how do I turn this around like what can I do? So he clearly identified what the problem was And he said what can I do to respond to this problem? One thing he created was Spiritual households so Franciscan instead of having fraternities or sororities they have households and each household is dedicated to a different charism, but it was a place that he decided that Would exist so that students could share What was going on in their lives hold each other accountable in prayer and in life and when he began He made it mandatory and the students were completely dumbfounded because they were not expecting it He said if you do not want to be in this You know households you can find another school to go to and I can say with this change and a couple of other changes that he made the subsequent year there was the lowest enrollment of the university in its history and There were people in the university that were saying you know like a they were making votes of no confidence in him There were professors and staff and the reason that he couldn't leave was because there was nobody that would take his place but he was committed to Responding to the real needs of his immediate constituents and saying I know that this That what they need is community and what they need is family and you know the rest is history We have so many households here that continue to transform students. I know this year. I had the privilege of being Spiritual director to a student who was just her in her senior year. She hadn't finished She she hadn't joined a A household the whole time she was here When we finally talked about discerning and joining a household eat immediately her life changed and She stopped being the anxious Scared person that she was and she just really began to blossom because she said finally I feel understood loved Accepted and she decided to stay on another year so she could continue to experience this place of healing and Strength so They continue to be this and I I show this as an example as as we plan we have to see like What are the pain points of my people? How can I respond to them creatively? How can I think outside the box and meet the real needs and the real pain points of Of the people that the Lord has entrusted to me prudence Prudence is the next one Prudence the definition is prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason To discern our true good in every circumstance and choose the right means of doing it So it allows the person To act right to know what the good is and to know how to achieve it They know what the good is and how to achieve it I love this image of prudence. It's a painting of the virtue of prudence You can see that she is holding a mirror right here So she sees herself so she's able to see herself very clearly and understand her own weaknesses and limitations and strengths and charisms and She's holding a snake in the other hand and it refers to the passage in the gospel of Matthew to be wise as Serpents and innocent of as doves Prudence helps us to make Good decisions based on what we understand to be good And I think just a simple example of the life of Father Michael Scanlon is that he had a very clear vision of what he wanted Which is spiritual renewal he had a step-by-step plan on how to get there But there were a lot of things that he couldn't put into place Until the right person or the right circumstances was there in order to put it into practice And sometimes we just have to wait. We know we have this great idea We know that it would bear great fruit But somehow it's not the right time or somehow I don't have the right person to help me do this Effectively so prudence is a virtue and one that we can definitely try to cultivate and to grow in and to ask for the grace for docility so Just have this image such a beautiful image of our lady, isn't it to just her her docility to God's will her openness to God's will her attentiveness to whatever the Lord asked of her Originally when Father Michael wanted was asked to come back to Steubenville his mindset was like anywhere but Steubenville But really once his spiritual director asked him well What if the Lord is calling you to go to Steubenville and he's like oh then I I actually have to consider it And I think one when he was saying like what are the markers of his life like what are the? guideposts of his life He gets one of his four guiding principles for mother from Mother Teresa whom he had the chance to meet and she came to do a commencement address once and And her her idea very succinctly said was To give God permission To do anything he wants in you and with you So we give God permission And sometimes you know God really wants to surprise us. There's an amazing prayer that we can pray That we can say like Lord Here I am I Am available for you for whatever you want today And I'll just share with you one brief diocese and experience that I had with that when I was changing from Oakland to Miami I had this huge list of things that I had to do and accomplish Programs that I had to hand over and I didn't know how and I was asked to come to this Catholic Charities event Pretty pleased with a cherry on top and I was like I don't want to do this I was so tired and I was just like okay Lord I'm here to faithfully respond to this person that asked me with love, but I don't want to be here So I remember praying I was like Lord. I am here for you I'm your hands and feet do with me. Whatever you want and I walked into the event and I started mingling and I came up to this woman who was just She was one of their dearies. It's Glenda Aragon for you who know her and I was just chatting cha cha cha cha cha cha cha and then the Lord said to me. She's the one and I'm like She's the one and then immediately it clicked The Lord was telling me. She's the one that's gonna take over the Catechetical certification program that I had built up and I had loved so much and it was kind of my baby And I didn't know how to let go of it Like he told me like she was and and she was such a faithful steward of it for many years And now Scarlett is in charge of it and she's doing an excellent job But I think this this availability and this docility and this actually just very active prayer Permits God to do what he wants to do and and and he responds to our questions Like I opened up myself to say like I want to serve you and he's like oh, I'm gonna actually I'm gonna serve you and He he surprises us all the time, but making this prayer this fiat regularly Opens the door for allowing God to work in us and through us in very powerful ways And we know just what this availability is just the posture That we can live that will make our work as diocese and doctors very very very fruitful So now we're just gonna shift into planning mode Planning and execution. So I just want to take a quick snapshot of what sometimes is Diocese and work affected unfortunately is Analysis paralysis, so we're so overwhelmed with so many things that are put on our plate that it's hard to make a decision because of overthinking the problem and We try to think about it in different angles We ask different people's Opinions and then we have this like big monster that sits on our desk And it can be there for years and years and you know, it has to be dealt with but It's just like how do I tackle that or the hamster wheel? We're very busy. We get home. We work long long long long hours But it feels like we have nothing to show for it, you know, it's like we're always just putting out fires and we're always like Triaging and managing all the things that are put in our plate or offer a vision of what could be a Clear vision and path for developing diocesan programming That bears abundant fruit. What is the fruit that we're hoping for? You know, it's that that's the clear place to start is We've helped form Disciples people that are leaders people that are on fire people that are ready to serve the kingdom that will outlast even our tenure there So it's a call to action and it's funny, you know, you say like call to action and the first word you see is wait But it's wait for the Lord to lead and then follow in his way and What we have to recognize and just be very very very very confident in is that the Lord has a plan For our diocese and the Lord has a plan for our people and it's an amazing plan What we have to do is say like Lord show me what is your plan for your people? It's not gonna be my plan Show me what is your plan and then follow in his way How do we how do I become like this finely tuned instrument? That is ready to respond to the Lord's will and What will we experience when we get begin to see this abundant fruit is just this new bliss a sense of accomplishment Achieving the purpose for which you were hired and doing your part to form missionary disciples I know that some of my favorite parts of doing diocesan work is those privileged moments where you get You just get to see Transformation happen. I remember they would happen You know like at the school for pastoral ministry and I see people skipping down the hall and I'm like you're a grown-up Why are you skipping and they're just like I'm so happy. I just feel like the Lord is so real and so alive in my life I actually don't know why I was skipping but it was like that that joy of the Lord and you think like wow Something is going really right, you know, I I remember planning our young adult missionary disciples and doing street evangelization with them. I Was just I'd get so proud You know, I'd see them going out in the street and starting conversations with other young adults And they'd be so bold and they'd be so courageous and and just the fruit that would come from that and I would see them you know, I remember a conversation that we had with just two young men that were there and They my my young adult disciples just went up to them on the streets of Miami and they were just saying like oh is there anything we can pray for and They both said yes, actually we just had Well, they each had had one of their friends die and they shared the particular situation that had happened And they were open to receiving prayer We prayed for them and I walked away from from them and the young woman I was with was like I think they were both high, you know or on or on something like oh my gosh I didn't even notice that and I'm so out of it But the thing is that these young men that were in so much pain that were trying to medicate it with something something and some something in them Opened them up to say yes, I'm willing to receive prayer And there were times like so many times that that would happen that people would just be unexpectedly open and And we would see miracles happen people come back to confession people come back to church But even just these simple miracles of people being willing to be open to prayer You know, we don't know the effects of that prayer in the lives of those young men And as our young people became bolder and bolder, I was like I would just say thank you God For the privilege to be able to do this. This is this is what I Studied ministry for this is what I you know wanted to serve your church for I I want to be part of people who are bold and ready and see themselves as missionaries on Their own streets and in their own place in their own home So what are the fundamentals? Where do I start? so the first is So attend to your information. The first is your own personal prayer. I have a co-worker I don't think he'd mind if I shared this because he shares it often That he starts every day by going a walk and going on a walk and praying and every week He prays for Different different people that he serves one day. He prays for priests one day He prays for diocese and directors in this area diocese and directors in another area And I have to tell you my friends that I have never met a more fruitful person People just open up to him and are willing to partner with him are willing to talk to him are willing to dialogue with him because in him I Think what I what I think people perceive is somebody that genuinely loves them and loves them with Christ's love But he attributes all of this to his prayer life and to intentionally praying For the people that he serves and I just see I See the results on a daily basis and I'm so impressed by his own personal prayer his own personal ability to connect with people to Know how to begin conversations and I deeply believe that's because of how deeply and passionately he prays for them So large liturgical and sacramental prayer This is of course where we receive the grace that we need to do our work So the more that we are in intimate contact with Jesus the more grace that we can receive It's also a wonderful place to continue to receive his word his inspiration Study and this is both work related and not work related You know, we continue to grow as people we continue to grow our in our passions and we are able to You know continue to learn what is important for our work, but also our passions help Help fuel and make us interesting and connectable people I love how for example Bishop Barron always has golfing examples and even though I'm not a golfer I know that he connects so well with so many people because of his Golfing illustrations. I love sacred art and that's my thing that I always go back to and I just think that it fascinates people and it helps me connect with people in a different way and Fruitful work habits. So there's three habits that I just want to highlight Deep work leadership skills and collaboration So we're talking about deep work. I Just want to say that it's really important to cut out time in our week To think deeply about the most important things How am I responding to the most important things? How did this last really important thing go? Did it go well? How did people respond? How do I rep? How do I? Prepare this talk for this next really important thing and Give my best give enough time for God to talk to me Give enough time for that exchange to happen because we don't want to rush the important things rush important decisions But in order to be able to have time for deep work, we have to block it off in our calendar so one way that we can make space and time for deep work is saying like from Whatever your best time is one to two from one to three from eight to nine Whatever time you're gonna block off. I'm gonna put my phone on No distractions. I'm gonna put a sign on my door I'm going to dedicate myself to this or I'm gonna go somewhere else so that I cannot be distracted and Allow myself that time For deep work. We need to make time and space for deep work Leadership skills are always something that we can continue to cultivate and grow in I have grown so much so much from learning Leadership skills through Pat Lancioni in particular He has really helped me to identify like how to build a healthy team Like things like how to Participate in healthy conflict. I'm a total conflict of waiter and I hate conflict like literally It's part of my personality that I want to run away but understanding this as I cultivated my leadership skills that healthy conflict is Essential and necessary for a good engagement in a conflict has helped me learn how to embrace it and even seek it out Sometimes because we need to hash things out and because we need to be able to If we if we want to be focused on what is the best What is the highest good for the people that we serve sometimes? We have to have difficult conversations, right and we have to be able to like tell people directly This is working. This is not working. This needs to change and we have to be able to receive that as well and Receive people's feedback like hey This what this didn't go as well as you thought, you know or whatever to be able to have those honest difficult conversations So I recommend for leadership skills. I deeply recommend Pat Lancioni If you haven't read him the five dysfunctions of a team is excellent, but whoever is your person Continue to cultivate our leadership skills because that's sometimes not what we study at school when we study theology and finally Frugal work habits is collaboration None of us is the whole Shebang there is no perfect leader In fact each of us is built with strengths and weaknesses So when we learn to identify our Ourself like what am I good at and what am I bad at having a team that can complement you is Really really really really helpful and when we don't have all the burden on ourselves It helps us to be much more fruitful and more effective. I for example am a Melancholic Phlegmatic I like to think and wax eloquently a lot and I'm phlegmatic, which means I like to observe observe observe, but I I take long to make decisions and if I don't have Calerics around me either as a boss or as a subordinate kind of kicking me in the butt I would think about how wonderful things would be for the rest of my life until the cows came home I really need an occasional or a frequent kick in the pants to get me started. Also. I need somebody that's sanguine like Cheerleader kind of person. I don't mean to say that all sanguines are cheerleaders But I need that person that is gonna go out and get people Excited because we might come up with a wonderful plan But if there's no one to say like yeah, this is amazing. You should try this come out You know, we want you here people that a person that can get other people excited, you know You're gonna put on event and it's gonna be like crickets That's just an example of my world in my reality, but Collaboration different experiences different strengths all of these things make us Stronger and better able to respond to the needs of our diocese sources What is One backs one step back the question is what is the vision for your work? How do we know like this is the goal that we're going for? You know, how do I know that this is the most important thing and then build to reach that goal? How do we get our vision? So the sources for helping us get our vision are always gonna be first divine revelation sacred scripture tradition Church teaching it's always helpful To read church documents on evangelization and catechesis to help keep in mind What is the church's desires? What is the church's vision? It's always it's also just staying in touch with those living sources of faith When we're reading these documents that come from mother church We're listening to the echo of the Holy Spirit come down to us So he's gonna be awakening different things and helping us Focus our energies and hone in on what is most important of Course our bishop is helping us set the vision and of course our boss The reason I didn't begin there is because we all come from different dioceses and we have different Bosses and different bishops some bishops are very hands-on and they say this is what I want and you're like great I am ready to do what you ask Some bishops are very hands-off some bus some bosses are very hands-on some bosses are very hands-off So if you're entrusted to make a lot of decisions, how do you make a good one? and You know these sources of divine revelation sacred scripture and tradition are always going to be the best sources for us but of course we see ourselves in the diocesan office as Extensions of the teaching arm of the bishop, so he's he's the big boss And we listen and plan according to him when he has that that very clear vision Next is discernment we always have to as I've kind of alluded to before Make decisions knowing that we're following the Lord's vision and not just ours We're trying to see Lord. What do you see? How are you? How are you guiding this? What do you want and? Finally, we want to create an overarching plan That helps. I mean it's always going to be some version of this Taking people from indifferent to missionary disciple Or you might have some part in there, you know, like you might have a fraction of it you know our CIA or Young adults or something, but we're always helping people come into deeper and deeper and deeper relationship with God So we have to keep in mind. Where are they? Having a clear our overarching plan helps us to answer What's next? What's next? Because people are gonna ask what's your plan and we are if we have a good plan. We're gonna be able to say Okay, in this quarter, we're gonna do this and next quarter. We're gonna do that This is this is my vision for accomplishing the plan These are the steps that I'm planning to take when we're able to articulate a clear plan People begin to trust us more and people begin to get on board more easily when they know that there's a clear plan in place So having a clear vision and a clear plan is is very very important so There are five steps that I want to talk about in creating this plan and in programming development So we're gonna diagnose set goals prescribe execute and evaluate and We're gonna go through each of these and understand exactly what we mean by this First the diagnosis Who is the audience? So what is the age? What is the state in life? Etc of the people that we're trying to meet Sometimes we can even use like census information or different Search engines that will tell us a little bit more about the demographics that are actually in front of us And that helps to see you know, what is their reality? Do I have a whole bunch of unchurched people? Do I have people that are in single-family homes? Do I have a lot of children? Some sometimes those kinds of things help and but we're also looking at spiritual demographics When I'm the form when I'm trying to address a particular audience what Stage are they in? Spiritually and that helps us to plan what kind of event am I going to offer them? Who are the speakers that I'm going to invite? What is really going to be attractive to them? So we have to really diagnose very carefully Who we're serving? Where they are and how is this plan really really really going to help this audience? We determine their needs Where are they at now? This takes careful discernment and asking a lot of questions. So who do we ask when we're trying to determine? Where people are and what would be best for them right now? When we're talking about for topics for example for Adult formation you just ask the adults What do you think is more important for you right now? What are you looking for? What do you want? Other good people to ask our priests. It's helpful to form advisory councils Sometimes, you know, you get like very wise people from different denaries. What would it be helpful? And even having focus groups to help you kind of learn especially if you're new to the diocese or don't know The whole diocese very well. It's helpful to have people from different parts of the diocese to help you understand Well, this is what's really happening in my parish. This is what's really happening in my ministry So all of those things we have to be very careful at the beginning. I Think it was st. Thomas that said a mistake in the beginning is a mistake indeed You know because at the beginning making a good diagnosis is a very important thing For everything that comes next because we really want to understand who we're serving and what and what's going on for them Next is set goals Where do I want them to be? What is the time frame and always keep your vision in mind? So when you're creating this timeline when you're saying like where do I want them to be? It's not Completely ad hoc. It's not completely willy-nilly. You try to make the most realistic Goal possible so that you can stick to it and you're not having to change your plan all the time although There's lots of times that we do realize that we have to change our plan I think One thing I'll give you I'll share with you an example of when I was in the Archdiocese of Miami We made a plan to form young adult missionary disciples So we saw the need was that there was no young adult ministry Almost anywhere in the diocese and we decided to say like what we're gonna do is offer like this amazing Super cool one-year of formation for our young adults that has retreats that has tons of you know conferences retreats and Overnights for them that will have this amazing experience for them and we'll do this for them for free and in exchange they will Do one year of ministry within the diocese and began to cultivate young adult ministry in the diocese And when we began this plan We're like yeah one year is a good timeline and then one year's like one year of ministry, but we realized that one year for people that have never done ministry before is a really really really good start because it's very it's an intensive year, but there was a whole lot more of accompaniment and Guidance that they needed to be able to be effective in their parish because it's tough You know and imagine in Miami, so We had to extend the formation and intensify the accompaniment that we were at that we were going for but I think Starting with a clear goal and these clear guidelines Helps them understand what their commitment was going to be and helped us to you know Have the have that goal, but we had to kind of Know that in subsequent years it would be a little bit different So we're gonna determine the best course of action to achieve a goal in a particular time frame so How do we how do we determine determine this best course so we always want to have orthodox content Sometimes we want to just accommodate what? What people are asking for but I think it's just coming back to these living sources of faith How do I people how do I put people in touch with God? How do I let God change their lives? So some things are just non-negotiable. I'm not gonna put something in front of people That is not gonna help them reach their goal, which is to be fully mature human beings Spiritually mature human beings who are becoming the people that God creating them to be aka missionary disciples You know, we're we're helping them reach that goal and I'm not gonna waste their time with something that is not helping them move towards that goal I invite you not to reinvent the wheel is there an existing resource that possibly meets that need So we definitely used a lot of existing programs. We brought in St. Paul Street evangelization We brought in you know discerning charisms with st. Catherine of Siena There were a lot of things that already existed that we didn't want to have to do over so we just brought people we brought You know Christopher West theology the body training So we used things that were already there to help us so that we didn't have to begin from zero and Also Chesterton's fence is something very important to keep in mind Chesterton's fence means is is very simple. It comes from GK Chesterton is like If you happen to come upon a fence and don't know why it's there Understand why the person put it up before you take it down And I think in die in diocesan work Especially in times that there's a lot of turnover and we inherit some programs And we don't know why something is there Sometimes we might be tempted to say like that needs to go that needs to go that needs to go But we don't really understand why that's there Chesterton's fence simply says it's good to know Why that's there? Like in chess sometimes you think a few steps ahead, you know Sometimes we don't know if somebody put something there because they were playing mental chess and said I can't make You know the checkmate in one move, so I'm gonna do these two previous moves to eventually help me make that checkmate so you There might have been a strategy or a strategy or a very deep reason Why something was there in the first place? So before we move things very quickly or take things down. It's important to know why there were there and and Just in general a variety of options is preferable if possible And why is this is because our dioceses and parishes are so diverse Everybody's person parish personality is a little bit different. We have different leaders We have different experiences some are on fire some are not and we have to be able to accommodate Just this reality and it helps us to be more credible and more flexible if we understand that we have to meet people where they are I'm just thinking if there's anything else I wanted to say about this. Oh, yes, that's it I think the one thing that I wanted to say about the prescribing is to say that Sometimes a good plan often a good plan is better than the perfect plan And this is so true like in examples of military Sometimes you wait wait wait to have all the perfect pieces in all the row and in a row And then the moment passes and the war is lost and then it's over And what I'm trying to say is that it's important to Know have have that sense when it's time to act You know growing up I had the motto the self The motto for myself if anything is worth doing it's worth doing well And then I heard gk testerton say, you know if anything is worth doing it's worth doing badly. I was like That sounds awful, but I began to realize the truth of it You know like sometimes you know that something has to be done and it's going to be imperfect because I don't have all the resources to do this perfectly But it needs to be done And if not me who and if not now when you know, so Sometime don't a good plan is better than the perfect plan that never happens all right So executing your plans Just a couple of thoughts here Are you going to use a committee? Are you going to use staff? The benefits of a committee is you can bring in the like really highly skilled people The downside of it is like dang if they just don't show up. There's nothing you can do about it The good thing about staff is that you know that you can hold them accountable if they don't show up The tough thing about staff is you can't always get them to buy into your vision So you have to really Get good people on your team You know help your boss get good people on the team But think about the pros and the cons Because we know that many hands make for light work What is going to be the best option in this scenario and why? And a very important thing and something that we don't do often enough because we're running so fast is evaluation So it's always an excellent idea to do an after-action report what worked what didn't What could we do better next time? Is there anything to drastically avoid? Sometimes from year to year. It's really hard to remember You know Why there was chaos last year and what to avoid this year? And it's always helpful for the person who comes after you just in case So an after-action report is always a good idea. You ask yourself Did the plan work? Why or why not? Participant evaluations are so helpful. I would just caution you sometimes that Don't trust too much in participant evaluations because A lot of times people don't aren't honest on them. Sometimes people are scathing But a lot of times I think like people are just like oh, it was wonderful. It was wonderful It's wonderful and I sit on my laurels and think like wow, that was a great event But we have to dig deep and um ask real questions Participant evaluations are helpful, but I don't know if they always are the only thing that we should look at It's always a really good idea to have a staff committee follow-up meeting to talk with the people that wear your eyes and hands on the floor And some for for some like ongoing programming. It's really good to do ongoing evaluations at the end of every year of of the Catechetical Institute How did this year go at the end of the every school year for the past the Pastoral ministry, how did this year go or after every semester because we always want to be improving We always want to be adjusting to where the Holy Spirit is guiding us And we always want to be serving the people and giving them What god wants to give them And then After the evaluation the cycle begins again. So we go through this And repeat we go through this and repeat we go through this and repeat And I just want to leave with just one final quote from father mike He had a scripture passage that he often thought about was matthew 21 21 And he said if you have faith and never doubt Even if you say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea it will be done It will be done This passion passage seems to point out to one aspect of faith that faith involves risk Faith means stepping out and relying on the lord jesus christ And this passage made me think a lot about you know how Jesus asked peter to step out of the boat right And if peter had never stepped out of the boat, he would never have been able to walk on water And this is the this is the thing is that the lord is always going to keep us in this uncomfortable zone And then going to keep inviting us to do things that are just beyond our comfort zone And I often you know Scream out the lord. I'm like, don't you know, I'm like a little hobbit And then my feet don't reach the stirrups of my horse. Like what are you asking of me? But I know that those times that I just Take the step and reach out in the faith Are the times that the lord blesses blesses me and blesses me with results that are Beyond what I could have imagined But it just takes courage and it does take that willingness to take the risk And do things that might feel difficult out of our comfort zone But we remember who we do this for For the sake of the souls that were entrusted to us So that when we talk about the war in heaven and we can talk about You know what we did in that war and it's going to be a great conversation, you know, it's going to be worth it I think diocesan work is so hard a lot of times But it's so worth it because of the impact that we can make You know on so many souls And the sacrifice is worth it So let's let's make plans that are in line with the lord's plan in line with the lord's heart And let's let him work miracles through us and in us For the sake of his people amen Amen, all right. Well, I Went five minutes over but if you have any questions or if not It's been a really long day and you guys are such wonderful troopers That's a privilege to have been able to spend this time with you So thank you for your time and attentiveness and I'm just going to hang out if you have any questions, okay Let's close with Sorry Thank you Close with a glory be if that's okay Glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World without end amen In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit