​We're excited to share today some dreams and plans we have for the future, specifically for the future of our worship space at St. Joseph. We’ve made some gradual upgrades to our worship space (which we call the South Worship Space) over time, but we realize now more than ever that we need to make some significant upgrades to our worship space so that it’s less temporary in nature and better suited to our needs as a growing, modern, and online church. We have been blessed to have some amazing friends and partners who are helping us design and plan our space upgrades. We even have some rough sketches to share!

​In this photo above, you’ll see a sketch of the worship space with:

• a new wall behind the altar to allow for liturgical lighting
• new screens so everyone can easily see lyrics, images, and videos 
• a lighting truss hung over head which will dramatically improve our ability to light key spots
• new and consistent staging that doesn’t creak and provides sufficient space for us to lead worship

One of the dreams we have with our space is to be able to better control lighting. Being able to darken the space allows us to use lighting intentionally to engage and draw people into the experience of worship. While we can and will use some window tinting and curtains in certain areas, we’re planning to construct some walls in the back of the worship space to help control the lighting and improve the acoustics of the space. 

​The photo above shows the entrance to the worship space as you approach the steps (the walls are highlighted in yellow). As you approach the steps, you’ll see a mounted welcome screen, and if you go up the steps, you can enter the worship space to the right.

​​The photo above shows the view up the ramp as you enter the worship space, with a wall constructed to block the light and sound that enters from the hallway near the courtyard.

​The photo below shows a view looking from the back of the worship space toward the information desk.

​I realize it may be hard to really visualize these changes but they will vastly improve our experience of worship from an audio, visual, and lighting perspective.

We’ve been working with the best professionals in the Boston area to scope out this work and we’re really excited about the possibilities. In addition to upgrades to our physical worship space, we also need to invest in technology for recording and streaming. In our new hybrid world, we must invest in technology to continue and expand what we’re doing online and in person. We need to invest in upgrading computers and purchasing new equipment.

Finally, we have dreams of refreshing our kids spaces so that our church is an engaging, fun space for kids--a church kids want to come to. The photos above are some photos, not of our space, but of some inspiration for where we’re hoping to go with our kids spaces in the future.

To move toward making those dreams and plans a reality, we are inviting you to make a one-time gift to New Roads in the coming week. As we’ve been dreaming with God about the future at New Roads, a family in our community has generously stepped up to give to get us started--and, they want to encourage and inspire others to give by offering to match every gift made to this effort.

All gifts of any amount, from $100, $1,000, $5,000, all the way up to an individual gift of $25,000 will be matched. To be clear, this is a one-time commitment to support this project. We won’t be coming back to you in a month to meet a particular dollar amount. We’re praying that our community will respond to this opportunity and help us take this significant step forward. To give, simply visit: givebutter.com/NewRoadsMatch. Thank you for your support and partnership in what God is doing in our midst!

The start of a new year is always a time that draws us to two opposite but related tasks: to reflect on the past and to look forward to the future. As we reflect on the past six years of being a collaborative, what rises to the top is the mix of highs and lows, failures and successes, challenges and joy, progress and pain; as well as the unpredictable nature of this new road we’ve been journeying on. 

New Roads Catholic Community, St. Joseph and St. Luke, was formed as a collaborative in 2013, in response to the reality of declining churches. The reality of declining churches is a complicated problem without a simple or easy solution. But since day one we’ve been eager to jump in and work on it together.

Over the last six years, we’ve made mistakes to be sure--in communication, implementation, and more. One significant miss early on was to try to do more than was possible given our limited resources. We started off with an ambitious--and ultimately unrealistic--plan to transform all six Masses at both parishes. 

We worked to make various changes to create a dynamic experience of worship that would help grow disciples as well as welcome back the overwhelming percentage of Catholics who have disconnected from church. Attempting to create an engaging, relevant, accessible, and transformative experience at six Masses simultaneously was unsuccessful. 

Around 2017 we began focusing specifically on one Mass, the 10am Mass at St. Joseph. More than two years later we’re seeing some of the growth and fruit we’ve been praying for. People are growing in their relationship with God and deepening their commitment to following Jesus. Others are reconnecting with church for the first time in a long time. Children and families are overflowing. We consistently have over 60 children at Kids’ Church, our Children’s Liturgy of the Word program, as well as a dozen or more children in Tiny Disciples, our worship experience for kids ages 2-5. 

On a weekly basis we are over 75% full at the 10am Mass, a metric that points to the need to add an additional Mass to accommodate our current size and continuing growth. We need to pause here and say: wow! God is at work here. Our vision at New Roads is to be a growing church and because of the people who serve at New Roads, this vision is becoming a reality.  We’re at a point where we need to expand what we’re doing at the 10am Mass to an additional Mass time. 

Meanwhile, all of our other Masses, at both St. Joseph and St. Luke, have continued the decades-long pattern of slow to moderate decline in attendance over time. This decline is not something with a single cause or an easy solution. Churches everywhere are facing this reality.

At St. Luke’s we are at the point where we do not have enough people coming to Mass overall to justify the number of Masses we have on Sunday morning. Given that, we need to reduce the number of Masses at St. Luke by one.

Initially, our plan was to continue the 11:30am Mass, in thinking like a collaborative and wanting to offer a variety of Mass times between the two parishes, as well as to create the least disruption in the current schedule overall. However, after conversation and consultation with the community over several weeks, it seems that a Mass time between our two existing Sunday Mass times at St. Luke (9:00 and 11:30) would be the best time for our community to invest in, to join together and to serve. Given that, at St. Luke we will continue our 4pm Saturday Vigil Mass and we will have a 10:00am Mass on Sunday mornings at St. Luke. This change will take place starting March 1, 2020, the first Sunday of Lent.

At St. Joseph, given the increase in attendance, we will have a 9:00am and 10:30am Mass, also starting on March 1, 2020. Both those Masses will be the same experience as the current 10am Mass at St. Joseph--the same message series, music, hospitality, and kids programs. To make this additional Mass at St. Joseph a reality, we’ll be expanding all of our ministry teams at the 10am Mass. If you’re wanting to join in and support this effort, contact anyone on our team for more information.

Those who currently attend or serve at the 9:00 or 11:30 Masses at St. Luke are invited to come and serve at the 10:00 Mass at St. Luke--or of course to any other Mass time in our collaborative. To be clear: there is no plan to close St. Luke’s. The vision of New Roads always has been--and still is--to become two healthy, growing parishes. The fact that we have successfully created a Mass in our collaborative that is growing is truly good news for both parishes. 

Our plan, our hope, and our prayer is that the growth we are seeing at the 10am Mass at St. Joseph will one day expand fully to all Mass times at both parishes. We are excited and committed to continue to journey together toward that vision. It will take all of us working together to get there. 

Thank you for your love for this church and commitment to it. Let’s keep it up. The future might not be certain, but what is certain is that realizing our vision of becoming a collaborative with two growing parishes will require more love, more commitment, and more collaboration from all of us.

​Two weeks ago, New Roads had the honor of hosting the Rebuilt Roadshow, one of four one-day conferences this spring put on by the Church of the Nativity, a Catholic parish located in Timonium, Maryland. Several staff members from the Church of the Nativity journeyed up to Belmont to share insights and encouragement about what they’ve learned along their parish’s rebuilding journey. Through transforming their Catholic parish culture, Nativity experienced dramatic increases in weekend Mass attendance, giving, and service, amounting to nothing short of a transformation. The Roadshow is all about encouraging other parishes in their efforts to rebuild and make disciples.

About 100 people from over 25 parishes around New England came to the Rebuilt Roadshow at St. Joseph to listen and learn, ask questions, connect, and be inspired in their own rebuilding journeys. Fr. Michael White and Tom Corcoran, authors of the book Rebuilt, gave the opening and closing keynotes which were insightful and inspiring. The New Roads worship team led us in worship throughout the day, helping us feel God’s presence and bringing a palpable energy and excitement to the atmosphere. Q&A sessions allowed attendees to learn more about Rebuilt as well as what our path has been so far at New Roads. 

We were thrilled to have over a dozen of our New Roads ministers serving at the conference to make it all happen. It would not have happened without our ministers! From parking ministers to greeters to our café team to small group discussion leaders to our operations and facilities team, it was amazing to see New Roads members stepping up to serve, modeling servant leadership, and making this event possible. 

Attendees at the Roadshow were eager and curious, challenged but encouraged and open, in beginning to implement some of the transferable principles of parish rebuilding in their own parishes. We are so grateful to get to partner with Church of the Nativity and continue to benefit from their honesty, humility, and generosity as they work to make disciples, reach the lost, and make church matter--and help churches like New Roads and many others to do the same.

With Labor Day officially behind us, we’re excited for the start of the fall season at New Roads. This summer has been an intentional time of rest, slowing down, and pausing (from message series, kids programs, fellowship after Mass, etc.). We hope your summer has been a time of rest and refueling too! Starting this Sunday, September 9, 2018, we’ll resume our message series, kids programs, and more. What’s starting back up exactly?

New message series: On September 9, we’ll start a new message series called “Born to Run.” This series is all about our tendency to want to run away when life gets tough. On some level, we’re all running away from something or avoiding something in our lives: maybe it’s a stressful job, a broken relationship, or a messy past. And there are as many ways to escape as there are reasons to want to run away. But no matter our circumstances, our escapism actually provides no escape. Join us for this series at 10:00, 11:30, and 5:30 as we explore what’s below the surface of our escapism and chart a better path forward. 

Tiny Disciples: A drop-off worship experience for kids ages 2-5 starting just before Mass begins and ending just after Mass is over. Kids get the chance to have fun and learn about God on their level while their parents get some quiet time to participate in worship. Tiny Disciples takes place weekly at 10:00am (St. Joseph) and 11:30am (St. Luke). No sign up needed; just follow signs to the Tiny Disciples Room to join us!

Kids’ Church: A worship experience for all kids in grades K-5. How does it work? Children come to Mass with their families. Then, after the opening prayer, they are invited to come forward to gather in a separate space for readings, a message, and fun activities geared to their age. Parents stay in “big church” and kids rejoin us about 30 minutes later, at the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Kids’ Church takes place weekly at 9:00am (St. Luke) and 10:00am (St. Joseph). No sign up needed, just show up!

That’s all starting this Sunday, September 9. The following Sunday, September 16, at the 10:00am and 11:30am Masses, we’ll celebrate our annual Fall Kickoff. Fall Kickoff is all about inviting friends and neighbors who don’t have a regular church home to join us at New Roads.  Fall is naturally a time when people and families are open to trying something new (like coming to church) and Kickoff is a great, specific day to invite new folks to join us at New Roads. After all, our vision is to be a growing community of people growing in relationship with God and reaching out to friends and neighbors. Inviting friends and neighbors isn’t just something we do, it’s who we are!

Our goal on Kickoff Sunday is to help new folks feel welcomed and get connected. It’ll be an all-hands-on-deck effort from our fantastic hospitality teams (greeters, host ministers, info desk, etc.) and from our community as a whole. Want to be part of making it happen? Email [email protected] to get plugged in to serving on Fall Kickoff. And be sure to grab some invite fliers at church this weekend to make inviting a friend or neighbor to Fall Kickoff even easier. Or, send them the link to our Fall Kickoff page. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Two weeks ago we gathered together with over 120 member ministers in our community--people who serve in ministry here at New Roads. It was a wonderful experience to be together as one big New Roads team and to thank so many people for pouring light and love into our church throughout the year. It was a chance for us to be together; to express gratitude; to celebrate what we’ve accomplished together this past year; and to be inspired and encouraged in the work that lies ahead of us as a community.

As part of our gathering, we shared a few “wins” we’ve experienced as a whole community throughout the year. We limited ourselves to just five highlights. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. We had a team goal--as a whole community--to focus on our 10am Mass in a way that was completely brand new, which included several wins. One highlight was a group of New Roads members who teamed up to launch new hospitality ministries to help each person who comes to our church to feel welcomed and loved by us and by God. It was amazing to see this team mobilize into action this year!
2. Because of the commitment and leadership of many kids ministers, this year we saw more and more kids looking forward to being at New Roads and feeling at home here. We also had leaders come together in our community to work on infrastructure and equipment upgrades to make our worship experience more engaging for everyone.
3. We’ve been engaging together in more conversation about our mission and vision as a church--in ministry meetings, one-on-one, and small group meetings. Conversation is so foundational because it’s all about relationship and collaboration. Our mission is much bigger than just a handful of people--it’s about all of us.
4. In the last year, we welcomed over 70 new people into serving in ministry here at New Roads!
5. For the first time in many years in both parishes, this year we had an increase in our regular offertory year-over-year. And our annual appeal was up 39% at St. Joseph and 11% at St. Luke compared to last year.

These are some of the “bigger picture” wins, but each one is made up of many more wins that happened throughout the year. And each win was made possible through our work together. At our Ministers Appreciation Night we invited people to share some of the wins they’ve witnessed throughout the year, or how their serving in ministry has impacted their own lives. Here’s just some of what our amazing member ministers shared:

• Serving this year has deepened my faith. I feel much more focused and connected during Mass. I also feel a deepening in my relationship with God. Through serving I have received more.
• When I bring the Eucharist to the homebound, I get so much out of it, more than I ever expected. It is such a joy to bring Christ to others. 
• Welcoming the young parents of our tiny disciples - my faith has grown more & more - this year continues my experience with a community whose mission is also mine - to belong, to love and to serve God, his people, all in concert with the Holy Spirit who resides in me and all. Positive impact for me is the growth of new friendships, new encounters with people returning or coming to church for the first time. 
• Serving deepened my faith - the more I gave, the more I was filled with God’s love & grace.
• It’s always meaningful to me to interact with my kids and Kids' Church. I was blessed to participate as a Kids’ Church minister and am looking forward to help the ministry grow in the future! 
• Without being embraced and loved by this community I could not have grown into a friendship with Jesus or come to truly experience God’s incredible love for me. I have healed from life long pain in ways I never thought possible. 
• I found an inner peace and acceptance of myself in realizing that no matter where I am in my faith journey, I can be a bridge to others.

What each of us has given this year is part of what God is doing and what God wants to do in our community. It’s wild and beautiful that we get to be a part of what God does! 

This Monday our team got together to check in about our community-wide goal for the current year: to make the 10:00am Mass an excellent, dynamic worship experience. (We’ve detailed this goal, which we call “the lab” in previous posts here and here.) This goal is for our current fiscal year (July 1 2017-June 30, 2018) which means January 1, 2018 put us at the half-way mark! What better time to assess our progress in the last 6 months and spend some time planning and prioritizing for the next 6 months? So that’s exactly what we did. 

In the last 6 months we have enjoyed the incredible privilege of being coached and guided in this goal-planning process by Russ & Carol Sabia, members of our community who are also professional consultants in organizational health and clarity with Patrick Lencioni’s firm, The Table Group. With Russ & Carol’s guidance, we set out to identify accomplishments in the last 6 months by asking the question: what’s different now from 6 months ago, particularly when it comes to the 10am Mass? 
Here are some of the highlights:

LITURGY -- We’re always working to improve our messages and message series, but we’ve recently begun to focus and tailor our series in ways that our community specifically needs to grow (e.g. our current series, Upgrade, all about prayer). Music has been a core focus as well and in the last 6 months we’ve worked to improve both the quality and consistency of the music at the 10am Mass. We’ve also begun to use music not just as something that happens occasionally during the Mass, but as a tool that enhances the experience overall, to help focus our attention and draw us in (e.g. we’ve experimented with having soft music underneath the Gospel and during the Eucharistic Prayer to draw people into the meaning and importance of those parts of the Mass). This fall we’ve also worked to make Kids’ Church and Tiny Disciples more engaging and relevant for our younger members and seen more children participating with greater enthusiasm.

ENGAGEMENT/COMMUNICATION -- We decided to explore staying in the hall as a longer-term possibility (see this post for more background). We have had (and continue to have) conversations with people in small groups and one-on-one to discuss this possibility. We’ve worked to communicate our vision and engage people in conversation, not shying away from disagreement but seeking to listen and hear from people who have different ideas and perspectives. We’re deeply grateful for people’s engagement in this process as it’s crucial in helping us make decisions and move forward. We’ve also started this blog as a way to communicate more and improve clarity of communication among our team, volunteers, community, and beyond.

HOSPITALITY -- We’ve made some big steps with hospitality in the last 6 months. We defined a vision for hospitality: everyone who arrives on our campus feels welcome and loved--by us and by God--from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave. And in a meeting in October, we had the chance to share that vision and brainstorm ideas with people who have served or are interested in serving in hospitality in our community. Since that meeting, we’ve had many one-on-one meetings with people who feel called to be a part of implementing this vision for hospitality at the 10am Mass. It’s been so exciting to engage with people in our community who have a real gift for hospitality and also a deep sense of ownership for making this vision come to life in our church. In 2018, we’ll be launching our hospitality team at the 10am Mass. Stay tuned. 

TECHNOLOGY -- We’ve made some key purchases when it comes to our technology--some visible and some behind-the-scenes. The most visible (or audible!) change has been the purchase of a new headset microphone for the presider (Fr. Thom) as well as a new wireless (handheld) microphone, both of which tie into the same sound system as the music. The sound quality of these mics is far superior to our previous wireless mics for the hall which could only be used through the outdated built-in sound system in the hall. We also purchased some tech and sound equipment for both churches so that the churches own all the equipment used by the worship team. This is a healthier and more sustainable position for our churches to be in.

Those are some of the specific highlights from the past 6 months related to our goal. But when we think about what’s different now from 6 months ago, particularly when it comes to the 10am Mass, one big aspect of it is hard to describe. The best way we could describe it was this: the 10am Mass has a much different energy than it did 6 months ago. God’s Spirit is active and moving before, during, and after Mass in a new way. There’s a sense of excitement and anticipation. A few Sundays we’ve run out of seats (a good problem to have).

Certainly we’ve got a long way to go in realizing our vision. And most days we’re more focused on closing that gap and thinking about what’s next. But taking the time to pause to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of our team and our community related to this one goal was an encouraging and energizing experience. We hope sharing it here encourages and energizes you in our work together!

Last week on this blog we discussed our vision at New Roads. This week we want to discuss our strategy for the coming year. As you may recall, vision is about where we’re heading. Strategy is about how we get there. 

Our overall strategy at New Roads focuses on the Sunday worship experience. The Sunday experience is the number one opportunity for people in the community to connect with our church. The biggest and most important strategic decision we have made over the last few years has been to focus our staff, volunteers, and resources on the Sunday experience, from the perspective of unchurched people--that is, the thousands of people in our community who have drifted away from church or who have never really been a part of a church community. We stopped doing a lot of things we had been doing “because we’ve always done it” and we started focusing on Sunday worship. 

Focusing on the Sunday worship experience from the perspective of people who have been disconnected from church has been a big step forward. But we’ve realized recently that it’s not focused enough. We’ve been trying to change six Masses across two parishes all at the same time. So our new focus, our strategic goal for this year, is to focus on transforming one Mass into an experience of worship that is modern, relevant, and engaging--a worship experience that helps people meet God through full, conscious, and active participation in worship. 

Furthermore, our desire is to treat this one Mass as a “lab” or “workshop” where we can implement our vision of worship, but also experiment as we go. This will allow us to figure out what one worship experience will be like--what works and what doesn’t in attracting the unchurched and engaging current members more fully in worship. Once we’ve refined one worship experience and have a “proof-of-concept,” we can then expand what we’ve learned to other Masses.

In addition, we feel that focusing on one Mass will be the least disruptive and most honoring of the people in our community. In the past, we have made the mistake of rolling out changes and new initiatives before we had a clear idea of what it would take for those changes to be successful. That has led to several unintended and undesired results: frustration, lack of clarity and understanding, and burnout of staff and volunteers. Treating one Mass as a “lab” will also allow us to create a Mass where people can come and experience more concretely where we’re heading.

Making big changes to one Mass at a time seems to make sense for a number of reasons. The next question was: which Mass should we focus on? We think the 10:00 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph represents the best opportunity as it is a desirable Mass time for many and one that attracts many families with children. There are various objectives we’ll be working on related to this goal: upgrading our worship space and technology, enhancing kids’ worship experiences, expanding hospitality, and more. Stay tuned as we’ll be sharing more on this goal throughout the year, particularly here on our blog: this is Part I of a series of posts on “the lab” that will continue over the coming weeks and months.

It’s the church itself--the people of God--who are called to carry out the mission and vision of our church. And it’s important to say, that is the only way this will happen--through the service, generosity, hard work, and commitment of our whole community. At New Roads, we have so many smart, talented, committed, connected, and creative members whose input, ideas, and service are working together to make God’s vision for our church a reality. We want to partner with you in the work God is calling us to and we want to hear from you! Email [email protected] to set up a time to chat with us and to find out how you can partner with us in this effort.

​Vision is one of those words that is used so often--and so often used incorrectly--that it becomes empty of real meaning. But vision is essential to our work as a church. At its core, vision is simply a picture of a preferred future. Vision is about where we want to be, knowing that we’re not there yet. Vision is all about what can be, what should be, and what will be. 

So what’s our vision at New Roads? First and foremost, the reality that drives the vision of our church is that we know that there are people in our community--hundreds and thousands of people--who don’t have a relationship with God and have drifted away from the church. All too often, churches have introduced people to religion that is devoid of a relationship with God. Relatedly, so many people have experienced church as something that is unengaging and irrelevant to their lives. 

It’s our vision to solve that problem. We want to remove any obstacles in our church that would keep people from encountering God. Our desire is that our community would be the very best place in our community where someone can come to authentically meet God and intimately know God. We don’t want our church to be a place where it’s just possible to meet God. We want our church to be a place where it’s impossible not to meet God. 

From the time people arrive on our campus to the time they leave, our desire is that every aspect of our community shows people how much God loves them and how valuable they are to God and to us. That could be:

• In the authentic and warm welcome of a friendly person holding open a door, who is genuinely glad to see you
• In the message that feels like it was written specifically for you and the challenge you’re facing
• In the music that creates an atmosphere of worship that is so powerful and overwhelming and inescapably full of God’s Spirit
• In the experience of Kids’ Church that engages children in a relevant way and shows them how valuable and precious they are to God

We want to be a community that in every way reflects and reveals the heart of God. It’s a big vision and will require incredible work and grace to get there, but we believe it’s where God is leading us. We believe it’s a vision worth sacrificing for.

This is a snapshot of our vision--that picture of a preferred picture--but it’s still a little blurry. As a team, we recognize the need to capture our vision in a couple of sentences that effectively communicate what New Roads is all about and where we’re heading as a community. Clearer language that is memorable and intentional will help everyone serving our church to make progress toward our vision and invite others to join us on this journey. Stay tuned for updates on language around our vision as we work through that!

“Write down the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so that the one who reads it may run.” Habakkuk 2:2