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 info@newroadscatholic.org 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

​The inspiration for starting this blog is to bridge a gap in communication that exists in our community. There is so much going on behind-the-scenes at New Roads--at our weekly team staff meetings, with our kids programs, with our worship team, our team health and growth, our building plans, and more. And yet, it’s too much to communicate on Sunday or even to include in a printed bulletin. 

But there’s information we want to share, ideas that people are eager to be a part of, and plans that would be helpful for people to know about, especially people on our extended team--that is, anyone and everyone who serves in ministry at New Roads. Anyone serving in ministry at New Roads is part of our team and team members get to know what is going on and what is coming up! So the primary purpose of this blog is to communicate with our whole team, not just our paid staff, but the many volunteers who make New Roads what it is!

Our goals for this blog are simple:

• To open up a communication channel with our broader team (all those who serve in ministry at New Roads)
• To communicate more clearly with our community about strategic decisions and to give us common language and understanding around strategic decisions or topics
• To help us to see how everything we’re doing fits into our larger mission and vision
• To help other churches who seek to understand or learn from what we are doing
• To give staff a voice to speak to our whole community

We’re excited to launch this blog and we invite you to subscribe by email so that you don’t miss a beat! Just enter your email address below, click submit, and you'll get an email whenever a new blog post is published.