Editor's Note

Ease into September

 
I wonder if the era of the lazy summer is over. When I was a child, summertime stretched on and on, always ending abruptly with a return to leather shoes, long pants, and school-uniform ties. When I started my first parish job, with its 10-month-summers-off contract, not much changed. And whether at school or the office, the dominant question every first week of September was, "What did you do over the summer?"

Lately it seems summer has speeded up and busied up. Maybe time in general seems more precious the older we get, or maybe the culture has changed, requiring us to fill in every idle moment with something productive. As we turn to September in our parishes and look forward to the coming year, perhaps we can step a bit more slowly into the business that ministry can become.

Support for your ministry and service

Paige Byrne Shortal gives us some help with that in "Learning to Delegate: A key skill for leadership" (page 10). She gives us a lot of great advice, include five rules to make your delegation efforts successful.

Sometimes we become so distracted by the tasks of ministry or our volunteer roles, we lose track of the relationships those tasks are intended to foster. Fortunately, we live in interesting times. Social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and others have made it possible for us to strengthen our connections with one another in simple and exciting ways. Be sure everyone on the parish staff and parish council reads Jon Givens' "Three steps toward a social media strategy for your parish" (page 12).

I'm sure you heard or read over the summer that the revised sacramentary text has been approved by the Vatican. At the time I'm writing, there is no firm date for its implementation. However, the best guess is Advent 2011. While that's more than a year away, it's not too early to begin thinking of how you will prepare your parish for the changes. There will be something in each issue of Today's Parish this year to help you with that, beginning with "Case study: How do I implement the revised sacramentary?" (page 14).

New this year

Also, I'm excited about a new column we're introducing this year: "The Parish Deacon" (page 32). Deacon William T. Ditewig will be joining us in each issue to explore some of the joys and struggles of deaconate ministry. Take a look and be sure to send me a note about your thoughts on the column. Another new offering you can look forward to in each issue is the "Good Buy Guide." In this space, we'll give you some tips for making sound purchases for your parish ministries as well as featuring some new products or services you may not have heard of yet.

Finally, I hope you've already noticed that Today's Parish is back to its standard 40-page size. We pray the worst of the recession is behind us so everyone at Today's Parish can bring you as much information as possible to help you be as effective as possible in your parish ministry or volunteer role.

Thanks for all the work you do in your parish, and blessings on the coming year.

Nick Wagner
nwagner@bayard-us.com