Amazing Parish Conference to be held in Milwaukee from Oct. 17-19
COLLEEN JURKIEWICZ
CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF
What makes a parish amazing? More than 200 teams of pastors and lay parish leadership are coming to downtown Milwaukee next week to find out.
The 2018 Amazing Parish will take place Wednesday, Oct. 17, to Friday, Oct. 19, at the Wisconsin Center, 400 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Presenters will include Jason Simon, executive director of the Evangelical Catholic; Kevin Cotter, executive director of Amazing Parish; musician Sara Kroger; Sr. Regina Marie Gorman, OCD; and Fr. James Mallon.
Also presenting will be Amazing Parish co-founder Pat Lencioni, who is the author of 11 books, including the bestselling “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of business management, employee engagement and effective leadership. In 2013, he met John Martin and the two organized the first Amazing Parish conference, which was held in 2014 in Denver.
The conference is designed for pastors and their leadership teams with a goal of helping the group discover ways to take their parish leadership practices from the level of the mundane to the truly spiritual. The conference seeks to equip attendees with tools to assist them in more clearly defining roles, identifying objectives and renewing their commitment to the mission of active discipleship for Christ.
In a testimonial video promoting the conference, Archbishop Jerome Listecki said that “it’s a real honor for Amazing Parish to select Milwaukee to host what they believe will be the largest conference to date.”
The archbishop went on to say that the conference’s emphasis on Catholic identity, evangelization and stewardship aligns perfectly with his priorities for the archdiocese as a whole.
“An important aspect of the conference is how it resonates across all parish communities,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to invest in our pastors, parish directors and their key leadership — at the same time, it’s a chance to ignite, renew and energize the collective parish community. Coming out of the Synod, we highlighted evangelization and the Sunday Mass. In the past year, the focus has been on stewardship, and we are now at a point to shine the spotlight on mission and leadership, equipping parish leaders with the tools needed to make their parish dynamic.”
The workshop-based format of Amazing Parish seeks to create an environment centered on teamwork, where pastors are learning effective strategies alongside four or five members of their parish leadership.
Amazing Parish also offers online resources to help the teams continue in their development following the conference, including 13 training modules accessible free of charge.
The Milwaukee conference will begin with a keynote kick-off address and cocktail reception on Wednesday evening, continuing into Thursday and Friday with Mass, speakers, working sessions, Adoration and Confession. Of the 250 parish teams attending from around the United States and Canada, 52 percent are from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
