OUR VISION & MISSION

The National Center for Evangelization & Parish Renewal combines the spiritual foundation for evangelization, as described by Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), with the strategies needed to bring these concepts to life in parishes around the country and around the world.

Fr. Pat Brennan, director, served for more than a decade as Director of the Office of Evangelization of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Fr. Pat continued the emphasis on evangelization as pastor of Holy Family Catholic Community, Inverness, IL, creating a convergence model of ministry with eight divisions and 140 individual ministries all focused on evangelization.

He has consulted on parish renewal strategies throughout the United States, as well as with dioceses in Canada, Ireland, Germany, Great Britain and Australia.

The mission of the Center is to help parishes:

• Gain the skills needed for holistic evangelization
• Maintain the ongoing work of Church reform and parish renewal
• Become more mission driven

OUR HEART VALUES

The Center is committed to the convergence model of evangelization. No matter how the parish is structured, all parish ministries converge on one central mission – evangelization.

Our values include:

* Committing to the principles and praxis of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults for all sacramental catechesis
* Designing a relational net in parishes that involves Small Christian Communities, efforts at neighborhood ministry and efforts at one-on-one reach out to parishioners
* Exploring better use of branding, marketing and media in evangelizing
* Helping parishes find their own common sense, but collaborative, models of organization and parish governance
* Promoting the truth that evangelization is incomplete if it is not joined to the works of mercy and justice
* Establishing models for gift discernment and ministerial training
* Creating the servant leadership model of ministry
* Developing family consciousness so that as many ministries as possible, but especially the religious education of children, focus on families and homes rather than individuals