Called Through Baptism: Our Shared Mission

A Message From Parish Leadership:

In the bulletin this month we will be sharing Mission Goals in the weekly bulletin articles. These four goals are the fruit of months of dialogue and discernment about the mission of our parish. We, as parish staff, pastoral council, and finance council, look forward to laboring with you in striving to meet these goals in the year ahead and beyond.

Our first mission goal is to increase sacramental encounters to establish discipleship pathways. We do not simply want more individuals to receive more sacraments. The reception of the sacraments is not an end but rather a means of strengthening one in grace to participate in a life of Christian discipleship.

We read in paragraph 1212 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that, “the sacraments of Christian initiation—Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist—lay the foundations of every Christian life." As we live the Christian life together as a parish, we recognize that the sacraments of initiation – along with the other four Sacraments of Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders – are essential in our expression of faith in Jesus Christ. We are initiated into the Christian life, healed and forgiven of sin, then sent forth in service of our neighbor.

During Fr. John’s tenure as pastor, baptism has already been emphasized. If you read our parish vision statement, each section begins with, “We are called through Baptism…” We hear feedback often that our parish is young and our annual baptism numbers reflect that. We have already seen a recent increase in baptisms. In 2019 we had 50 baptisms but unfortunately dropped down to 25 in 2020. The last two years we have had 59 and 58 baptisms, respectively. We want to see these numbers increase 10 percent year-over-year as we hope to exceed our high of 67 (2015) during Fr. John’s tenure and work toward 100 baptisms per year, which is how many we averaged annually from 2000 to 2006.

This goal does not just mean scheduling more baptisms but also investing in marriages and families. We have taken steps already to build relationships for our newly married couples through the Witness to Love marriage formation initiative. We also need to invest in personal accompaniment and resources for a faithfully Catholic approach to fertility, an issue that our Bishop called us to consider in September 2025. We are also actively discussing how to assist civilly married couples in receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony and accompany adult Catholics who have not yet received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Our baptism preparation classes have swelled to the point where we now offer six classes annually instead of four. We are actively discerning options to transition the leadership of these classes to a volunteer lead or team that can support our youth and family discipleship team. We are also exploring support for our family formation program which continues to grow and require additional resources to meet the needs of our families. By emphasizing the sacramental life of our parish, we believe that more Catholics will be able to respond to the Gospel through a life of continuing conversion and mission.