“It's not if you are a leader, but what type of leader are you?”
Jacqueline Marie | May 12, 2022
“Being a pastor is like being a gardener” relates Fr James Mallon. He continues, “a gardener glories in the beautiful flowers that grow in his garden. We are called to grow the garden…”
But so often Priests feel ill equipped to cultivate the fields they find themselves in. The job is large and when the tool shed is empty and the workers few, what began in passion can move to burnout.
Priests who enter group coaching, the first step in coaching with DR, are often at that point.
Leadership Coach Ryan Coyne feels the two biggest obstacles he often finds priests encountering are “whether they have the tools and the confidence.”
“A lot of priests think they’re unique in their challenges,” explains Coach Rob McDowell, but “they’re all sharing the same common struggles.” Another DR Coach, Diahne Goodwin, adds, regarding the problems of isolation, “the limited support is so common.”
Isolation, limited resources, expanding parishes… it can start to sound more like a jungle than a garden.
Divine Renovation exists to inspire, connect, and equip priests and their parishes to go from maintenance to mission – for every Catholic parish to be a place where people can come and have their lives transformed by entering into relationship with Jesus.
That starts with leadership.
Photo by Alex & Madi
Rob tells the story of a priest he was coaching:
“He kept on saying, ‘You know I’m not a leader.’ and I said, ‘Tell me what you mean by leader?’ Essentially it was this sort of typical great man theory, you know:
‘Personality. Take charge easily. Make decisions. Charismatic.’
And I said, ‘No, OK, you’re not that type of a leader’
‘… It’s not if you are a leader, but what type of leader are you?’ You’ve got everything in your parish that you need to lead your parish on mission.”
Rob states that what sets him on fire as a coach is “Priests understanding how God has uniquely wired them to lead.”
Ryan sees priests coming into coaching thinking, “‘How am I ever going to do this…” but over the weeks the lightbulb moment happens, and it is a switch to: ‘I don’t have it all figured out but God is working with me and the principles are at my disposal right now to begin.’”
Fr. Pier is the Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes, Australia. His parish began earnestly seeking the path of renewal 3 years ago:
“I did not know what I was doing, we did not know what we were doing, but the Spirit was opening paths and we choose to take them – to take the risks.”
He and his parish have used multiple resources to achieve this vision “the Spirit is giving us more and more tools”. Father Pier has been in coaching now for over a year and finds “DR looks to me, to a number of us, like a framework, where all of these things find their rightful place”
Fr. John Daly, Pastor of the dual Parishes of Greystones and Kilquade, Ireland, has found through coaching, the vital importance of leading from a team: “working with the team the last couple of years has been super, having that support and unity of vision.”
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Fr Robert Steele, Pastor of St Patrick’s Pukekohe, New Zealand, is experiencing renewal firsthand.
He talks about his parishioners and how they are running ministries and impacting their communities with the love of Jesus: “the spark is there, our parish is really being renovated, renewed.”
Fr James Mallon reflects, “there is beauty in the garden serving its purpose and you want it to be fully alive…to see a parish come to life and start impacting the world as the people of God taking ownership of their baptismal calling, its awesome.”
And as Ryan Coyne states “renewal is possible in any parish.”
