Four Ways Forward: Becoming an Apostolic Parish in a Post-Christian World

• For pastors, lay ministers and those in parish work
• Roadmap for re-envisioning how to build a missionary spirit in the parish
• How to equip parishioners to proclaim the Gospel in today's confounding culture
• Crafting a parish response and parish mission for the post-Christian times in which we live
• Avoiding spiritual roadblocks and forming devoted Catholics in today's world

An increasingly post-Christian world is forcing parishes to re-envision how they “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). Pastors and lay leadership must pivot to building mission-first parishes, equipped to proclaim the Gospel to those who have not heard it — while the number of practicing Catholics falls with increasing speed.

Parish leaders are hungry for programs and resources to help address these challenges. Yet no single model or program can suit every parish, and leaders are bogged down with options, many of which offer no clear goals or methods. In The Four Ways Forward, Susan Windley-Daoust, theologian and diocesan director of missionary discipleship, provides a road map to pastors and parish staff to make sense of it all.

To become an apostolic parish, there are four effective models to choose from, each built on a distinct, necessary insight and method in the art of conversion:

1. Radical hospitality and proclamation
2. The practice of spiritual multiplication
3. Organizational mission (re)focus
4. Highlighting divine signs and wonders in our midst

Every fruitful, joyful, evangelizing parish should embrace the insights and methods of at least three of the four models. This book not only describes each model, giving examples of how it is being used in parishes today, but offers a practical blueprint toward crafting a response to the post-Christian world, including notes on spiritual roadblocks that can get in the way.

• Author: Susan Windley-Daoust
• Pages: 208
• Format: Paperback