Customer Reviews

From Maintenance to Mission: Evangelization and the Revitalization of the Parish

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As head of my parish's evangelization committee, I was very interested in reading this book to find new ideas for effective Catholic evangelization. Any book that is about the need for Catholics to evangelize is a noble undertaking. Since so many Catholics don't recognize the urgency of our call to evangelize, anyone trying to foster that effort, like Fr. Rivers, should be commended. However, this book falls quite short in its ability to actually help Catholics bring people the Good News about Jesus Christ.

There are two major problems with "From Maintenance to Mission":

1) It ostensibly attempts to take a "non-partisan" view of the divide within the Church today, yet ends up equating positions that reject the Church's teachings with those that support it. Fr. Rivers tries so hard to appear non-partisan about the divide , but it is clear where his sympathies lie. For example, in the first chapter he uses the tired and inaccurate terms "conservative" and "liberal" to explain the divide within the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, which often ends up equating heretical and orthodox beliefs. In his example of this divide, he speaks of a "Midwestern diocese" in which the "conservative bishop had staked out a clear ideological path". This led to people feeling "alienated, angry, and betrayed". He does not give a similar example of such problems in the other direction. This in spite of the fact that there have been entire dioceses decimated by bishops rejecting the Church's teachings and attempting to become just like the culture around them.

2) It does not sufficiently prioritize an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ as the central focus of evangelization, instead often emphasizing structural and social justice themes. I am personally familiar with one of the parishes he lauds as an evangelizing parish in the book, and this parish is consumed with activities and social justice work, while diminishing the importance of embracing Church teaching in one's life and being personally transformed by Jesus Christ.

Recent history has shown that watering down the Gospel does nothing to further its reach. It is only through dynamic orthodoxy that the Church's message of salvation is powerfully preached, and people are evangelized. Fr. Rivers' attempts to diminish the important of preaching the whole Gospel - even those aspects that are difficult for moderns to accept or even understand - does not help in the work of evangelization. I would recommend passing on this book if you are serious about evangelization in the Church and the world.

From Maintenance to Mission discusses the challenging topic of re-evangelization within the Church.

The book is engaging, it provides deep insight into the issues of the contemporary Church, and challenges its membership to evangelize the Good News. It advocates a return to the core values, and personality traits of the earlier Church. It reminds us of our life in Christ, and the responsibilities of faith.

Try it, you'll like it.

Terrific book which tells it like it is in a non-judgemental style. It gives parishes a goal to work toward so that the routine "irritations" become secondary to the real mission of the Church.

This book helped me to define all the mistakes we make in ministry and how to keep the staff and parish community focused and positive as it reaches out to fulfill its mission.

Great book.