Hey, everybody. Welcome to You Were Born for this, the podcast with me, Father John Ricardo.

I'm your host, the executive director of Acts 29, where we talk about anything and everything related to transforming parishes.

And as usual, I'm here with co-host Nick and Mary. Guys, how you doing?

I'm doing great. Doing great, Padre.

This is the fifth take for the start of the show.

We think we've had laughter nonstop for like the last four minutes.

Sorry, you guys all missed it.

So Nick, given that, what's our topic?

I'm going to try not to laugh, father.

Our topic today is why we need to reimagine parishes right now.

Now!

So this topic is continuing our series on the white paper, right?

So we've been talking about these last several episodes, and we will continue to talk about.

And the reason we wrote that white paper, which is titled Reimagining what a Catholic

parish can be, a destination for the 21st century.

So the reason why we wrote this is because we're convinced to Acts 29 from our own experience

in both priestly and parish ministry, as well as our experience ministering to priests and parishes across the country,

that the present model, the model we're all very familiar with in the pews of parish life

is unsustainable and is not what God is asking for in these days. So we want to do this

like unpacking of why we need to reimagine parishes now and kind of a little mini series of three episodes here.

So next time we want to talk about why it's necessary for the lay faithful in the pews

so that they can get the care they deserve and be equipped as best as possible for the mission that is uniquely theirs, right?

...