Kate Stevenson
NAPA's 16th Annual Summer Conference explored the past and future of the Church in America.
Father John Burns is a Catholic Author and the priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He spoke at the conference, and said that the Church should encourage entrepreneurial discipleship to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
FR. JOHN BURNS
Catholic Author and Speaker
I was breaking apart the etymology of the word entre and preneur. It's a French word, two smaller French words in there. And entre is the word for begin and preneur means taker, one who takes. And I just was proposing that like an entrepreneur is someone who goes between a problem and a set of solutions and takes action to bring the best solution to bear upon the problem. That's what entrepreneurship is. Typically though, we think in economic terms, but also disciples have to be entrepreneurial.
In other words, disciples should be proactive, creative and willing to find new ways of bringing the Gospel to people.
Father Burns adds that because many people do not know God, Catholics have a responsibility to help lead them to the Church.
FR. JOHN BURNS
Catholic Author and Speaker
The gap between the world not knowing God and the church not getting those answers out there very well is where we need to be creative and even entrepreneurial in our discipleship.
Despite these challenges, the priest remains optimistic: in the past year, the Church has seen an increase in conversions.
FR. JOHN BURNS
Catholic Author and Speaker
Part of the thing I was looking at yesterday was that spike in confirmations and receptions into full communion at the Easter Vigil this last year, which was around a 38% increase across the Catholic Church in America. And that's statistically really significant. So while technology and costs and diminishment of parochial vigor in some places is a problem, on the same bracket of conversation, we actually have some really beautiful data.
While the 21st century has brought new challenges for the Church, it's also created new opportunities to reach people searching for meaning and hope.
