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Foreword

I’m a science fiction nerd. (Bear with me, this will be relevant in just a few sentences.)

That’s why one of my favorite quotes from any movie comes from the title character of the 1984 cult-classic movie, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. In a moment of intentional profundity, Buckaroo lays down the following wisdom: “No matter where you go, there you are.”

It’s an axiom that is so self-evident it almost acts as a caricature — and yet it has stuck with me through all these years as a reminder to be present to whatever geographical, social, cultural, or historical context in which I find myself.

That’s a lesson the Church needs to learn today.

The Church currently occupies a particularly fraught and changing sociocultural space in the twenty-first century. Books like Forming Intentional Disciples and sociological studies from Gallup and the Pew Research Center have brought these realities to our attention, but more urgently, we are living them out in parishes all across North America and Europe.

Certainly, the news isn’t all doom and gloom. Life in the twenty-first century — with global instability, the breakdown of former superpowers, and a growing persecution of Christians across the globe — is more like life in the early Church, which was one of the greatest and most accelerated periods of Church growth not fueled simply by “birthing” new Catholics. Post-modernity, while resistant to truth claims, has a particular heart for stories, and we believe in a God who has invited us into his very story — the story of an unending and triumphant love.

In such a time as this, the last thing the Church needs is another program, another canned response, or a structural process that purports to do the hard work of accompaniment and disciple-making. The crisis the Church faces today is one of discipleship, and that crisis extends to almost every layer of leadership in the Church. Discipleship and evangelization cannot be understood from the outside. Without a personal relationship with Christ and practical experience in helping others encounter Christ, walking with them into relationship with him, forming them as mature disciples, and equipping them as missionary focused men and women eager to share Christ with others, parish and diocesan leaders will be unable to create cultures and structures that support evangelization and mission. In short, they will be unable to bear the particular fruit that Jesus expects.

That’s what excites me so much about this book.

Tim Glemkowski is a personal friend and a colleague. He is passionate, knowledgeable, and articulate. But more importantly, he possesses the kind of experience that Church leaders need today. Made for Mission breaks open the hard-won wisdom Tim has gained by laboring in the trenches and “doing” the work of renewal alongside dozens of parishes. In this book, he presents a very Christ-centered approach to cultural change and parish transformation.

But be warned.

What you have before you is not a silver bullet, or a detailed playbook that you can use to check off the right steps and simply glide into the new reality of your parish. Rather, it is a masterclass in the application of critical principles through which our parishes, in cooperation with the grace of God, can truly be transformed.

The hard work — the blood, sweat, and tears — are all yours.

This book, however, provides a clear path.

In my work with almost a hundred parishes and dioceses over the last twenty years in the area of parish transformation and renewal, I would have been blessed beyond measure to possess a resource like this.

God bless you as you dive into its pages and continue on your journey of parish renewal.

Deacon Keith Strohm

Author of Ablaze: 5 Essential Paradigm Shiftsfor Parish Renewal Executive Director, M3 Ministries