My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Approximately 25 priests of our diocese completed a program called Good Leaders, Good Shepherds.  This program is sponsored by the Catholic Leadership Institute, a 20-year-old association of the faithful specializing in offering leadership training for Catholic priests.
Last month I attended a leadership seminar for bishops run by the same organization.  The ongoing episcopal formation program was designed to support bishops in their ministry.  The leadership session was entitled, “Creating a Meaningful Vision and Identifying Key Priorities in Service to Your Role as Bishop.”
It is always a good practice to step away from the day-to-day responsibilities we have and try to see the forest for the trees. This program was truly supportive.  A group of 10 bishops spent three days in prayer and training so that we can be better leaders and shepherds.
One of the exercises that we were asked to complete was a vision statement of our episcopal ministry.  We were asked to describe the purpose of our role as bishops in our particular dioceses. This is what I was able to envision: “My purpose is to enable the new evangelization in a multi-cultural, ethnic and religious atmosphere in an urban diocese for the formation of the clergy, religious, and laity.  My goal is to give new energy, new zeal, and methods for the task of new evangelization.  This can be accomplished with the renewal of religious formation at all levels.”
I probably would not have so succinctly seen my role for the next five years had I not taken advantage of this seminar.  The purpose statement was the beginning of a three-day exercise in honing our skills as leaders and shepherds.  The pastoral plan for the diocese, which we have been developing over the last several years began with parish planning.  Now with the program of “Christ Jesus, Our Hope,” the diocese is sending a unified message regarding priorities and support for our foundational ministry.
However, during this seminar, I was asked to envision my role as bishop, and to outline the key responsibility areas and come up with what are called SMART goals and tasks to accomplish them.  The acronym SMART stands for Specific and Measurable, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable.  Truly if our goals can do all these things they really will be SMART, but it is not, however, so easy to identify goals which are specific and can motivate not only yourself, but others to achieve them.  Obviously, the evaluation of these goals by making them SMART is always an interesting exercise.  However, as the seminar continued I learned some new skills that hopefully will help in my pastoring of the diocese.
The Catholic Leadership Institute was very interested in continuing the work for our priests in the diocese.  Although we have to suspend our participation because of financial concerns, hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to open this valuable leadership training process to other pastoral leaders.
Out of every planning exercise there is inevitably an exercise in putting out into the deep.  When we try to envision what we should do, we need to look beyond the shore into the not so definable sea of opportunities that surrounds us. In the diocese, the major planning processes, Preserving the Vision and Christ Jesus Our Hope as well as the training of our pastoral leaders, will give us not only the vision for the future, but also the means to attain the important goals for the life of the Church.