The most vibrant parishes focus as much on ministry to the poor as they do on ministry in the liturgy, says the founder of JustFaith Ministries. 

In 1988 Jack Jezreel reluctantly became a parish social minister as a means to an end: to earn enough money to start a farm. "I realize that peace-and-justice work will always be done by only a handful of parishioners, it will most likely remain on the periphery of parish life, and it will be eyed suspiciously by most parishioners," he wrote in his job application for Church of the Epiphany in Louisville, Kentucky.

To his surprise, however, JustFaith, the social justice program that he developed for the parish, took off. "People get very excited about their faith when they connect it with mission and serving the poor," Jezreel says about his program's success.

JustFaith Ministries is now a national organization that has transformed the faith of thousands through its parish-based programs. Jezreel's goal is to change Catholics' perception of parish life. "How do parishes move from only gathering, to gathering and sending forth?" he asks.

Jezreel knows that justice work never ends. JustFaith continues to develop new programs to reach more people and parishes. "Sometimes with 20,000 graduates, there's a temptation to think ‘This is just fabulous,' until you realize that the church in the United States has 70 million people, and 20,000 is only a drop in the bucket," Jezreel says.

As for farming? It is still Jezreel's passion. "There's something holy about sticking one's hands in the dirt and knowing it came from a God who loves us," he says.Why should social ministry be central to parish life?

Fundamentally the gospel seems to suggest a pattern of gathering and sending. Jesus gathers disciples and then sends them. Then his disciples gather and send.

If you look at church history, I think the church at its best has been doing this. Communities of women and men religious, for example, are places of personal and spiritual development as well as of mission.

What does "gathering and sending" look like in a parish?

In terms of gathering, I'm talking about things that are very familiar to the parish: sacramental celebrations, the RCIA, religious education, social celebrations, fish fries, and potlucks.

It's all about preparation. But all of that nurturing, community building, education, and celebration leads to a sending forth. In the gospels Jesus speaks of the reign of God, and in the tradition we speak of Catholic social teaching.

The problem is that when churches don't have a mission-this reign-of-God-related vision about what we're to commit our lives to-then they become static. The parish becomes preoccupied with itself.

The second problem is that when that sending component gets lost, then the gathering loses its moorings. We don't know what we're gathering for. We don't know what we're preparing for and being educated for. We don't even believe what we're celebrating in the liturgy.

The gospel and the Second Vatican Council both suggest that parishes should be very deliberate not only about gathering, which they currently do very well, but also about the sending, which is in some way still rather undeveloped, especially in terms of Catholic social teaching.

How is your vision different from what we have now?

Traditionally the gathering has happened in parishes, and the sending has happened in agencies. We have these tremendous organizations-Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development-and the interesting thing is they all work outside of parishes.

I think the future of social ministry in the church is a collapse of these divisions. Parishes will still depend upon the remarkable work of organizations such as Catholic Charities and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, but we'll see parishes that are characterized by a significant investment in that work.

Have you come across Catholic parishes that are accomplishing that?

The parishes that are energizing and life-giving have recognized this intrinsic link between the inner journey and the outer journey, between spirituality and active engagement in the world. These parishes will light the way for the rest of the church, but I don't know but a handful of parishes around the country that have been so deliberate about this that they integrate it into everything.

How do you make social ministry central to the identity of the entire parish?

If we turn this into practical terms, seeing gathering and sending forth as equal elements means that half the parish budget is for gathering and half the parish budget is for sending. Half the parish staff is for gathering; half the parish staff is for sending. Half of the parish's activity is gathering; half of the parish's activity is sending.

That's the vision. You have to claim what you want to see a parish become before it can become that. In the meantime what do we do? What if a parish divided itself up into groups of 12-that seems like a nice number-and each group becomes a mission-based community or mission team?

For example, there is a non-Catholic church called Church of the Savior in Washington. When you join it, they ask for the usual information, and then they ask you what mission team you want to be a part of. And if you say, "I don't really think I'm that interested, I just really like the music and liturgy, and I enjoy everybody here," they'll tell you, "I'm sorry, but you can't join the church."

The point is not that they're elitist. It's just the way they understand the gospel. Yes, the community gathers and prays as a church normally does on a Sunday morning, but the church is also called to be about something more.
At the end of our Catholic liturgy, the presider says, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord." That's not "Go in peace and feel holy this week."

When you hear it in the context of the gospel, it means sharing Good News with the poor and vulnerable. It means somehow our task is to honor the reconciling, healing, transforming work of God in the world.