‘What Does God Want?’ Archdiocese Mission Officer Challenges SEEK Participants — and You

A talk given at the Denver conference asks us all to seek out our calling within the Catholic Church

(Photo by André Escaleira, Jr.)

By Jay Sorgi

He started by taking an ever-growing fire for Christ in people’s hearts, and voicing the questions, “What's my role in this? What part is God asking me to play?”

Archdiocesan Chief Mission Officer and Superintendent Dr. Scott Elmer took a talk at Denver’s SEEK conference on Saturday and made it a personal challenge to discern and direct people’s lives toward God’s discipleship in ministry — for many, within their own parish life.

“This talk's going to attack that process of discerning, ‘What does God want?’” he said. “Whether you realize it or not, you probably have a pastor right now that's eyeing you as somebody that could potentially help him … continue the momentum and build out God's plan for the parish.”

Denver’s SEEK Conference, one of three concurrent Catholic conferences across the United States, is designed to be a sacramental, prayer and adoration-filled, inspirational encounter to fuel the lives of thousands of Catholics.

Dr. Elmer’s talk, “Ask, Seek, Knock: Discerning Together God’s Plan for Parish Evangelization,” took place during a breakout session on the “Making Missionary Disciples” track, which is designed for parishioners and ministry professionals. While typically attracting college students, Denver’s SEEK conference is unique, bringing together nearly 3,000 parishioners from Denver and other dioceses.

Many times, people create unintentional conflict when making plans to fulfill what they believe is God’s plan, Dr. Elmer said. But these well-intentioned efforts often miss the mark.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain,” he shared. “‘We have great plans. They're the best plans, Lord, and if you would just bless them, then we would get to the Second Coming, and we'd all be happy.’ That's kind of our modus operandi. But that's not what the Lord says.”

Dr. Elmer said that we are definitely called to take action in response to God’s call of love, but that before saying, “Let’s get to work,” we need to do a better job of understanding what God is calling us to do, and that takes a better prayer life.

“We kind of stink at praying,” he quipped, directing attendees toward a life more in tune with listening to God.

“Sometimes we do hear stuff, but we don't know what to make of it. Really, we just operate from the most rudimentary form of prayer, which is just talking at God,” he continued. “Listening is kind of hard for the human person, but when we don't learn how to do it, guess what happens? The prayer becomes transactional, and it never becomes relational. So we've got to ask, we have to seek, and we have to knock.”

Dr. Elmer added that the truly discerned knock can lead to the plan God has for your church home, your parish.

“Trust me, it's better than your dream, and it's better than your plan,” Dr. Elmer noted, citing Biblical examples from the early Christians in Ephesus all the way to today’s Church — all with a missionary identity.

“This is the place where St. Paul wrote that Christ ascended into Heaven and he gave gifts to men, that some would be apostles and prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, and that they would bring everybody to the full maturity of faith,” he shared. “It's this huge missionary vision in Ephesus, and then the church in Ephesus goes on to plant several churches throughout the Mediterranean. They send missionaries.”

He then showed some practical ways parishes and parish members could tap into a greater understanding of God’s calling to them.

“The patron of your parish wants to be involved in this process. He or she is begging to be a part of it,” he said, citing the example of St. Joan of Arc Parish in Arvada, which has intentionally lived this spirit of discernment in its pastoral planning for the last several years. “The Lord had sent us to her to receive direction, to define the mission of God's plan,” he said. “What did we come up with? ‘St. Joan of Arc exists to lead souls through love or battle to Christ the true King.’”

While parish leaders might believe a certain decision needs to be made or a particular plan should be put into place, Dr. Elmer made it clear that it’s necessary to understand that God already has a plan for the parish community.

Dr. Elmer also accentuated the need for pastors to not only meet the need to be present to parishioners’ needs, “to pour themselves out like a libation,” but to balance those needs with the reality of “the gift of God that he planted inside them.”

He dived into the way God often calls parish members with particular skill sets to pick up some of the duties that a parish priest takes on, so they can be freed up to fulfill the individual calling and charism God has given them — for example, a priest whose strong suit comes forth when hosting retreats.

“We've got to figure out how to help this man so that everything else can be planned, so he can spend time here,” Dr. Elmer noted. “His spending time with a portion of his flock on the retreat isn't time away from the parish. It's the best time with the parish.”

He also shared the final element of the puzzle pieces God has prepared for us: an understanding of his flock within the parish.

“Who are the people in that territory that need to hear the Gospel? What characterizes them?” he asked. “Lord, who's not here? Who's hurting the most? Who are the lost? Where are they, and how do you want us to find them?”

Dr. Elmer’s effort to focus the attendees on God’s will for their parish and for themselves culminated in a prayer through the intercession of the Blessed Mother.

“We just ask the Holy Spirit that you would come upon each person in this room, that you would stir into flame the gift of discernment, that you would increase our confidence in you, Lord. We pray that you would open every heart and that you would show us your plans. And most of all, that you give us a spirit of obedience and docility to you,” Dr. Elmer prayed. “That wherever you call us, we would faithfully follow, and we would see your kingdom built.”

Andre Escaleira, Jr., contributed to this report.