Ramping Up Our Message

One of the mistakes we often make in Catholic schools is we don’t speak powerfully enough or evocatively enough of our mission. 

Our problems begin with our mission statements themselves, which too frequently go through the laundry list of “mind, body, soul” in some form or another. My school at John Paul II is fairly typical: 

Inspired by faith, Pope John Paul II High School prepares students to be strong in mind, body, character, and spirit for lives of learning and service, according to the Gospel. 

We get it, right? Our mission is aimed at the whole child. But that mantra is so tired, so old, so predictable, it’s forgettable and uninspiring.  

But it’s worse than that. If our mission statements were merely forgettable, they’d be harmless. But too often, they become the parameters within which we describe ourselves to each other, to our own families, and to prospective families.  As such, they have a deadening effect on what we should be proclaiming: the magnificent work God is doing in the lives of our students.  

In contrast, watch this brief clip from St. Rose of Lima, in Denver, Colorado:

 

Who do you say that we are? “We are Christ to the world!” says an 8^th grade girl, with unblinking conviction.  “We are going to college! We are getting to heaven!” say two first graders.  Even the least sentimental among us is likely moved by the powerful simplicity of those statements.

Or how about this way of talking about our mission? 

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). 

What is our purpose as Catholic schools? To build palaces—cathedrals, even—where God can reside in the life of our students!

Or how about this magnificent way of presenting our mission to our students, from the mouth of soon to be Saint John Paul II? 

(Young people), it is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal. (World Youth Day, Rome, 2000) 

Pope Benedict said something similar to youth recently: 

The world promises you comfort. But you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness! 

This is the language we should be using to tell people about our schools!  When we immerse our students in a culture of optimism and high expectations, when they're supported by teachers and parents who care about them and pick them up when they stumble, when they belong to a team, activity or club that they are passionate about with peers who share that passion, and when they are invited to grow in their faith through prayer, worship and service, they truly flourish, becoming young men and women who are confident, happy and future oriented.  

Let us be bold! Our schools need to embrace the evangelical challenge of the gospel and talk about this challenge openly with our students and prospective families.  Young people are living in a dreary world of low expectations and accommodation. Deep down, beneath the veneer of apathy, they want more.  They want to become "new creations," and to be "transformed, by the renewal of (their) minds."  They want to make a difference in other people's lives--like all of us, they want their lives to matter! If we speak openly and optimistically of this gospel challenge with them, if we build a culture of high expectations, prayer and support to live this challenge out, our schools can free young people of the gravitational forces that inhibit them from becoming the magnificent persons God created them to be! Our schools change kids' lives!

Let us find stories that witness to this transformation in the lives of our individual students and retell these stories over and over.

If we start thinking and talking about ourselves in this way, parents will be beating down our doors to send their children to us.