About Us - Mission & Vision History

This is a brief history and explanation of how the Parish Council and Staff revised the John XXIII Mission and Vision Statement during 2002. The Parish Council had created the existing mission and vision in the 1980s. It read:

Mission Statement
We are a Roman Catholic parish with a primary mission to the university community of Fort Collins, a mission that both reflects and promotes an interdependent relationship between the university and the wider community. With the Eucharist as central to our faith, we proclaim the gospel through educational, spiritual and liturgical ministries.

Vision Statement
As a Roman Catholic community we seek to stimulate, nurture and challenge one another spiritually and intellectually so that we might both live a Christ-centered life and bring the gospel message to the world.

In 2002, the council began discussion for creating a Parish Plan to provide direction and guidance for the Parish. We started with the existing mission and vision, and proposed some minor changes, but did not feel very satisfied with these changes; the inspiration just wasn’t there. We decided to work the plan first, creating our priorities and objectives using the existing mission and vision and then revisiting the mission and vision after we had our plan. The first version of the Parish Plan was created at a parish council retreat in January, 2002 with Father Bob Amundsen. During several council meeting is the Spring of 2002, we completed the plan including a joint review with the staff. The first draft was published to the Parish in June, 2002, just before Father Bob’s leaving.

In November 2002, the parish council and staff went on retreat together to revise the mission and vision. We started by identifying the key stakeholders at John 23rd. Given that we were created to serve the university; the first primary stakeholder came readily:

1. The Academic Community, i.e. Students, Faculty and Staff of CSU and other surrounding institutes of higher education.

But who was the other primary stakeholder, the wider community We had always struggled with this term. What did that mean? How could better define the term while capturing the essence of the spirit of John XXIII? What we noted was that the people who belong to our community, are the ones who are stimulated by a university environment – the youth, the intellectual challenge, a place where critical thinking is encouraged, where people come to learn, to understand and then apply it to their life. But it isn’t enough to just enjoy this environment; they must be willing to support it, with their time, talent, and money. This led to a better definition of the "wider community," our second primary stakeholder:

2. Families and other individuals attracted to and willing to support this University Parish and who are committed to a Catholic sacramental life.

We next identified the secondary stakeholders of our parish:
1 Leadership. Pastoral Staff, Pastoral Council
2 Volunteers (servant leadership).
3 The broader community of Fort Collins - with special care for what J23 calls "searchers"
4 Refugees from other parishes
5 The Universal Church
6 Parents of University Students.

Following the identification of the stakeholders, we looked at the needs of the primary stakeholders. Our Parish Plan has to address these needs. In the process, of identifying these needs we added another priority to our plan, more clearly addressing the needs of the University community.

†Faith that is intellectually responsible (challenged by faith)
†How to think critically abut you faith
†Faith formation
†Community
†Building the faith community
†Community outreach
†Engage the students in parish life
†Engage the parishioners in student life
†Develop Christian leaders for the future
†Provide a real-life experience on how to participate in parish life
†Outreach to faculty, especially younger faculty, so a dialog between Church and higher education exists.
†Faculty will be able to articulate faith with the same intellectual power in their university careers
†Give everybody the ability to grow in their faith and to be a Christian following Sciptural values
†Learn, develop understanding and apply it to my life
†Faith Formation/Catechesis
†Adequate critical theological reflection
†Sacramental preparation
†Sacramental life
†Personal engaged spirituality
†Social opportunities
†Women’s needs
†Men’s needs

We then examined the six faces of University Ministry that had been worked in a national forum and saw that their work was well expressed and fit our needs:

Forming the Faith Community
Community and Alienation on Campus
The important of Christian community
The Challenge of Forming the faith Community
Appropriating the Faith
The Challenges to Faith on Campus
Principles for Appropriating the Faith
Strategies for Appropriating the Faith

Forming the Christian Conscious
Moral Relativism on Campus
Conscience in a Catholic Perspective
Methods of Conscience Formation
Educating for justice
The Search for Justice on Campus
Principles of Catholic Social Justice
Working Justice

Facilitating Personal Development
Self-fulfillment in the Academic World
Christian Perspectives on Self-fulfillment
Achieving Personal Development in a Christian Context
Developing leaders for the future
Potential Leaders on Campus
Leadership in the Christian Perspective
Strategies for Forming Christian Leaders

We then brainstormed the values we held as a University Parish. What makes us what we are, what do we consider important to preserve the atmosphere of our parish?

Open
Respect for diversity for people and their views
Inclusive
Welcoming
Intellectually challenging
Catholic Christianity
Personal development
Word and Sacrament
Global outreach
Liturgy
Full active and conscious participation
Idealism
Enthusiastic spirit
The special gifts and contributions of youth
Justice
Faith
Respect for the Earth
Peacemaker
Importance for dialog
The Spirit of John 23rd
Transformation
The integration of spirituality into our life
Compassion
Reconciliation
Music and celebration
Communication

Mission Statement
We are a Roman Catholic University Parish, whose primary mission is ministry to Colorado State University and surrounding institutes of higher learning. Our parish includes families and other individuals attracted to and supportive of such a university-oriented mission. With the Eucharist as central to our faith, we proclaim the Gospel through education, spiritual and liturgical ministries and practices.

After completing the mission statement, we struggled for a while for our vision statement, what do we want to become. But one of our staff members was inspired and proposed the key words that led to our vision statement, "that we might become the Kingdom of God."

Vision Statement
That John XXIII Parish might manifest the presence of the Kingdom of God in the university, in the community, and spreading out to the world.

The words are packed with meaning to us. "Might" because we must always strive to be the presence of the Kingdom, we will never be there. "Manifest" to demonstrate, to act as a sign as a sacrament to the world. The " Kingdom of God " is described by many words: nurturing, loving, evolutionary, transforming, that we are peacemakers, a celebration of the living spirit (of God). Our primary mission is to the university so they are first in our list, next our community, which is Fort Collins and its surroundings. Then spreading this out to the world as evangelists.

During February 2003, we published the mission and vision to the Parish and asked for comments. We received 2 alternatives to the vision and 6 alternatives to the mission. In January, 2004 in our joint meeting we finalized the wording to:

Vision Statement
That John XXIII Parish might manifest the presence of the Kingdom of God in the university, in the community, and in the world.

Several parishioners recommended that "loving god" needed to be in the mission statement. But upon consideration, we decided that was a given for a Roman Catholic Parish and the words did not distinguish our mission. Others asked that we "acts of compassion and justice" to how we proclaim the Gospel. Finally, simpler wording was suggested for the two primary stakeholders - the academic community and Families and other individuals attracted to and willing to support this University Parish. But while the proposed wording had the same content, after struggling for better wording for the 'wider' community, we felt it was important to maintain the two key stakeholders clearly in the mission statement. This is especially true to show to new parishioners who often ask whether they can attend a University Parish and to ensure that they understand the university ministry is our primary mission.

Mission Statement
We are a Roman Catholic University Parish, whose primary mission is ministry for the communities of Colorado State University and surrounding institutes of higher learning. Our parish includes families and other individuals attracted to and supportive of such a university-oriented mission. With the Eucharist as central to our faith, we proclaim the Gospel through education, spiritual and liturgical ministries, and with acts of compassion and justice.