2014 LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE BEST PRACTICES AWARD

Tonight we are honored to present the 2014 Leadership Roundtable Best Practices Award to the Diocese of Knoxville. And I’m honored to welcome Bishop [Richard] Stika who is with us today.

About two years ago the Diocese of Knoxville started its journey toward best practices, and has remained faithful to that goal ever since, even if it’s been complicated. One of the highlights is that the diocese undertook the journey as a team –a leadership team that made things happen. And among the drivers of their commitment to best practices is execution. It’s easy to create a plan, but they’ve taken it to the next step of execution. One of the first things Bishop Stika did on the road to best practices was to assemble the right people. They include Paul Butler, who’s been with the Diocese of Knoxville for several years; Fr. David Boettner, who would always ask pragmatic, down-to-earth questions; and two brand new diocesan staff members, Sister Mary Charles and Dr. Elijah Martin, both part of the commitment to best practices and to assembling the right people.

The Diocese of Knoxville took action from the bottom-up and the top-down, not quite concurrently, because Bishop Stika was smart enough to not get too far ahead of his priests. He actually slowed the process down, and in doing so allowed them to catch up. He assembled the priests, talked to them about what was going to happen at the Chancery, then met with his leading priests and brought them along. I actually advised them to increase their staff as there were some gaps in their administration they needed to fill, and they waited until the right people surfaced.

What the leadership team also did was go away together to take a deep breath, be reflective, and align their thinking before they took it outside of their team. It was smart thinking on the part of the Bishop to say, “We’ve got a plan. Now let’s step back from it and see what makes sense.” So they assembled the right people and aligned the thinking of the leadership.

Their plan involved organizational and structural change. It involved, from the bottom up, patiently assembling a group to begin a pilot of the Standards for Excellence, then, quietly take it to the next group. The idea was to create lasting cultural change toward best practices. They’re doing it at a pace and in a way that the whole organization can.

Commendably, the diocese under Bishop Stika’s leadership has moved toward best practices in a careful, measured, thoughtful, prayerful, reflective way with attention to structure, culture, and how they use their resources. They’ve kept uppermost in mind the need to bring not just the priests, but groups of laity along. They’re just launching a capital campaign that’s smartly timed to the introduction of best practices. That approach will undoubtedly serve them well as they go forward.

The Diocese of Knoxville isn’t just here tonight because they adopted Standards for Excellence, or because they restructured their Chancery, or because of other individual pieces. They’re here because of the thoughtful adoption of best practices across the whole diocesan system. They’ve begun the journey, but know it’s far from over. The prize is at the end. So, Bishop, I’d ask you to bring your team forward to receive the Leadership Roundtable’s 2014 Best Practices Award.

RICHARD STIKA

I just want to thank all of you for recognizing what I consider an exceptional diocese in the United States. I’m sure every bishop would say that about their diocese, but I mean it from my heart. I left an area five years ago that was about 27 percent Catholic, and traveled to a diocese that is about 2.5 percent Catholic. We’re in the middle of the deepest part of the Bible Belt in East Tennessee. And when I arrived, I saw an exceptional group of people in an area that sometimes sees the Catholic Church as a foreign institution, like so many places in the United States and the South.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about my diocese. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary with a Eucharist Congress; our keynote speaker was Cardinal Dolan. Upon our founding, we were only 30,000 Catholics. Our original mother diocese was Nashville, as was Memphis at one time. Now we’re around 65,000 Catholics, and if you count a lot of undocumented, unregistered people, there could be as many as 100,000 in our diocese. A couple of weeks ago, we were recognized by Boston College as being number ten in terms of people converting to the Catholic Church. We were tied with the Diocese of Memphis, and Nashville was number eight. So Tennessee is doing quite well in terms of conversions.

Vocations have been a blessing for us, too.

Last year, I ordained two priests. This year, I ordained four priests and next year will ordain four more. Currently, we have 19 in the seminary. I believe that vocations come from families that are really focused on the Lord. They always talk about a seminary or a family. The family home is the first seminary, and that provides an example to the faith-filled people of East Tennessee. It shows that there’s something stirring in our diocese.

In my five short years here, we received two new religious communities of women: the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, with seven sisters, and a community from

Africa, the Evangelizing Sisters of Mary, with four sisters working in a parish. And this last year, a contemplative community called the Handmaids of the Precious Blood is relocating their monastery from New Mexico to Knoxville. So again, it shows the vitality of what’s going on in our diocese.

We’re also getting ready to do a capital campaign and hopefully to soon build a cathedral. When the diocese was created, the Holy See asked, “What’s the biggest church in Knoxville?” and they said, “Sacred Heart. That’s a cathedral.” Well, it’s no longer the biggest church in Knoxville, and it’s beyond its capacity in terms of what it can handle.

I have to tell you, the Leadership Roundtable has been wonderful. When I called on them two years ago, the original curia was the bishop, his secretary, and Monsignor Mankel, the Vicar General, who also served as Chancellor for the schools. He also was a parish pastor and, I’m sure, also shoveled snow. We’ve grown, but I still think of us as a brand new diocese. And so many of our people are so committed to the work of the Church that they’re toiling way beyond what they should be doing. When the Roundtable came in, it was a marvelous chance to introduce a bit more justice in terms of my co-workers in a growing diocese.

To date, three of our parishes have piloted the Standards for Excellence, and three additional parishes will soon begin the process. That means we have a variety of ambassadors within our clergy who are reaching out to other pastors and asking the question, “What are the best practices in terms of bringing Jesus Christ into the lives of people -- not so much in theory but in practice -- and into their hearts so they too will be ambassadors. Not so much for the diocese, but more to be ambassadors for Jesus. And I think that’s been an exceptional thing.

Jim [Lundholm-Eades] has been extraordinary. He came in and interviewed all the members of our staff, and it was marvelous to see his honesty, and the honesty of my co-workers toward him, because they trusted him. I think that’s a reflection of this organization.

“ when the Roundtable came in, it was a marvelous chance to introduce a bit more just in terms of my co-workers in a growing diocese.“

So we’ve restructured the Chancery, and brought in some new people. Jim also worked with Catholic Charities, which was at a point of growth. Catholic Charities in East Tennessee last year served 27,000 people, 95 percent of whom were nonCatholic. So again, it shows our mission in terms of reaching out beyond who we are as the Catholic Church. We’ve also launched a strategic planning process that looks for the right mixture of how we can serve people through Catholic Charities so we don’t overextend ourselves, but ensure we don’t shy away from the work that needs to be done. Since I arrived in Knoxville, my mantra has been, “To be the hands, to be the face, to be the feet, to be the smile, and to be the heart of Jesus.” And if we do that, then we’re authentic in who we are as Catholics and as Christians in an area that still, in many ways, doesn’t understand the Catholic Church.

I can give you all kinds of descriptions of the Diocese of Knoxville. For one things, it’s surrounded by great beauty. East Tennessee has the Smoky Mountains and all these lakes created by the Tennessee Valley Authority. But let me tell you the secret of a successful diocese: They love Jesus. They’re not afraid to talk about Jesus. They know the Scriptures. They want to know about Jesus. We can have the best practices and we can have the most efficient organization -- which is important because it’s a reflection of stewardship -- but if we don’t know Jesus, we’re just another organization.

When I travel doing confirmations and when I celebrate with the parishes, I ask the young adults three questions. First, do they know that Jesus loves them? Second, do they love Jesus? And the third part, what are they going to do about it?

In some ways, I think what Pope Francis is asking all of us as a universal church is to reevaluate our relationship with the Lord. Because if we know Jesus, we know the Father; and if we know the Father, we know Jesus. If we’re afraid to do what they ask us to do, He even gives us a greater gift in some ways – the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we might not shy away from the invocation of the Lord to go out and to build his Kingdom.

As I travel to different states, people always ask me what Tennessee is like. I tell them I have a sign outside my bedroom door that says, “Another Day in Paradise.” Because, after all, wasn’t Paradise the presence of God? And whenever I travel throughout the diocese -- and it seems each year I put in about 35,000 miles -- I see in extraordinary ways the presence of Christ. Recently, we purchased a mobile medical clinic, and through the generosity of the Sisters of Mercy of Alma we have a sister who’s a physician and another who’s a nurse, and they’ve put together an organization of people with backgrounds in medicine that numbers over 150 volunteers. That’s meaningful because there are parts of East Tennessee that are completely underserved. No hospitals, no clinics. Our mobile clinic and team of volunteers is a totally free service that reaches out to people in need. It’s just getting off the ground, but it’s already done a marvelous job showing people -especially those who don’t understand the Catholic Church -- that we are the hands of Jesus reaching out to others.

Finally, I just want to give a big thanks, in the name of all the wonderful people I’m privileged to work with, to the Leadership Roundtable, which does so much good, and to Jim and all the people he represents. We’re a diocese that’s trying to get off the ground, but I know with your help we’ll be successful. And I think any institution, any entity of the Catholic Church, is successful when we remember that it’s Jesus who’s a part of our roots. That the reason we do all of this is because of Jesus, because we want to know the Father, the Creator, who has given us that which surrounds us. And we never should be afraid, for Saint John Paul tells us, “Be not afraid.”

I also want to express our thanks to the Catholic Extension Society and to Father Jack, because without them we would sink, we would have to withdraw from so many things. I’m eternally grateful to them.

BEST PRACTICES FOR A MISSION DRIVEN CHURCH Loyola University Chicago | Lake Shore Campus | June 24-26, 2014 www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org/AnnualMeeting