Many Catholics across the archdiocese are lamenting that the landscape of parishes in St. Louis needs to change. “Can’t we evangelize first and then look at our parishes?” It’s good that we love our parishes. It’s good that they have nurtured our faith — sometimes for generations of our families. But while our parishes often help us grow closer to Jesus, they are usually not effective in evangelizing.

There have been good efforts and good programs, of course. In 2012, the Archdiocese of St. Louis took part in the Catholics Come Home Program — and by many accounts, Catholics returned home to practice the faith. There were powerful stories of families returning to the sacraments and coming home to be a part of our Catholic community again.

Unfortunately the data gathered afterward showed that many of those same Catholics, and plenty of others, still left in the years to follow. What we have been doing simply hasn’t been working.

The sad reality is that we are experiencing a generational decline in the practice of the Catholic faith — not just here in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, but across the United States. This will require a generational response. It’s time to plant the tree.

As we set out to evangelize in new ways, it’s important to know this: There is no one thing we can do to reverse these trends. No silver bullets. No perfect programs.

While the truths of the faith remain the same, the world we are trying to share those truths with certainly is not. We need to learn to engage the modern world, recognizing that there has been a shift. Pope Francis has said, “we are not simply in the age of change, we are at the change of an age.”

If we change our parish landscape without changing the way our parishes operate, I’m afraid that not much will change in our trajectory. It’s time to become missionary communities — oriented to going out and engaging the world rather than waiting for people to walk in our doors. And when people do walk through our doors — at our schools, fish fries, CYC games, whatever it may be — they need to be invited to meet Jesus in a meaningful way.

We need to create a sense of urgency for all our programs and all the Catholics in our parishes to be involved in the work of evangelization in some way. It will look different for everyone, but we all have a role to play. Everyone needs to understand where they fit in helping build a path of discipleship at our parishes. It’s not just the job of the priests or full-time staff. It’s everyone’s job.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that all Catholics have the “right and duty” to evangelize. If we don’t, “for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it.” (CCC 900). What a stunning line. Without the lay faithful working alongside the pastors, their work is less effective.

We have many hard-working and holy priests in our parishes — many of them are ready to plant the tree and do things differently — but they need each of us to work alongside them in the garden for real growth to happen.

This has been the consistent call of the Church for at least the last 50 years! Pope Francis envisions that “all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples” (“Joy of the Gospel,” 120). The late Pope Benedict XVI wrote about the need for co-responsibility in the Church between clergy and lay collaborators, and Pope John Paul II once wrote that after the Second Vatican Council, “the hour of the laity has arrived.”

Brian Miller is Director of Evangelization & Discipleship for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.