Book excerpt: 2017 Catholic Press Association Book Awards, Second Place: Pastoral Ministry “IF FORMER CATHOLICS WERE CONSIDERED A DENOMINATION, IT WOULD BE THE SECOND-LARGEST DENOMINATION IN THE U.S.”—from A Church on the Move Many statistics on the Catholic Church today are sobering, and the future of the Church can seem bleak indeed. The average parish often feels helpless to do anything that might help turn the tide and revitalize the Church. But best-selling author Joe Paprocki insists that there is good news: with the right plans in place, the Catholic Church—and the local parish specifically—will not only survive, but thrive. A Church on the Move offers 52 practical strategies for moving parishes forward, principally by focusing on the one thing the Church can offer that the world-at-large cannot: Jesus Christ. Each chapter begins with a quote from Pope Francis, and each helpful strategy falls within one of five key categories: how a Church on the move thinks, functions, worships, forms disciples, and engages the world. Every chapter takes an honest look at a particular problem in the Church before moving to a creative, redemptive, and achievable solution. A Church on the Move brings to the parish level the great themes of Pope Francis’ papacy— mission, mercy, and evangelization—and replaces despair with a profound hope for the future of the Catholic Church.