The Entrepreneurial Bishop: What Jet Blue Can Teach The Church

A fascinating interview with Bridgeport’s Bishop Frank Caggiano in Forbes:

Susan Adams: What challenges have you faced as Bishop of Bridgeport?

Frank Caggiano: There were three challenges I saw immediately. First there was the real need to reconnect with our people. If you want to use business language, you could call them our customers.

Adams: Do you have hedge fund managers and billionaires in your parish?

Caggiano: Yes, absolutely.

Adams: How generous are they?

Caggiano: They have been extremely generous to the diocese but among the very affluent you have the same problem of people not practicing their faith. We only have 20% of baptized Catholics coming to our regular worship.

Adams: What were the other challenges?

Caggiano: The second challenge had to do with the leadership of the diocese. I mean the pastors, priests and deacons, and our Catholic school administrators and advisory boards. I sensed they were a bit uncomfortable with being change agents, with thinking outside the box, or looking outside the parish.

Adams: What’s the third challenge?

Caggiano: We need our lay leaders, some of whom lead some of the largest corporations in the country, to assist in addressing the financial difficulties we have experienced, and to bring us their best business practices in human resources, communications, technology, social media. Along with the $22 million we owe, we’re accumulating $2 million a year in interest payments.

Adams: How are you getting lapsed Catholics to come to church?

Caggiano: In September we had a Synod, where you engage the leadership at every level. That means a leader from every parish, every school, every religious congregation. We had 400 members, including 350 lay leaders. We asked, how do we engage the 80% who aren’t engaged and how do we get the 20% more fully involved.

Adams: What did you come up with?

Caggiano: First we need to evangelize. We also want people who come to church to see it as a collegial, collaborative enterprise where everyone, whether clerics or laity, works together to achieve a common initiative. We’re also creating a leadership institute. Clergy and lay leaders will have an opportunity for the first time in our diocese to have the latest training whether in business skills, public relations, business practices, communications or social media.