How one priest prepared his parish for a future beyond him
Divine Renovation Communications
Fr. John Yonkovig knew he was going to retire. What he did not know was whether St. Agnes Parish in Lake Placid would have another resident pastor when he did. A shortage of priests in his diocese made that an increasingly real possibility, and as Fr. John looked toward the end of nearly five decades of priesthood, he began thinking not only about his own retirement, but about what kind of parish he would leave behind.
He had arrived at St. Agnes in 2010. Although there were good people there, Fr. John describes the parish then as being in “full maintenance mode.” The school was struggling, parish life was largely on “automatic pilot,” and with little staff beyond a secretary and a part-time religious education director, most initiatives depended on him. The parish was faithful in many ways, but Fr. John sensed there was room for a deeper missionary life beyond maintaining the rhythms already in place.
As retirement approached, he knew that model could not continue. “I knew that if the parish was going to flourish, it was going to need to rely on dramatically increased lay leadership.”
More than maintaining what they had
One of the important steps along the way was Alpha. Fr. John remembers watching people move beyond simply knowing about Jesus to encountering him personally. In his final homily to the parish, he reflected on what those years had taught them: “We watched lives change. We watched faith come alive. We discovered that evangelization is not a program but a relationship with Christ.”
That experience helped sharpen the question before the parish. In that same final homily, Fr. John told his parishioners that Divine Renovation had challenged them to ask not, “How do we maintain what we have?” but “How do we become the parish God is calling us to be?”
Approaching retirement gave that question new urgency. Fr. John sometimes described Divine Renovation as his “retirement plan”: if the parish was going to continue its mission in a future with fewer priests, the pastor would need to lead increasingly through and alongside other committed leaders, rather than carrying so much of parish life himself.
The response surprised him. At an early gathering to introduce the vision, 40 parishioners showed up. “I was amazed how many people came forth.” Looking back, Fr. John believes they understood that what was being discussed was bigger than another parish initiative.
“I think the parish responded so well…because they knew it was their future. They knew that the pastor was going to retire, and it wasn’t in their hands. And so, I think the people of God heard the call to ministry.”
Around the same time, Gin and Alan Shaw moved to Lake Placid. Gin, a former school principal with strong administrative gifts, had previously been involved in a parish using Divine Renovation. After several months of trying to move the work forward while continuing to run the parish, Fr. John recognized that he did not have all the gifts required to do both well. He approached Gin, and together they prayed about it.
“I think the Holy Spirit opened up that door and Gin arrived.”
Gin became an important part of helping the work take shape, alongside others who, Fr. John says, “rose to the occasion and really took ownership of a missional parish.” For Fr. John, the shift also required a change in how he understood his own leadership. In his final homily, he told the parish that he had tried to become “less focused on preserving an institution and more focused on leading people to live as disciples of the Kingdom of God.”
Coming out of the pews
Over the next several years, that change began to show. Attendance at daily Mass tripled. New ministries emerged, and more parishioners began taking responsibility for parish life. Today, St. Agnes’ leadership team is made up entirely of volunteers whom Fr. John describes as “committed disciples.”
“I’ve seen people who, to be honest, I didn’t even know their names. And now they’re running particular ministries. I mean, they’re just part of the family.”
That sense of family became noticeable to visitors, too. Lake Placid welcomes tourists from around the world, and Fr. John began receiving letters from people after they returned home, telling him about the hospitality and worship they experienced at St. Agnes. Some annual visitors even said coming to Mass had become a highlight of their vacation.
For one longtime parishioner, the change was deeply personal. She told Fr. John that she had attended St. Agnes for 10 or 15 years but felt no one had ever said hello to her. Now, he says, “she’s beaming as she comes into the church doors, you know, saying hello, to everybody…she’s found a home.”
There were signs of something deeper happening as well. Fr. John remembers a young father giving his testimony after Alpha. The man spoke about trying to make his own way through life before encountering Jesus. “Then coming to know Jesus through Alpha transformed him. He settled down, he had a new direction. It gave him hope.”
Trusting the future to God
Now retired after 49 years of priesthood, Fr. John admits there is some sadness that he discovered this way of leading so late.
“I kind of wonder what it would have been like if I’d started my pastoral ministry 49 years ago with this model in mind.” But that regret is accompanied by hope. “There was no better way to leave active full-time ministry than on this high note.”
The questions that first pushed him toward renewal have not disappeared. There are still fewer priests, and the future still contains uncertainty. Parish renewal itself, he cautions, is “two steps forward and one step back.” What has changed is how Fr. John sees that uncertainty.
When asked what he would say to priests and parish leaders looking toward the future, he returns to one word: trust. “I’m afraid that what I see happening in parish leadership right now is fear more than trust.” But his experience at St. Agnes has convinced him that the Holy Spirit offers another way. “I think if one’s open to the Holy Spirit, that fear disappears. Confidence fills the hearts of parish leaders.”
In his final homily at St. Agnes, Fr. John looked back over 16 years as pastor and shifted the attention away from himself. “As I retire, I find myself thinking not so much about what I have done, but about what God has done,” he told his parishioners. “God has raised up generous leaders, deepened our faith…God has brought people to himself.”
Then he looked ahead.
“And God is not finished yet. The mission continues: to know Jesus Christ and to make Jesus known to the world.”
