Through shared leadership and a renewed sense of mission, St. John Neumann Parish is rediscovering the gifts already present in its community.
By Angie Glendinning | Divine Renovation USA
Nestled in the Westlake area of Austin, Texas, St. John Neumann Parish sits at the heart of what is often nicknamed Silicon Hills, home to tech giants like Apple, Dell, and IBM. The surrounding community is younger, highly educated, and marked by a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Despite the dynamism of its home city, the parish seemed to be caught in familiar patterns that were beginning to affect the spiritual health of the community.
When Fr. Dean Wilhelm became pastor in January 2021, he quickly realized that the community was hungry for spiritual renewal. The pandemic, along with other factors, had taken a significant toll on what had once been a thriving community. As one parishioner put it, “What had been this vibrant epicenter of care and service in the Austin community just…disintegrated.”
To begin the process of renewal at St. John Neumann, Fr. Dean knew he’d need a team.
In his previous parish, he had a parish leadership team (PLT) comprised exclusively of staff members. However, at a Divine Renovation Conference in 2022, Fr. Dean was introduced to the idea of having non-staff members on the leadership team. This intrigued him, especially given the talented, professional pool of parishioners he could choose from.
Following an intentional process of discernment and with this principle in mind, Fr. Dean built a team of seven people: four staff and three non-staff members.
“I’m just floored by the quality of the conversations at our PLT meetings. And most of it is because it is a diverse group,” Fr. Dean says. “It’s not just people that have never worked outside of the church.”
Tamara Stacey was one of them — a parish volunteer who then served as the first chair of the newly-formed PLT.
"I'm floored by the quality of the conversations at our [Parish Leadership Team] meetings."
Tamara grew up knowing Jesus. “My maternal grandfather was a Baptist preacher, so I had that background. I was ‘saved’ when I was five.” She also had an experience of a vibrant, faith-filled community through her parents’ involvement in the Catholic Charismatic movement. Yet, when her father was ordained a deacon and assigned to a new parish, Tamara had a different experience of ‘church’. “We were at a church that was dead,” she says. “I remember telling my parents, ‘I will never be Catholic or raise my children Catholic.’”
Though she didn’t keep the vow she made to her parents, that experience in her youth made her very sensitive to a parish community whose culture and activities did not reflect the faith it professed.
This sensitivity and passion, along with her experience as a global executive for Walmart, made her a valuable addition to the leadership team. Knowing that they wanted to make the community more welcoming for younger families, Fr. Dean had Tamara help him with his Christmas homily one year. “She’s an excellent writer,” Fr. Dean says. “She helped me to craft a message I would never have thought of on my own. Having people who can help me think outside the box has been really helpful.”
Another parishioner joining Tamara on the PLT was Bobbi Dangerfield.
Bobbi had recently retired from her role as a Senior VP at Dell and as a family, they had been engaged members at St. John Neumann in the past. After returning to Austin from two postings abroad, however, they found the parish to be a very different place. “The community had changed a lot and it no longer felt like our place,” Bobbi says. “We still went to Mass every Sunday, but we’d go to different places around town.”
Then, one of Bobbi’s neighbors, who was helping Fr. Dean build a team, approached Bobbi: “He said, ‘You know, St. John Neumann is bringing in this Alpha program. You should consider coming to the first one.’ So I did.”
Bobbi began to speak with Fr. Dean about his vision for the parish and this new team he was building. “I really found myself connected to what Fr. Dean was thinking about in the way of transformation for the parish,” she says. “And I thought, I’m retired now. I have those skills. I prayed about it a lot. And every time I thought I was going to say no, something happened that led me to yes. The Holy Spirit [was] doing his work.”
Bobbi and Tamara’s skills in leading at a global, corporate context began to find new expression in parish life. They helped guide a shift in staff culture to one of purpose, accountability and mutual support that is aligned with their parish vision.
In reflecting on some of the work they led, Tamara spoke of the value that was gifted to the parish by its members. “Just as an example, we did an entire compensation review of the staff, done at a corporate standard. Bobbi led the process, but she said all these people came out of the woodwork to help. I think of the hundreds of thousands of dollars you would pay for that work in a corporate environment,” says Tamara. “People just volunteered. They were happy to give to their parish community. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes — that happens when you truly tap into and inspire the best in leadership.”
Today, Sandy Wells serves as the current chair of the PLT. Recently retired as the Chief Development Officer at Bright Horizons — a global childcare and early education company that she helped grow from a startup to a publicly traded company— she brings years of leadership experience to the parish. Sandy’s expertise is timely. “I just saw Sandy coming on board as providential with her decades of experience in building a culture that is aligned and welcoming to all,” Fr. Dean says.
"Every time I thought I was going to say no, something happened that led me to say yes. The Holy Spirit was doing his work."
For her part, Sandy has experienced her work in the parish as a continuance of her own spiritual growth. “Watching what was going on at this parish under Fr. Dean’s leadership, and contemplating retirement, I found myself discerning what’s next,” she says. “What am I being called to?” Through some incredible encounters and experiences, Sandy ended up on the Parish Leadership Team.
“I initially questioned if I could actually help,” she adds. “I was raised Catholic and remained faithful but in the midst of building a company and raising a family, I had very little time to contribute.” Nevertheless, she chose to respond in faith to what she felt God was calling her to. And that faith has grown as she has shared her gifts and time serving the parish.
Speaking with an usher after the Easter services this year, Sandy shared how this was the most beautiful, meaningful Easter she’d ever had. His response has shaped her dream for the next few years at the parish. “He said ‘When you give, you get back more in return.’ That’s the mentality I want to build for our parishioners.”
What is unfolding at St. John Neumann reflects a growing awareness across the Church — that the mission of the parish is not carried by the priest alone. It is a testament to the truth of Pope Leo XIV’s recent address to priests: that to be more effective in our mission as a Church, “the ministry of the priest must move beyond the model of exclusive leadership, which leads to the centralization of pastoral activities and the burden of all responsibilities entrusted to him alone.” Rather, Pope Leo encourages a “collegial leadership, with cooperation between priests, deacons and the entire People of God resulting in mutual enrichment that is the fruit of the various charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit” (A Fidelity that Generates the Future, December 2025).
Today, St. John Neumann Parish is a different place than it was five years ago. And in all of his years as a pastor, Fr. Dean has never seen parish culture change so quickly. He attributes it largely to the members of the PLT and their willingness to use their God-given gifts in service to their parish community.
