The editor’s editorial By Don Bohl, Managing Editor The Tres Dias information brochure for pastors makes a bold promise.  Speaking directly to pastors, the brochure states that the Tres Dias weekend will send “energized, revitalized, on-fire-for-Christ Christians back to their home churches, ready, willing and able to love and serve the Lord. . . . For every servant leader you had, you’ll gain a half-dozen more as others in your congregation attend Tres Dias.” If this is true, why aren’t pastors from across America and around the world lining up at our door, clamoring for information about how to get parishioners involved? Actually, some pastors have formed partnerships with Tres Dias. They encouraged members of their flock to attend weekends, and those individuals did return as “energized, revitalized” Christians.  And the climate changed. Perhaps it was because these “on-fire-for-Christ Christians” created a path toward lay-leadership in their churches. Perhaps they used reunion groups as seeds for a broader small-group organization, or perhaps they simply brought a new sense of mission outreach to their inward-looking fellow congregants. Whatever the reason, these churches grew spiritually. Unfortunately, this does not happen often enough. The original Cursillo movement, the great grand-parent of Tres Dias, began with the mission of church revitalization. The churches in post-civil-war Spain were almost empty on Sunday. Come Sunday morning, there are plenty of almost empty churches in America–and around the world for that matter. How should we, in Tres Dias, respond as we look at those empty pews? Although we often cite the Tres Dias mission as “bringing Christians closer to Christ” and “developing leaders for the local church,” we tend to look at Part B as an add-on. Yes, we exhort candidates to “apostolic action in their environments,” but the “environment” is a pretty big place, and the term “apostolic action” (“apostle” means “messenger”) doesn’t do much to set the legs in motion. (How, exactly, does one act apostolically?) If we are messengers, one message has to be, “We are not a church. We love the Lord, and we want to show that love by serving the church.” This message should be proclaimed boldly in our local newsletters and websites with stories about how pescadores are serving their churches. The message should be underscored during the Apostolic Hour when the new pescadores receive their crosses. And we should make a concerted effort to develop case studies and effective practices outlining how to make the partnerships work. Let’s use this newsletter as one vehicle. When we launched the publication, we said our mission was to support Tres Dias by publishing inspirational stories about the Tres Dias experience and practical advice on managing Tres Dias activities. We would like to think that with the Lord’s help, we fulfilled that mission, and we are thankful to all those individuals who allowed their stories to be told. Somehow, we almost forgot about that Part B—developing leaders for the church and community. In fact, I can think of only one story we published that demonstrated how the Lord worked through Tres Dias to change a congregation’s spiritual life. We’ve pulled that story from the archives and reproduced it below. Let’s change that in the year ahead.  Please send me stories about how your community developed close ties with churches in your area. Tell me what you have learned, and what advice you would give to others. Write to me at Newsletter@tresdias.org. If you would prefer to be interviewed, tell us so and one of our editors will be in touch with you by phone or in person. Note: the pastor’s brochure referenced in this editorial can be downloaded from here.