DETROIT — As the Archdiocese of Detroit continues its restructuring, it will be moving toward a “mobilization for the New Evangelization,” Archbishop Allen Vigneron told a gathering of mostly lay employees of the archdiocese.

Speaking Dec. 6 at the annual Central Services Day at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, he said they could expect to see further “changes of structure and recharging our institutions” in order “that we’re able — at all levels — to bring people to Christ.”

The archbishop said he wants to see people already active in the Church grow in their faith, and to “try to bring back to the active life of the Church those who — for any reason — aren’t currently with us on Sunday anymore.”

He said it shouldn’t be thought of as just a membership drive, “but we can’t go on with the 17 percent or 30 percent Mass attendance.”

The archdiocese has undergone a number of changes in the nearly four years since Archbishop Vigneron took the helm.

Faced with decreased revenue and rapidly mounting debt, the archbishop sought expert advice on slashing spending to stabilize the financial situation.

But a key theme of his time as archbishop has been that there should be a reshaping of the archdiocesan structure for greater effectiveness in meeting its mission goals, not simply an across-the-board scaling back of ministries and services.

At the gathering, held in the seminary following Mass in its main chapel, the archbishop touched on some specific areas.

He said more lay leadership is needed at the parish level in order to free up priests’ time from administrative and managerial duties.

He also emphasized the importance of Catholic education, and the need for the area’s parishes to support Catholic schools.

“We have been entrusted with a great gift, and Jesus depends on us to share it,” he said.

But the new evangelization isn’t something that must only be directed to others; the process of reconversion — of becoming re-energized in the faith — is also something the archdiocesan employees must engage in every day, Archbishop Vigneron said.

In fact, he told them, “I want you all to become saints.”