Getting Started in the Parish
Undertaking a task like this can seem daunting at first glance. But it doesn’t have to be. We hope we’ve built a toolkit of resources that will allow each parish to a) evaluate their parish in terms of outreach and b) provide them with a set of resources that can be tailored and used to match the circumstances and environment of the parish.
There are a couple of key first steps in getting started on this journey … and it is a journey. This is not about just deciding to run more programs. This is about deepening our mutual awareness that evangelization is not simply one activity among many but the parish's entire reason for being. In other words, it's not that the Church has an evangelizing mission; the Church is an evangelizating mission. Yet, in our current cultural context, for every adult not raised Catholic who enters the Church, we lose six once-practicing Catholics out the door.
The first step, as always, is prayer, centered on our Eucharistic Lord. Without our openness and dependence upon the power of the primary evangelizer, the Holy Spirit, our best efforts are doomed to the dustbin of other well-intentioned programs or initiatives. Since the work of evangelization is to introduce (or re-introduce) persons to the person of Jesus Christ, we can not give what we ourselves do not have, namely a growing relationship with the living Jesus.
A second step could be to work with your pastor and parish leadership in establishing a core team of parishioners who have a passion for sharing the faith and strengthening a culture of evangelization within the parish. This is not an undertaking that the Parish Council and/or Pastor should undertake by themselves. You want a team (size would depend on size of the parish (could be as few as 3 for a small parish up to 8 for a larger parish) who can dedicate their time and energy to studying and addressing the issue. Sometimes the best candidates are those who were not raised Catholic but entered the Church as an adult or a so-called "revert" who was raised Catholic, drifted, and then returned to the practice of the faith.
The next step would then be evaluative, asking questions like...
1. How often do we explicitly talk about evangelization in our parish, whether in homilies, parish council meetings, Mass petitions, announcements, staff meetings, budget planning, etc.?
2. In what ways are we already connecting with our local community--those outside our parish walls--and how might we build on these contact points? In what ways are these connections intentionally evangelistic? How about unintentionally?
3. How warm and welcoming is our parish family to visitors, whether in the Mass or at other events, and what can we do to grow in this area?
4. In what ways are we encouraging our parishioners in their own call to share faith across their own relationship spheres?
5. Do we have parish events beyond Sunday morning that parishioners would feel comfortable inviting a friend to?
6. How are we intentionally helping persons grow more deeply as disciples of Jesus?
7. What are we currently doing, or have we done, to reach out personally to inactive Catholics in our parish?
Here is a more extensive survey tool which the established team can use to examine the current state of the parish.
The next step is to begin putting together a plan that is practical and reasonable for the parish. The Toolkit that the Commission has built has lots of possibilities that can be considered, again depending on the size of the parish and how fast the parish believes it can move. The Commission is more than ready to help the parish team take the next steps in applying the resources provided in the Toolkit.
There are a couple of key first steps in getting started on this journey … and it is a journey. This is not about just deciding to run more programs. This is about deepening our mutual awareness that evangelization is not simply one activity among many but the parish's entire reason for being. In other words, it's not that the Church has an evangelizing mission; the Church is an evangelizating mission. Yet, in our current cultural context, for every adult not raised Catholic who enters the Church, we lose six once-practicing Catholics out the door.
The first step, as always, is prayer, centered on our Eucharistic Lord. Without our openness and dependence upon the power of the primary evangelizer, the Holy Spirit, our best efforts are doomed to the dustbin of other well-intentioned programs or initiatives. Since the work of evangelization is to introduce (or re-introduce) persons to the person of Jesus Christ, we can not give what we ourselves do not have, namely a growing relationship with the living Jesus.
A second step could be to work with your pastor and parish leadership in establishing a core team of parishioners who have a passion for sharing the faith and strengthening a culture of evangelization within the parish. This is not an undertaking that the Parish Council and/or Pastor should undertake by themselves. You want a team (size would depend on size of the parish (could be as few as 3 for a small parish up to 8 for a larger parish) who can dedicate their time and energy to studying and addressing the issue. Sometimes the best candidates are those who were not raised Catholic but entered the Church as an adult or a so-called "revert" who was raised Catholic, drifted, and then returned to the practice of the faith.
The next step would then be evaluative, asking questions like...
1. How often do we explicitly talk about evangelization in our parish, whether in homilies, parish council meetings, Mass petitions, announcements, staff meetings, budget planning, etc.?
2. In what ways are we already connecting with our local community--those outside our parish walls--and how might we build on these contact points? In what ways are these connections intentionally evangelistic? How about unintentionally?
3. How warm and welcoming is our parish family to visitors, whether in the Mass or at other events, and what can we do to grow in this area?
4. In what ways are we encouraging our parishioners in their own call to share faith across their own relationship spheres?
5. Do we have parish events beyond Sunday morning that parishioners would feel comfortable inviting a friend to?
6. How are we intentionally helping persons grow more deeply as disciples of Jesus?
7. What are we currently doing, or have we done, to reach out personally to inactive Catholics in our parish?
Here is a more extensive survey tool which the established team can use to examine the current state of the parish.
The next step is to begin putting together a plan that is practical and reasonable for the parish. The Toolkit that the Commission has built has lots of possibilities that can be considered, again depending on the size of the parish and how fast the parish believes it can move. The Commission is more than ready to help the parish team take the next steps in applying the resources provided in the Toolkit.
