How to deal with lack of church interest?

[Sarah_loves_God]

I am a lifelong Catholic and I don’t want to give out my city, but it’s quite a small town altogether (I don’t know how many live in this city, probably around 200-300.) Anyway, not all of those people are Catholic, in fact, very few are, which means we have a small church of around 80 people and there are usually around 40-60 people at church per mass. Part of why attendance is so low is because we have mass on Saturdays at four PM and there are no other mass times offered at our church. I am a server, my mom is THE only cantor at church, and this means we sing and serve every week, which means I rarely get to sit with my dad at church (and I’m sure he feels lonely as I’m an only child, so no one really sits with him outside of the homily, which is when my mom sits down in his pew.) Anyway, there are only about five servers and one of them very rarely serves. Our family goes every week, and the other servers have busy lives which means I serve almost every week too! This has gone on in the last 2-3 years and I have been serving for nearly 7 years. In my parish, as a tradition, serving is really something for kids age 8-18 and I feel like it’s best to keep that tradition, but I’m 17 and if I do that, there will not be any servers at church and I don’t want that to happen. Any tips to get more people to sing and serve?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Have you tried putting out a call for more singers and servers and talking in person to people who you see there every week who might be able to help?

 

[Sarah_loves_God]

Thank you. Will try, but we really don’t have a lot of people so I’m not sure it will work.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Since you don’t have many people, that’s why I’m thinking reaching out to the ones you see every week at Mass might work best. If they are going to be at Mass anyway, then they’re more likely to pitch in than somebody who’s only there sometimes.

 

[Sarah_loves_God]

I have thought about talking to Him about it, but I just don’t know what we would do. I’m afraid I could sound like I STRONGLY dislike serving, which is not the case, but it is tiring.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

I am a lifelong Catholic and I don’t want to give out my city, but it’s quite a small town altogether (I don’t know how many live in this city, probably around 200-300.) Anyway, not all of those people are Catholic, in fact, very few are, which means we have a small church of around 80 people and there are usually around 40-60 people at church per mass. Part of why attendance is so low is because we have mass on Saturdays at four PM and there are no other mass times offered at our church. I am a server, my mom is THE only cantor at church, and this means we sing and serve every week, which means I rarely get to sit with my dad at church (and I’m sure he feels lonely as I’m an only child, so no one really sits with him outside of the homily, which is when my mom sits down in his pew.) Anyway, there are only about five servers and one of them very rarely serves. Our family goes every week, and the other servers have busy lives which means I serve almost every week too! This has gone on in the last 2-3 years and I have been serving for nearly 7 years. In my parish, as a tradition, serving is really something for kids age 8-18 and I feel like it’s best to keep that tradition, but I’m 17 and if I do that, there will not be any servers at church and I don’t want that to happen. Any tips to get more people to sing and serve?

I suggest you and your mother step down for a month or two.

You are enabling everyone else to do nothing because you are always jumping in.

Why should they even bother? They know you are going to do it.

 

[AngelusDomini]

I remember going to a Mass once where everyone was encouraged to sign up for something during the homily - there must have been at least 25 items on the list including serving and singing. Clipboards and pens with lists went around during the homily (not my style I’ll admit but it worked - no one felt pressured and no one felt like they were stepping on toes by signing up).