How to encourage altar serving?

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simsgirl50

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My parish has both boy and girl altar servers. I don’t like this, but am learning to live with it. The parish doesn’t really encourage the boys/girls to serve. Oh, it puts a little blurb in the bulletin once in a while about it, but there’s no real encouragement. Does anyone know of a really inspiring document that deals with this (one that is easily comprehended by fourth graders on up)? There are quite a few kids in the parish who are eligible for serving, but only a few do. The parish leaders keep telling me they want more servers, but it doesn’t really seem like it because it’s hardly brought up to the congregation.
 
I’d suggest you recruit someone to make a visit to each CCD class. Perhaps one of the older servers, a seminarian, your Priest, they could talk to each group of kids about this as a ministry, something they can do for Jesus. Let the kids know that they are part of the Church, they do not have to be grown ups to serve the Parish.
 
I think that encouraging kids to serve is part of encouraging everybody of every age to contribute to the life of the parish, both inside of and outside of Mass. Kids who volunteer come from families that do so. That doesn’t mean that Mom has to be a lector or Dad has to be a EMHC, but it does mean that Mom and Dad don’t arrive at Mass as late a possible or leave as soon as possible, and that Mass is not the only parish-connected activity that the family participates in. Get the parents truly involved in the parish, and the kids are more likely to follow. If the parents are not involved, they are not going to be wild about their kids making any ongoing commitment to be involved. Even with kids who are excited to serve, you’ll have an uphill battle on your hands.

The other thing is for the parish as a whole to be welcoming to kids. I don’t mean the lunatics run the asylum. I mean that there is a parish-wide interest in the spiritual lives of the children, that there is a pleasure and gratitude for the blessing we have in God’s gift of children* to the parish*, even with the challenges kids can sometimes pose at their level of self-control, starting with the pastor and well before the kids reach an age where they’re needed for something.

That’s not to say more direct efforts aren’t important, but I think this is the bedrock of where active Catholics of every age come from.
 
kage_ar said:
I’d suggest you recruit someone to make a visit to each CCD class. Perhaps one of the older servers, a seminarian, your Priest, they could talk to each group of kids about this as a ministry, something they can do for Jesus. Let the kids know that they are part of the Church, they do not have to be grown ups to serve the Parish.
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If the ordained ministers are approachable, truly interested in the children, clearly show that they value and enjoy having the children in the parish, and recognize the efforts of the kids, this is a tremendous help. That is the groundwork that needs to be there before the “pitch” comes.

It is like getting teens that help around the house. Those are the kids who got good feedback for their efforts when their “help” was more work than doing without it. Again, I don’t mean giving out medals and applause for just doing what needs to be done. I mean that Father and parishioners outside the family take the trouble to say “good job!” when they sees the little ones trying to help out.

If you have a parish that does that, then I would expect much better results when Father makes a personal visit to the 5th grade CCD class and asks for volunteers. But yes, that visit means more than a notice in the bulletin. (There are a suprising number of 5th graders who don’t regularly read the bulletin! :rolleyes: )
 
In our parish, every boy from age 5 to about 20 is personally invited to be an altar server by our pastor.

And there is no schedule, if they are present at Mass, they serve ( just as if they were in Holy Orders). that makes it easy on the parents, as they don’t have to drive Jr. to Church for a Mass they are not going to.

So here is our typical Sunday Mass

cid-d48dbdc01a7e8a7d.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Altar%20Boys%20-sm.wmv

And it works our very well. The boys grow up spending almost every Mass serving at the altar. So a transiion to the priesthood is an easy step. This fall, we will have 7 men from our parish in the seminary, and have had 6 ordained from the parish in the last 10 years.
 
Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have both given short talks to Altar servers in the past which should be fairly comprehensible to them. If you have a reasonably good library nearby you might want to see if they have Fabiola by Cardinal Wiseman, it has a slightly fictionalised account of St Tarcissius’ martyrdom, if someone were on hand to explain that he’s one of the Patron Saints of Altar servers etc it could help, particularly for boys.

Another thing you could do is mention it to any boys/girls who would be eligible/are nearing First Communion in passing. If you go to any of the Parish coffee morning type things you could mention it to grandparents etc
 
Well I must say our parish has been good at encouraging it: the priests, the diocese, CCD teaches (I actively encourage my 6th grade boys to do that) and the parish school. We have 85 to 100 boys as alter servers. Last week our pastor said he will allow female alter servers, he handed out the norms but it seems he did not follow norm #1 - to consult with the parish especially the parish council. We have NO parish council. Nor can I find any one he talked to. And now one of our lectors sent out a letter to all the lectors including myself, denouncing his decision and personally attacking him in the letter. Oh my it will get ugly soon. The war has begun.
 
Brendan said:
In our parish, every boy from age 5 to about 20 is personally invited to be an altar server by our pastor.

And there is no schedule, if they are present at Mass, they serve ( just as if they were in Holy Orders). that makes it easy on the parents, as they don’t have to drive Jr. to Church for a Mass they are not going to.

So here is our typical Sunday Mass

cid-d48dbdc01a7e8a7d.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Altar%20Boys%20-sm.wmv

And it works our very well. The boys grow up spending almost every Mass serving at the altar. So a transiion to the priesthood is an easy step. This fall, we will have 7 men from our parish in the seminary, and have had 6 ordained from the parish in the last 10 years.
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People do not do this because the do not want strong male Priests. If people truly wanted Priests they would follow that example.

To the original poster.

I would show this video to your pastor and ask if your parish could implement a similar program. If they do not, then you have your answer, and if they do, then it is a blessing.

God Bless
Scylla
 
scylla said:
To the original poster.

I would show this video to your pastor and ask if your parish could implement a similar program. If they do not, then you have your answer, and if they do, then it is a blessing.

God Bless
Scylla
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If the OP, ( or anyone else) is interested in a similar program, PM me and I will give you my pastor’s contact information.

One of the really cool things is that there is little, if any, adult involvement.

The older boys train the younger boys. The very young ones help carry in the swing torches, and during Mass, they mostly learn the correct responses and postures. It’s really neet to watch, as young boys REALLY want to be like the older boys, and when the older boys are sitting attentively, the young ones pick it up a lot quicker than I could teach them back in the pews.

The late high school or college aged men (in the black cassocks) act as shepherds to the little ones, and two of them do the Readings ( which prepares them for public speaking and , hopefully, to read the Gospel as priests)
 
Brendan said:
If the OP, ( or anyone else) is interested in a similar program, PM me and I will give you my pastor’s contact information.

One of the really cool things is that there is little, if any, adult involvement.

The older boys train the younger boys. The very young ones help carry in the swing torches, and during Mass, they mostly learn the correct responses and postures. It’s really neet to watch, as young boys REALLY want to be like the older boys, and when the older boys are sitting attentively, the young ones pick it up a lot quicker than I could teach them back in the pews.

The late high school or college aged men (in the black cassocks) act as shepherds to the little ones, and two of them do the Readings ( which prepares them for public speaking and , hopefully, to read the Gospel as priests)
Click to expand...
That sounds very fruitful and good…
Unfortunately it would not fly in my parish. We have no Priest, no Priest is wanted and vocations are not desired.

We have a female parish administrator who has expressed the desire to be a Priest and sneaks in distortions of the faith, all the while why professing obedience. Our Bishop is not too strong on enforcement so we will just have to pray and wait. We are in a diocese that allows altar girls and has many women who want to become priests.

It will take time to regain a faithful Church in my area, but thank you for the offer.

Thank you for your prayers
Scylla
 
simsgirl50 said:
My parish has both boy and girl altar servers. I don’t like this, but am learning to live with it. The parish doesn’t really encourage the boys/girls to serve. Oh, it puts a little blurb in the bulletin once in a while about it, but there’s no real encouragement. Does anyone know of a really inspiring document that deals with this (one that is easily comprehended by fourth graders on up)? There are quite a few kids in the parish who are eligible for serving, but only a few do. The parish leaders keep telling me they want more servers, but it doesn’t really seem like it because it’s hardly brought up to the congregation.
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If there are insufficient boys, why not get some men to serve?

If the boys see their fathers serving, they will be more likely to consider it something worth doing.

God Bless
 
scylla said:
That sounds very fruitful and good…
Unfortunately it would not fly in my parish. We have no Priest, no Priest is wanted and vocations are not desired.

We have a female parish administrator who has expressed the desire to be a Priest and sneaks in distortions of the faith, all the while why professing obedience. Our Bishop is not too strong on enforcement so we will just have to pray and wait. We are in a diocese that allows altar girls and has many women who want to become priests.

It will take time to regain a faithful Church in my area, but thank you for the offer.

Thank you for your prayers
Scylla
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Sorry for your circumstances 😦

Our diocese also allows girls to serve that the altar, but the permission to do that is just that, permission, not a requirement. Each priest is free to choose for himself if he desires altar girls.

One thing that we have here in Detroit is that Cardinal Maida has continued the policy set down by his predecessor, Cardinal Szoka, in that parishes that do not have a priest assigned to them are under the direction of a Permanent Deacon, there are no lay “Pastoral Administrators”. In that way, every parish may receive the benefits of the direction of a man in Holy Orders.
 
Brendan said:
in that parishes that do not have a priest assigned to them are under the direction of a Permanent Deacon, there are no lay “Pastoral Administrators”. In that way, every parish may receive the benefits of the direction of a man in Holy Orders.
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If there cannot be a priest this is exactly how it should be done. My diocese just had an “installation” Mass of a pastoral life administrator (woman). She even got all dolled up in an Alb for her ordin…I mean installation Mass.

The picture was on the front page of the diocesan newspaper. It caused much confusion.
 
simsgirl50 said:
My parish has both boy and girl altar servers. I don’t like this, but am learning to live with it. The parish doesn’t really encourage the boys/girls to serve. Oh, it puts a little blurb in the bulletin once in a while about it, but there’s no real encouragement. Does anyone know of a really inspiring document that deals with this (one that is easily comprehended by fourth graders on up)? There are quite a few kids in the parish who are eligible for serving, but only a few do. The parish leaders keep telling me they want more servers, but it doesn’t really seem like it because it’s hardly brought up to the congregation.
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Is your pastor interested in the server program? You would be surprised by how many priests are not, for reasons like kids are hard to work with, etc. If he is interested may I suggest finding out what the reasons are that the children choose not to serve, for example athletic CYO programs that schedule games on Sunday. If there is a parish school you might want to see if a teacher is willing to help with the program to encourage students. If there are reasons like CYO sports teams, talk to the CYO board about the sports schedule. Good luck.
 
simsgirl50 said:
My parish has both boy and girl altar servers. I don’t like this, but am learning to live with it. The parish doesn’t really encourage the boys/girls to serve. Oh, it puts a little blurb in the bulletin once in a while about it, but there’s no real encouragement. Does anyone know of a really inspiring document that deals with this (one that is easily comprehended by fourth graders on up)? There are quite a few kids in the parish who are eligible for serving, but only a few do. The parish leaders keep telling me they want more servers, but it doesn’t really seem like it because it’s hardly brought up to the congregation.
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Does your pastor have an interest in increasing the numbers in your server program? You would be surprised at the number of priests who prefer adult servers if any. Who is currently in charge of the servers? You may want to find out, and if your pastor is interested you could suggest forming a committee that would recruit and administer the program. Your pastor maybe open to that idea if he feels that he will have help with it, especially if he is very busy. Perhaps involve a teacher if there is a parish school or the Religious Ed. Director, and maybe a Sacristan. My first suggestion for such a committee would be to find out what the reasons are that children do not serve. Is there a CYO sports program that schedules games on Sunday mornings? This has always been a problem in our parish. Try to get the ball rolling and see what happens. Good luck!
 
In our parish, as soon as the kids have made First Communion, they get enthusiastically informed that they are now eligible to be altar servers, by the couple who does the training. They are told when the next training will be and that everyone hopes to see them there. We have a pretty good sized crew. So many that it would be impossible to do the “if you are here then you serve” practice. We’d have ten at every Mass if we did that.

And can I just respectfully add that one way to increase the number of servers is NOT to actively discourage half the population from the job! :twocents:
 
duskyjewel said:
In our parish, as soon as the kids have made First Communion, they get enthusiastically informed that they are now eligible to be altar servers, by the couple who does the training. They are told when the next training will be and that everyone hopes to see them there. We have a pretty good sized crew. So many that it would be impossible to do the “if you are here then you serve” practice. We’d have ten at every Mass if we did that.
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My friend is a priest in a very large parish. It’s not unusual to have 80 altar servers vested at a given Mass.
 
duskyjewel said:
We have a pretty good sized crew. So many that it would be impossible to do the “if you are here then you serve” practice. We’d have ten at every Mass if we did that.:
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We average about 40 serving altar boys for a Sunday Morning Mass. It might be as low as 12-14 for a Saturday evening or Sunday evening Mass.

So yes, it is certainly possible to have an “if you are there, you serve” policy.

Go back to post #5 and view the video I posted.
 
Well, our church is not big enough to handle that many people at the altar. And… having seen what the altar servers do, there is not enough work for that many people. Why have them vest and then sit and do nothing? Let them be with their families when they are not needed. :confused:
 
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