How would you go about "growing" a small EC parish?

[beloved1]

How about evangelizing the younger crowd ? Explain to them what is going on in the liturgy, what the different parts symbolize. Why it is that we pray " Lord have mercy " 40 x’s and why that is important. Have activities for the young people, get them involved, have their own choir, teach them to chant the epistle and then let them do it without being criticized. Bake sales,baseball games.bowling, movies, whatever.
Just my two cents worth.
It’s not easy keeping everybody happy, I’ve tried. You can’t change people,forget about that,you can only change how you react to them.
Blessings

 

[Draper]

How about evangelizing the younger crowd ? Explain to them what is going on in the liturgy, what the different parts symbolize. Why it is that we pray " Lord have mercy " 40 x’s and why that is important. Have activities for the young people, get them involved, have their own choir, teach them to chant the epistle and then let them do it without being criticized. Bake sales,baseball games.bowling, movies, whatever.
Just my two cents worth.
It’s not easy keeping everybody happy, I’ve tried. You can’t change people,forget about that,you can only change how you react to them.
Blessings

That’s a great idea but there has to be some reach outside of the parish. How to get them to the parish to begin with? If bake sales, baseball games, bowling, movies and such include only existing parishioners, then no progress is really being made.

 

[beloved1]

Doesn’t anyone in your parish have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews. Have them invite their friends and then have the friends invite other friends

And make it Fun ! We don’t have to be a bunch of sad sops ,

 

[Draper]

Doesn’t anyone in your parish have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews. Have them invite their friends and then have the friends invite other friends

And make it Fun ! We don’t have to be a bunch of sad sops ,

The children of parishioners are obviously already attending – they’re parishioners themselves.

I suspect at this point, any and all available (live within a driveable distance) grandchildren, nieces and nephews have been invited more than once over the years.

“Inviting friends” can be fairly difficult. People who aren’t seeking the EC experience are often turned off by the somewhat longer liturgies – they need to be prepared beforehand. I think the after liturgy coffee hour can also be somewhat intimidating because most of those that attend have been doing so for years.

Dealing with all this stuff and making the parish welcome to all is a big part of evangelization.

You are definately right – there does need to be joy. Constant severity really wears down a parish.

 

[5Loaves]

Building Community in Orthodox Parishes
The latest Pew research has shown no abatement in the decline of American church affiliation. This, together with the continuing growth of the “nones,” is inspiring much discussion across the Internet.

Catholic family therapist Dr. Greg Popcak has tied this together with further research in a recent blog post, showing that this decline is closely linked to the breakdown of family structure, and with the failure of the church to be a home to those whose family homes are broken.

Lost in the Orthodox Shuffle

Sadly, this reflects something I’ve seen too often, both in my experience of parish life and in conversations with Orthodox friends across the country: isolation and loneliness. It happens in parishes large and small, primarily ethnic and primarily convert. Many of us can spend years in a parish having pleasant but merely surface-level interactions with our fellow parishioners, feeling never quite part of the parish community—sometimes even despite deep involvement in its ministries.

Why does this happen? And what can be done to help build community in our Orthodox parishes?..

Very good article today by Tawni R. Martini on AncientFaith’s bolg .

 

[Peter_J]

Very good article today by Tawni R. Martini on AncientFaith’s bolg .

+1

 

[adamhovey1988]

I would like to get some ideas on how to “grow” a small Byzantine Catholic parish? For the 15 years that I have been attending (part time) there has been almost no local outreach, no evangelization and very little external fundraising.

The results are predictable. A shrinking weekly census and collection, an aging congregation and money concerns. The current pastor has no interest in anyone’s ideas but his own. He’ll either curtly dismiss them on the spot (in front of others) or ignore them altogether – especially if they are submitted in writing.

The pastor is extremely self-centered, arrogant and coarse. Many parishioners’ responses have been to “pull back” and “lay low.” They take him less and less seriously and this in turn frustrates him. It has really been a horrific process to experience. There really doesn’t seem to be a way to get through to him – in part I suspect, due to his Easter European heritage.

In his defense though, he predecessor wasn’t any more effective at leading the parish. I have read several stories on-line about small EC parishes that were simply shuttered at some point and that terrifies me. The real estate our church sits on is worth $$$ and many feel that our parish might just be closed so that the land could be sold.

Does anyone have any success stories they can share of another parish in this sort of situation that finally found the key to thriving? Thank you.

Depends, the Melkite Parish in the area I live has I think one or two Arab families. Find other people interested in Byzantine ancestry. I am definitely not Arab (one of my family names is “Littledeer” if that is any indication) or if I am not recently, but I found there to be such beauty in the Byzantine Melkite tradition. THAT said, I still love the liturgy of the venerable Latin Church. God bless.

 

[Elizium23]

The OP is, how shall we say, no longer here.