On creating a vibrant parish: advice?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rwillenborg
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

rwillenborg

Guest
I am in, unfortunately, a dying parish.
We don’t collect enough each week. There are very few young families. SOOOO many people arrive late, leave early. NO ONE sings. Have you ever been in a space where you are the only one singing? It’s very weird. Five people attend the Bible study. There are basically 10% of the people doing ALL the work, which the other 90% don’t even know or care about.

I want to hear from you - what does YOUR parish do to foster a community and increase involvement and participation? What programs are you doing that are working? Could you tell me the name of your parish and/or their website so I can maybe see details about it?
Thanks in advance!
 
I think this must be common. My parish seemed to be dying too. When our teenagers got discouraged we started attending a Protestant church. We tried for years, but gave up.

Good luck to you.
 
rwillenborg said:
I am in, unfortunately, a dying parish.
We don’t collect enough each week. There are very few young families. SOOOO many people arrive late, leave early. NO ONE sings. Have you ever been in a space where you are the only one singing? It’s very weird. Five people attend the Bible study. There are basically 10% of the people doing ALL the work, which the other 90% don’t even know or care about.

I want to hear from you - what does YOUR parish do to foster a community and increase involvement and participation? What programs are you doing that are working? Could you tell me the name of your parish and/or their website so I can maybe see details about it?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
MY parish happens to be the only one without a pro-life ministry, which is why I am thinking of switching.

In order to create a vibrant parish, you must do three things:

Teach orthodoxy.
Teach orthodoxy.
Teach orthodoxy.
 
rwillenborg said:
I am in, unfortunately, a dying parish.
We don’t collect enough each week. There are very few young families. SOOOO many people arrive late, leave early. NO ONE sings. Have you ever been in a space where you are the only one singing? It’s very weird. Five people attend the Bible study. There are basically 10% of the people doing ALL the work, which the other 90% don’t even know or care about.

I want to hear from you - what does YOUR parish do to foster a community and increase involvement and participation? What programs are you doing that are working? Could you tell me the name of your parish and/or their website so I can maybe see details about it?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
  1. Start a Family Consecration program in your parish:
    Watch this:
    familyland.be/en/message-of-hope.html
do this:
familyland.be/family_consecration/introduction-to-consecration-to-the-holy-family.html

then watch and do this:
catholicfamilyland.org/Videos/ConsecrationSite/197-1790-1%20Living%20the%20Message%20of%20Hope.wmv

This program combines formation, adoration, family-unity, reparation, prayer, scripture-study, and entrustment to the Holy Family to convert hearts and minds. One family can convert the whole parish. It works! I’ve witnessed it happen.
  1. Get the ACTS Retreats going in your parish: actsmissions.org/
    This program brings groups of men (and women) together for fellowship/faith-sharing/conversion/ and spiritual bonding thru a 4-day Holy-Spirit filled Life-Changing retreat! Men(and women) come out of this retreat ON FIRE with the Holy Spirit! I’ve witnessed guys (even some who haven’t been to confession in 40 years) go into this retreat (dragged in - mostly unwillingly - by their spouse), and come out ‘dancing on their tippie-toes’ on FIRE to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit with others. 👍
Now, in our parish (Denton- TX), the church is so FILLED every day of the week with an abundance of ministries that faith sharing groups now also meet in homes, and every mass is packed. Come visit us some time - we’d love to have ya . . .

-G
 
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. This is why John Paul II made such a push for the “New Evangelization” (i.e. evanglizing those places that had previously been evangelized but are now falling away). It requires a different approach.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are many variables to consider: dynamism of the priest, relationship of the priest to the parishioners, parish history, socioecomic makeup of the parish, etc.

If you feel strongly about it (as it appears you do), the first step is to talk to the pastor and get some people together to brainstorm ideas. There are several groups out there that are working on the New Evangelization. I recommend contacting them to get ideas and assistance in your efforts.

CatholicsComeHome.org is a more recent group that has had a great deal of success in certain dioceses. They are looking to launch a national campaign by Advent 2010, too.

Renewal Ministries is Ralph Martin’s ministry. He has been doing this for years, so I’m sure his group would have some great insights to share.

PNCEA is another group. They have some simple pamphlet campaigns that rely heavily on the idea of personal invitation. They definitely place emphasis on a pastoral approach, so doctrinal instruction sort of takes a back seat. I believe catechesis is essential for sustaining a vibrant parish, so you would simply need to be aware of this deficiency and supplement accordingly.
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
MY parish happens to be the only one without a pro-life ministry, which is why I am thinking of switching.

In order to create a vibrant parish, you must do three things:

Teach orthodoxy.
Teach orthodoxy.
Teach orthodoxy.
Click to expand...
I agree, and I think our parish does that, and does a fairly good job of it. Ours, though, does not have a pro-life ministry either, though people are often involved in pro-life activities. I would like to start one up, even if we just do a few things a year.
 
garyr said:
  1. Start a Family Consecration program in your parish:
    Watch this:
    familyland.be/en/message-of-hope.html
do this:
familyland.be/family_consecration/introduction-to-consecration-to-the-holy-family.html

then watch and do this:
catholicfamilyland.org/Videos/ConsecrationSite/197-1790-1%20Living%20the%20Message%20of%20Hope.wmv

This program combines formation, adoration, family-unity, reparation, prayer, scripture-study, and entrustment to the Holy Family to convert hearts and minds. One family can convert the whole parish. It works! I’ve witnessed it happen.
  1. Get the ACTS Retreats going in your parish: actsmissions.org/
    This program brings groups of men (and women) together for fellowship/faith-sharing/conversion/ and spiritual bonding thru a 4-day Holy-Spirit filled Life-Changing retreat! Men(and women) come out of this retreat ON FIRE with the Holy Spirit! I’ve witnessed guys (even some who haven’t been to confession in 40 years) go into this retreat (dragged in - mostly unwillingly - by their spouse), and come out ‘dancing on their tippie-toes’ on FIRE to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit with others. 👍
Now, in our parish (Denton- TX), the church is so FILLED every day of the week with an abundance of ministries that faith sharing groups now also meet in homes, and every mass is packed. Come visit us some time - we’d love to have ya . . .

-G
Click to expand...
great suggestions!! I’ll check all of these things out later tonight! Thank you so much! And this is very encouraging! One parish i used to attend…the people there were SO blah. the coffers were empty, financially AND spiritually and then…well, I’m not entirely sure what changed because we had moved, but EVERYTHING changed and now they are one of the most active (and financially sound) parishes in the area!!
 
Joe_5859 said:
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. This is why John Paul II made such a push for the “New Evangelization” (i.e. evanglizing those places that had previously been evangelized but are now falling away). It requires a different approach.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are many variables to consider: dynamism of the priest, relationship of the priest to the parishioners, parish history, socioecomic makeup of the parish, etc.

If you feel strongly about it (as it appears you do), the first step is to talk to the pastor and get some people together to brainstorm ideas. There are several groups out there that are working on the New Evangelization. I recommend contacting them to get ideas and assistance in your efforts.

CatholicsComeHome.org is a more recent group that has had a great deal of success in certain dioceses. They are looking to launch a national campaign by Advent 2010, too.

Renewal Ministries is Ralph Martin’s ministry. He has been doing this for years, so I’m sure his group would have some great insights to share.

PNCEA is another group. They have some simple pamphlet campaigns that rely heavily on the idea of personal invitation. They definitely place emphasis on a pastoral approach, so doctrinal instruction sort of takes a back seat. I believe catechesis is essential for sustaining a vibrant parish, so you would simply need to be aware of this deficiency and supplement accordingly.
Click to expand...
Thank you for these suggestions, too! I will look them over tonight!
Actually, it’s funny how this all came about. I am working on the trivia night we’re hosting with someone else at the parish and she asked me if I had any other ideas and I ended up sending her a five page letter! Which she promptly forwarded on the priest…who called me the next day and he said ‘The hurricane has landed, and I think it’s you!’ and then he asked when we could meet. So…father is coming by on Friday afternoon to go over what I had suggested and he said he has a few ideas himself, that he wants to run by me and see if it’s something I’m interested in doing. So…prayers are appreciated! I’ve been praying fervently that our parish just gets excited!!!
 
wow. you really love your parish and all the people there that you want them to experience the happiness of being a faithful Catholic!

I belong to a large parish, and unfortunately we do not have a website. We do have some organizations here. But things seem to be too formal, so personally i had a hard time joining an organization. So I suggest there must informal gatherings (but not too informal!).

and free retreats, more retreats and recollections! contact religious orders. I suggest contacting the Intercessors of the Lamb. They’re very very great!

i advice you invite some authentic Catholic Charismatic groups there to make things love their faith more. 👍

then more prayers for your parish. nothing beats prayers. In situations like this I think of the ever-persevering Saint Monica. ;)😉

God bless! I’ll be praying for you parish! Don’t worry, your parish will soon be on fire!
 
ThomasEugene said:
wow. you really love your parish and all the people there that you want them to experience the happiness of being a faithful Catholic!

I belong to a large parish, and unfortunately we do not have a website. We do have some organizations here. But things seem to be too formal, so personally i had a hard time joining an organization. So I suggest there must informal gatherings (but not too informal!).

and free retreats, more retreats and recollections! contact religious orders. I suggest contacting the Intercessors of the Lamb. They’re very very great!

i advice you invite some authentic Catholic Charismatic groups there to make things love their faith more. 👍

then more prayers for your parish. nothing beats prayers. In situations like this I think of the ever-persevering Saint Monica. ;)😉

God bless! I’ll be praying for you parish! Don’t worry, your parish will soon be on fire!
Click to expand...
Whatever you do, do not bring in Charismatics. That’ll be the infiltration of liberalism into your church.
 
rwillenborg said:
I am in, unfortunately, a dying parish.
We don’t collect enough each week. There are very few young families. SOOOO many people arrive late, leave early. NO ONE sings. Have you ever been in a space where you are the only one singing? It’s very weird. Five people attend the Bible study. There are basically 10% of the people doing ALL the work, which the other 90% don’t even know or care about.

I want to hear from you - what does YOUR parish do to foster a community and increase involvement and participation? What programs are you doing that are working? Could you tell me the name of your parish and/or their website so I can maybe see details about it?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
How about Cursillo? That can work wonders in the life of a person who undergoes the weekend.
 
rwillenborg said:
I am in, unfortunately, a dying parish.
We don’t collect enough each week. There are very few young families. SOOOO many people arrive late, leave early. NO ONE sings. Have you ever been in a space where you are the only one singing? It’s very weird. Five people attend the Bible study. There are basically 10% of the people doing ALL the work, which the other 90% don’t even know or care about.

I want to hear from you - what does YOUR parish do to foster a community and increase involvement and participation? What programs are you doing that are working? Could you tell me the name of your parish and/or their website so I can maybe see details about it?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Keep the doors open, and keep praying. Even if you are the only one who shows up for Rosary Group every Wednesday, or for Bible Study every Monday, keep going. Don’t shut things down when “not enough people” are involved. As long as one person is involved, keep the doors open.

I am also working in what seems to be a dying parish. Two years ago, I had one kid in Youth Group. It was tempting to give up and shut it down, but I kept the doors open, kept advertising, and even started putting out a Youth Newsletter. Today, I’ve got nine kids involved. Three of them actually attended a Lenten Retreat that was put on by the Diocese - this is the first time in four years that any kid from our parish has attended anything put on by the Diocese. So, we are making incremental progress. 🙂
 
jmcrae said:
Keep the doors open, and keep praying. Even if you are the only one who shows up for Rosary Group every Wednesday, or for Bible Study every Monday, keep going. Don’t shut things down when “not enough people” are involved. As long as one person is involved, keep the doors open.

I am also working in what seems to be a dying parish. Two years ago, I had one kid in Youth Group. It was tempting to give up and shut it down, but I kept the doors open, kept advertising, and even started putting out a Youth Newsletter. Today, I’ve got nine kids involved. Three of them actually attended a Lenten Retreat that was put on by the Diocese - this is the first time in four years that any kid from our parish has attended anything put on by the Diocese. So, we are making incremental progress. 🙂
Click to expand...
That’s WONDERFUL news!! So inspiring! I KNOW this parish can come alive. I just KNOW it!! Nine kids! In two years, that’s wonderful! I just hope that I will be an effective instrument for this to happen at my parish. I remember reading somewhere…‘God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.’ Still, I am the sort who gives up easily. And, if I threw a party (or started a youth group, or whatever) and no one showed…I’d be HEART-BROKEN!!! I just pray the Lord will lead me to His will.
I’ve got ideas…lots of ideas…Father was SO great when he heard about them. I actually had emailed them to another woman in the parish, she promptly forwarded them on to father. He called me and said ‘The hurricane has landed. And I think it’s you. I had no idea! When can we meet?’ So, hopefully, he liked some of them. He also said he had some ideas and was just looking for the right person to lead these things.
I’ve been considering leaving this parish. There’s one not that far that has EVERYTHING. Bible studies going all the time, this ministry, that ministry, but then I thought - those people don’t really NEED me, now do they, but I really feel like this place does.
I went to a lecture last night at the church on The Face of God.
I was the only one there under 60. So sad. 😦
If I may ask, what does your youth group do? do you meet regularly?
 
You’ve been given some really good suggestions.
One I’d like to add, much less live-changing than the others, but you never know, it might help…

You mentioned that no-one sang. We have the same problem at one of our Masses, and I think it’s basically that the hymns are pitched too high for the average parishioner, as at that Mass all the hymns were written for guitars/flutes, and also for teenage/children’s voices.

There’s the question of the volume of the accompaniment, too. I notice that at one of the Masses which has the organ played at full volume, even I was singing, as it was so nice just to blend in with the organ with mistakes being inaudible, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.
 
people will jump down my throat for saying it but if you can gather enough people interested in an ACTS retreat I have seen it rejuvenate a dying parish several times.

when we moved here I had few or no adults in RCIA for several years, which turned out to be a good thing because I could not even attract sponsors, let alone catechists for them. I could not offer anything to incorporate them into parish life and ministry, because the parish had no life and ministry. Various efforts to start men’s clubs, women’s clubs, bible studies, young adult group, pro-life group, social concerns, bereavement ministry and so forth simply languished, or there was one person with that responsibility on parish council (who met less than once a year) who never did anything, or just viewed it as a personal endeavor for them and their family. We had one covered dish meal in 6 years with perhaps 50 people attending. A handful of people came to St Vincent for a food basket or help with a light bill each month.

What changed was people moving in from diverse backgrounds. There is a vibrant Filipino, Indian (from India) and African (from Africa, not “A-A”) minority, and the Spanish speaking group has grown as well. Even though this area is a majority of Mexican descent the traditional “Spanish Mass” group was also moribund, and has grown. We are a town with a university and several colleges, and a couple of large medical campuses, and many incomers are in management at maquilas over the border. Each of these groups brought their own gifts and ways of doing things. Plus a lot of Winter Texans, mainly retirees from the Midwest and Canada, have become permanent residents, and are, as a class generally very active in volunteer work and ministries of various types.

First liturgy improved–fortunately our pastor has always been orthodox in conduct of liturgy and makes sure people are properly trained, he replaced some of the old coordinators and corrected bad practices. He is probably the best preacher in the Valley and people come here simply to hear him.

From among the newcomers some leadership has emerged, which the pastor encourages, some new endeavors failed but many more have suceeded.

When newcomers found someone entrenched in a ministry who was not really doing anything they just did an end-run around them, with Father’s support. For instance, the social concerns group (one couple) still does the once a year event they always have but a new group has formed with a strong pro-life focus, allied with a new stronger diocesan effort, has attracted a large membership and are among the strongest supporters of our new pregnancy center. Nobody got “kicked out” but a forum was provided for people who wanted to do more to get involved. Somebody is responsible for 40 days for life, another person posts legislative updates and voters guide type materials from Catholic sources, a third group supports the pregnancy center and so forth. AND what is new for this parish, they all communicate and work together.

Now when someone new comes in and volunteers there is a name and contact they can have immediately, and they get an immediate response, instead of waiting for stewardship Sunday.

another group runs the capital campaign

a third group is a stewardship committee which operates under the finance commission
 
rwillenborg said:
If I may ask, what does your youth group do? do you meet regularly?
Click to expand...
We meet once a week for faith discussions and games - not regular sports games, but Youth Group games - silly stuff where the kids compete to be more silly than the other kids - there are books full of these games. Usually, there is a moral point to the game, and then you end the game with a discussion of whatever the moral point might be. I try to have the games be related in some way to the faith discussion.

When it was just one kid, we used to play a lot of cribbage, go-fish, and Hang Man, as well - we sometimes still do. 🙂

Now that the group is getting bigger, we are also participating in service projects (getting the kids to help out with various things in the parish) and community building activities (getting the kids to come out to events put on by the parish, and where appropriate, to take leadership in these things). They get points for everything that they do, and at the end of the year, we’re going to have a picnic, and give prizes to all the kids who got the most points in each category. I aim to give out as many prizes as possible. 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top