It has been a few months since our parish participated in the Disciple Maker Index Survey (DMI) with the other parishes of our Diocese. We want to extend a strong message of appreciation to all who gave their time to complete the survey. We received 732 surveys. Based on our average Sunday Mass attendance this is a 37% participation.  Thank you!!!

We received the results this year and have started to explore what they are telling us.  The results provide a reflection of spiritual growth and discipleship of those who took the survey.  The first dive into the results was a meeting with clergy, representative of the staff and Parish Council. Our focus was and will continue to be identifying opportunities to support parishioner growth in discipleship and to create goals and actions to achieve that growth.

There were two main themes that emerged for our initial discussions:

We are looking for community connection and a sense of belonging at the parish. We have always been a welcoming, social, and connected community. With COVID those efforts were curtailed. We are increasingly able to offer events and opportunities. Ministries have already started scheduling events. The staff and Council are looking for opportunities to create and support.
Individually and with our friends and family, we can also make a difference. We can each be the sign of welcome and community to each other. Smile and say hello to the person beside you or behind you in Mass. Greet the family who has taken the energy to bring their children to Mass (we know what a challenge that can be). Take a minute before entering the church and stay outside to say good morning and welcome to the next couple of people who are entering. Offer prayers and comfort. Volunteer. We are looking to bring back hospitality weekend. We need additional volunteers at Mass. There is so much we can all do to create community and belonging.
The second major theme indicates most of us lack confidence, skills and comfort in sharing our faith, through sharing our personal stories and the story of Jesus. Our mission is to know Christ better and make Him better known. If we aren’t comfortable talking about our faith, we are hindered in our ability to invite and bring others to Him.
We have invested in our Adult Faith Formation offerings and will continue to do so. Survey tells us that we can increase our adult catechesis and formation through our homilies. Mass is where we have the largest attendance to teach God’s Word and Church teachings. We will be looking at creating thematic homily series.
The message has been received that we need to improve our homilies and make them more relevant. We are blessed with committed, faith-filled priests and deacons. Each understands that improvement is always possible. For example, we are grateful to have priests who have come from other cultures. They understand the challenge of their accents. They are working with tutors to reduce the barriers of their accents.
The survey results also reveal that parents are needing formation, tools, and skills to help bring their faith to their children. We want to hear from the families about what is needed. An invitation will be extended to parents to come and discuss how the parish can support and help them and to identify ways they can support and help each other.
We have come through the COVID challenges together and are returning to gather at Mass, in study and for community. The survey reminds us of what we’ve always known. We, together, are the Church. We each have a responsibility to God and to each other.  We will continue with the explorations detailed above and continue to look at the survey results for additional guidance. 
We are compiling the notes from our parish and ministry Synod gatherings and will share what we learned in a future email.