An Engaged Parish — Striving to Become Even More Engaged

Last evening I had a delightful visit with the leadership of Saint Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, Texas.  Parish Pastoral Council members were joined by representatives from the Finance Committee, the Knights of Columbus, the School Committee and many other ministries and services of this dynamic and vibrant parish. 

We met in the church last night, not because it was the ideal location, but because all other meeting rooms were full.  The parish is planning for a new facility at a different location that will give them a larger worship space and more meeting space for a community that is growing larger every day.  What a great parish community!

Even though St. Martha can rightly boast of many wonderful accomplishments, the leadership of the parish is not content.  They want even more parishioners to become involved in the life of the parish.  They want to reach out to the many in the parish who are either not engaged or actively disengaged.

We discussed last night the approach spoken of in the Short Course on Engagement, namely, how to help more parishioners to become aware of the unique talents that the Lord has given them.  Once aware of these talents, the parishioner is better able to find a ministry or service at the parish in which to express his or her talents. 

We discussed a particular tool for talent awareness that is working wonders at a number of parishes and congregations, the tool that is spoken of in “The Top Six Strategies to Grow an Engaged Church.”  To receive these “Top Six Strategies” simply sign up through the form on the right hand side of this webpage.  The Strategies are free, as is the subscription to our weekly e-newsletter that will keep you up to date about postings on this website.

By the way, if you are in the Houston area, you are very welcome to stop by Saint Martha’s Catholic Church on Saturday morning, January 9, 2009.  I will give a presentation from 9:00 – 11:30 am on Stewardship, Strengths and Engagement.  The talk is free and open to the public.  Saint Martha’s is located at 2302 Oak Shores Drive, Kingwood, Texas.

Does this look like your parish council?  Your church board?

A friend sent me this annotated clipping from his parish bulletin.  Five of the fourteen positions on the Parish Pastoral Council are open, and this has been the case for quite some time.  According to my friend, even though elections and campaigns for open positions on the council take place every year, “the incumbents of most filled positions have all been around for years in various capacities, they just trade seats every year or so.”

 My friend asked, “Does this look like a prospect for more engagement?”

My answer:  Absolutely.  My friend’s parish is undoubtedly sitting atop a gold mine of talent.  Capable, intelligent and creative parishioners are just waiting for someone to invite them to serve, especially if that invitation springs from an awareness of their talents.  What a difference it will make in my friend’s parish when recruiting for parish pastoral council members changes from an endless ”fill the slots” mentality to a commitment to build a strengths-based parish — the kind of parish in which the particular talents of individual parishioners are identified, praised, and put to good use.  Nor is this a pipe dream.  There is a way to move any parish or congregation from lethargy to vitality, from disengagement to engagement.

Explore www.all-about-church-engagement.com for more.

Engagement in any organization comes from encouraging others to do what they do best.  An employee who gets to do what she does best enjoys her job and consistently performs in an excellent manner.  A teacher who gets to teach subjects in his area of expertise and for which he has a high degree of passion will be one of the best teachers in the school.  Furthermore, neither the employee nor the teacher will be spending much time looking through the want ads for another job.  They are engaged in their work and in their place of employment.

When churchgoers have regular opportunities to do what they do best, they are highly likely to be engaged in their church.  “Doing what they do best” means participating in a ministry or service in which they use their own particular talents and gifts most of the time.  It is not enough for a church to make sure that all of the volunteer “slots” are filled.  Rather, the church must pay attention to the particular talents of individual members and encourage each member to find a way to do what they do best.  In so doing, the parish or congregation is well on the road to becoming an engaged church.

Look what happens in a store when one employee finds his own way of “doing what he does best.”

What are your thoughts?  Please post your comment below.

By now we are familiar with what happens at the beginning of each season of “American Idol.” Thousands of would-be superstars line up to audition before Randy, Paula, and the curmudgeonly Simon.

Of the thousands who audition, only a handful make it to the successive rounds. Many of the others make specatacles of themselves while trying out. They open their mouths to sing, but what comes out is hardly music at all. Some enter the room and perform with all sincerity but completely out of tune. And when told that they will not, under any circumstance, advance to the next round of the competition they begin to cry, some pleading, “But I worked so hard!”

No doubt that they did work hard to prepare for their audition. But lacking talent it is impossible to excel.

Still, look what happens to a contestant on one of Simon’s other shows, “Britain’s Got Talent:”
 

What do you think?

Was there more to it than “working hard” to prepare for the audition?

Let me know what you think.