Goal Area #1 - Being More Welcoming

Goal - To make the community feel smaller and more close-knit by being more welcoming in all ministry areas.

Damian's Opinion - My overall sense in reading the surveys is that people feel somewhat anonymous because they are just one of 10,000 people. Because of this anonymity and the large parish, it is easy to believe that someone else will become involved, and therefore I don't have to. From my view, this then leads to a lack of participation in special services, faith formation programs, many worthy ministries, and stewardship. If people feel connected to one another, they feel a greater sense of obligation to each other; this ultimately will lead to greater participation in areas that currently are lacking. In my opinion, if we neglect this particular goal area, we will find our job in other goal areas much more difficult.

Potential Objectives Fitting This Goal Area
I noted the following specific suggestions from the surveys. I would suggest that these could be a starting place for discussion when developing objectives for this goal area.

Develop small groups, such as support groups for divorced adults - the thought here is that small groups with common interests help break down the size of the parish. Several people suggested support for divorced adults and for young married adults. I believe that these suggestions also fit the category of Pastoral Care.

Visit every parishioner at least once per year - Wow! What a challenge! Still, imagine how much more personal the parish would seem if we were all visited by a priest, deacon, or staff member once per year. Wouldn't you feel more connected and obligated to at least one more person? On the practical side, this type of visit would also help the parish become more aware of the specific needs of its members, and allow a chance to update parish records.

Every new family is welcomed formally into the parish - this could be like the welcoming program Joe talked about at one of our meetings. This could also be an announcement at Mass. By welcoming people personally, we can find out their needs and what they can provide. This is similar to the previous objective...

Invite people to participate in Ministry - many people won't step forward to participate, unless they are asked. We have to develop successful ways of asking people to participate (this could also tie to stewardship). People feel more welcome and connected when someone asks them to help out.

Develop an outreach to Park University - college is a tremendously important time of faith formation for young adults. In addition, there are a significant number of international students at Park. This objective could help us practice being welcoming, and make us more welcoming to our public community.

Have fun together - someone noted the camaraderie they felt at a previous parish because of a parish volleyball team. There's no doubt that our community can become closer through prayer, ministry, etc. But I also believe that having fun together is also a way to build community. If we don't want to have our own tournaments or leagues, can we somehow become a resource for helping people to find community teams or activities and have fun together?

Develop org chart / ministry listing / youth program listing - we've talked about this for years. We need to do it. While it is especially important to new parishioners, sooner or later we all need to tap into the deep resources within St. Therese. It is frustrating when you find out a resource was available, but no one knew it was there. Having this list (and/or having someone responsible for keeping it fresh) would make this easier. Another point was made about the freshness of the information (JUMP still on Sunday night?). We need to have a good way to print these lists "on demand", or at least in small quantities so that they can be kept fresh at minimal cost.

Communicating in many ways - we need to have information available in as many was as feasible - the web, bulletin, e-mail, etc. We have a better chance of reaching people in our community if we communicate in ways that are the most useful to them.

Weeknight community night - one survey talked about picking one night a week that people get together to talk, share experiences, have fun, etc. I gathered that the meetings were weakly structured, but had enough substance to give people benefit.