Disciple Maker Survey

Peace be with you. 

    Do you remember that questionnaire we were asking people to fill out last November and December called the Disciple Maker Index or DMI? About half of our parish filled out the survey, which was a good but not great number. Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening of Friday the 21st of March, we received the summary of our responses. I took a quick look at the data and found it very intriguing. It’s going to take some time to process all of it and, right now, we don’t have the time to do that. Between fish fries and added spiritual opportunities for Lent, your pastor and his staff is stretched pretty thin so we are going to leave it until we have time to process it with the pastoral council and finance council. This will probably mean we will have more to report sometime in May or June. But, I wanted to let you know that the information has been received and is awaiting our reflection. 

    When we do reflect on it, it will not likely involve a great deal of change, not because we’re perfect but because it is my experience that these types of inventories clarify areas of ministry that demand greater education and transparency rather than indicating areas of transformation. If something needs to change, we will do so. However, just to give one example, one of the questions dealt with our beliefs about the Eucharist. 95 percent of people who answered either strongly agreed or agreed that it is the Real Presence of Jesus. A total of 3 people either disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement. We likely aren’t going to change the way we celebrate Mass to convince the three people that Jesus really meant it when he said, “This is my body”. 

    One change you may notice in our bulletin is that we are going to start including the previous Sunday’s collection in each week’s bulletin. It has taken some time to be able to do this but I feel like we are in a position to be able to start this April. Please note that this will list only our parish collection and not a “hoped for” amount. I know that, in the past, there has been controversy surrounding these figures so I want to avoid them entirely. You should know how much our parish receives in the collection because you guys are so generous. This is the first parish I’ve ever been assigned to where we do not have to beg and borrow money at some point in the year to make ends meet. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t rich but living within our means is actually possible in this parish. Thank you for your support!