July 16, 2010
St. Anthony Church eager to share journey toward excellence
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
With hope, or with fear.
These are the two ways you can look at the strategic planning information, said Father Jay Davidson at St. Anthony Church in Evansville.
The Diocese of Evansville has 69 parishes, but only about 50 priests in parish ministry, and no priest scheduled for ordination this year or next.
There are 28 schools, some with declining enrollment and all anticipating rising costs of operation.
Sunday Mass attendance is slowly but steadily declining.
In Father Davidson’s view, people can face these realities with fear — “Are they going to close my parish?” or with hope — “Our parish can be re-invigorated.” Making the right choice is a serious matter, and revitalizing a parish is hard work, he said.
St. Anthony Church has been on a “journey” — that’s the word favored by the pastor and staff at a recent discussion. In comments around a table in the parish office, Father Davidson, Benedictine Sister Teresa Gun-ter, Lisa Covington and Bene-dictine Sister Jackie Kissel described the journey of the past five years, and the hopeful signs they believe can help point the way for others to become “excellent parishes.”
In 2005, the book, “Excellent Catholic Parishes: The Guide to Best Places and Practices,” des-cribed eight parishes in the United States and caught Father Davidson’s attention.
“Many parishes are doing that same stuff,” he concluded. Or if not just now, they could be doing what it takes.
With the help of a grant from an anonymous source, a small group from St. Anthony visited three of the eight parishes and found some common factors. “You need to get people in-volved in ministry,” said Father Davidson. “You need to form small Christian communities and you need youth ministry.”
St. Anthony had all of those things, the pastor said. But the big difference was that St. Anthony had volunteers and the “excellent parishes” that were visited had paid, full-time staff, “necessary to keep things in focus.”
The St. Anthony group studied the book, “Good to Great,” and followed one of its primary principles of good management: “Get the right people on the bus.” That was the next step.
With another grant from the same anonymous source, Paula Lattner and “Sister T” were added to the parish staff. Latt-ner is director of ministry development (and out of town at a training seminar when the group interview was conducted at the parish). Sister T is in charge of Youth Ministry.
Lisa Covington is liturgical coordinator and in charge of the RCIA. Sister Jackie is pastoral associate and director of religious education.
Part time paid staff members assist Lattner and Sister T — adding up to a total of seven full time paid positions at the parish. The parish will pay for an increasingly large percentage of the staffing expenses as the grant money is used up.
Staff members believe their efforts are bearing fruit.
Take youth ministry.
“It is easy to do youth ministry,” said Sister T. Young people “want to be about something. They want to go to Haiti, or to the Ronald McDonald House. They want to have an impact.”
And many want to come to the “Praise Mass” on Sunday afteroon, too.
Parish staff, council members and others have used the “StrengthsFinder” process.
Father Davidson is convinced that the way to get people in-volved in the parish is to have people “doing what they love to do. If people are emotionally engaged, doing what they love to do,” they are involved in the parish, said Father Davidson. Then they become even more engaged, and want to learn more about the church.
A five-year journey. Grants. Full time staff. Hard work. What are the results? Father Davidson is eager to share statistics.
• Parish membership went up from 1,321 in 2007 to 1,382 in 2008 and to 1,438 in 2009.
• Mass attendance, January through December, went from 26,216 in 2007 to 32,466 in 2008, and to 36,908 in 2009.
• Offertory collections went from $444,682 in 2007 to $447,430 in 2008 and to $509,577 in 2009.
The increasing membership, attendance and offerings are signs of success, but Father Davidson finds the results of a survey even more encouraging.
A Gallup Member Engagement Survey in the parish shows the kind of information that can give hope for St. A-thony, and fear for other par-ishes not facing realities.
The survey identified people who are “engaged,” “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.” People who are “not engaged” may become “engaged” in the future. People “actively disengaged” may show up only occasionally but may not be able to name the pastor.
Across the nation, 49 percent of Catholics are not engaged, about the same as the 50 percent at St. Anthony.
But, across the nation, only 16 percent of Catholics are engaged. At St. Anthony, 36 percent are engaged.
Across the nation, 35 percent of Catholics are actively disengaged. At St. Anthony, only 14 percent are in this category.
Father Davidson wishes every parish in the diocese could use the Gallup survey and some of the methods explored by St. Anthony on its journey.
Sister T hastens to add that every parish has to find its own role, to get the right people and the right programs.
Lisa Covington said grants are available from the Center for Congregations, for future development (see http://centerforcongregations.org).
The pastor and staff are hopeful that the St. Anthony journey will encourage other parishes toward excellence, toward greater engagement of their parishoners.
It’s not just some nice programs they are doing, Father Davidson says. Looking at the survey showing actively disengaged Catholics, he has a blunt answer to the question, “How serious is this situation in the Catholic Church?” “It’s a matter of life or death.”