Seth Godin recently suggested that we stop reaching out to strangers. He is writing to business folks, but he idea can be applied to ministry as well. Godin points out that businesses go after new business by spending money and time reaching out to strangers. It seems logical that to grow a business (or a parish) you would want to find new people. But there is a problem with that, as you have already discovered in your communities. Strangers are difficult to convert.

Godin suggests instead that businesses create a hierarchy of potential “converts” or what he calls “true fans” of your business. “Let’s say a marketer has $10,000 to spend,” he writes. “Is it better to acquire new customers at $2,000 each (advertising is expensive) or spend $10 a customer to absolutely delight and overwhelm 1,000 true fans?”

I drew up a similar hierarchy for parishes. Instead of “true fans,” I’m calling the ultimate parishioner a “steward”—someone completely committed to and supportive of the mission of the parish. I don’t think we want to spend all of our “marketing” capital on the stewards, but are we doing enough to “delight and overwhelm” them?

Is it better to spend most of our time, money, and volunteer resources reaching out to strangers? Or is it better to refocus some of those efforts toward embracing and supporting the stewards of the parish, perhaps encouraging them to spread the word about your community to their friends?

On Ascension Sunday, I had a lunch meeting after church. The meeting took place at one of my favorite San José brew pubs, which also happens to be a place where sports fans hang out to watch the local teams. I am probably the only person in San José who is not currently caught up in “Sharks fever.” And so I didn’t realize the bar area would be packed with maniacal hockey fans, riveted to the playoff game.

I thought our table was far enough away from the bar that we could still have our meeting without disruption. However, about ten minutes after we sat down, a thundering roar shook the whole restaurant—an ecstatic reaction to a Shark’s score.

I looked at the hockey fans astonished and a little envious. I had just come from a ritual in which we not only celebrated the Ascension of Christ but also the combined sacraments of confirmation and first Communion. (I worship in a restored order parish.) Despite the fire hoses of grace being sprayed out upon us in what should have been a powerful three-for-one liturgy, the standing-room-only assembly seemed mostly distracted and bored. Individual families would spring to life, cameras flashing, at the moment their cherub was actually receiving the Body and Blood. But other than that, the liturgy seemed to hold no fascination for them.

A fascinating mystery

A very long time ago, I read a book by Rudolf Otto, an eminent German Lutheran theologian. In 1917, he wrote The Idea of the Holy, in which he describes the concept of the holy as numinous. He said that God, or “the numinous,” has two qualities: mysterium tremendum and mysterium fascinans. That is, God is both awe-filled mystery and fascinating, exhilarating mystery.

In an article that will appear in the September issue of Today’s Parish, David Delambo cites a study by The Hartford Institute for Religion Research that reports that 95 percent of respondents experience Sunday Mass as either “quite” reverent or “very” reverent. It seems like we’ve got the awe-filled part down.

On the other hand, only 33 percent think Mass is either “quite” or “very” exciting. Far from being fascinated, we’re bored to tears.

I’m sure most of the first Communion families in my parish returned home for a celebration party and probably also had the Sharks game going on in the background. And it makes me wonder—what will we need to do in our parishes and in our liturgies to make the mystery of faith more exciting than a hockey game?

Gina Trapani is my hero. Watch her two-and-a-half minute video on how to keep meetings short to find out why.

Take away quote: “No one on their deathbed ever says they wish they’d attended more meetings.”

What techniques do you use to keep meeting times under control?

On Sunday, the parish bulletin had a blurb announcing an adult faith formation class: “The Dark Night of Mother Teresa.” That got me thinking about how we go about adult faith formation in our parishes.

It is possible the Mother Teresa lecture was standing-room only. I didn’t end up going, so I don’t know. But I have been to dozens of other adult formation sessions over the years, and in most cases, there were gallons of leftover coffee that had to be thrown out. Even with the “blockbuster” topics that attract 15 or 20 people, the participants were usually the party faithful who show up for everything. What kind of topics will attract new faces to our parishes?

Is adult faith formation formative?

I did a quick Google search of some faith formation sessions currently being offered in parishes around the country. Scan the list and see if you notice anything common about them:

1. The Practice of Lectio Divina
2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Writings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI
3. Bible Basics
4. Reflecting on the Bishops’ Letter: Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us
5. Sacraments in General
6. Church Ecclesiology
7. God and Revelation
8. Men’s CRHP XV Weekend
9. The Joy of Stewardship

What I notice is they all have an “inside baseball” feel to them. That is, you have to be a pretty well-formed Catholic already to even know what some of the topics are about, much less be interested in attending. As we are thinking of adult formation sessions, I wonder if we wouldn’t do better to look at our topics through the eyes of the occasional visitor. If a stranger, perhaps someone who wasn’t even Christian, comes to our parish next Sunday, what kinds of topics would attract him or her to make a return visit?

Reform your formation topics

I reworked the list above to cover the same topics, but from a different slant:

1. An Ancient Spiritual Practice that Will Change Your Life
2. The Pope, the New York Times, and the Abuse Scandal: Separating Fact from Fiction
3. Learn the Ancient Secrets of the Bible—In One Hour
4. Discover the Key Practices for a Joyful, Passionate Life
5. Is God In Your Life? How to Know for Sure
6. How to be Spiritual but Not Religious
7. Is God Speaking to You? How to Train Your Spiritual Ear
8. Male Spirituality: The Key to Becoming a Wisdom-Figure for Your Children, Your Wife, and Your Friends
9. The Gulf-Oil-Spill Crisis: What Is the Christian Response?

What do you think? Which topics sound more exciting to you? What have you done in your parish to attract new faces? Please share your ideas.

Is your parish ready for Mother’s Day? I don’t mean do you have flowers ordered or songs prepared or intercessions and blessings written. I mean do you have evangelizers ready to greet all the strangers who will be worshiping in your parish this Sunday?

What does a parish evangelizer look like? He or she looks something like a greeter, but with a stronger presence. Here are a few characteristics I’d hope for in an effective evangelizer.

• Doesn’t wait for strangers to appear at the door; seeks out visitors in the parking lot, entryway and pews

• Doesn’t stop at “good morning”; asks inviting questions such as name? first time here? how are you celebrating Mother’s day?
• Doesn’t leave visitors stranded after Mass; greets guests again (using their name), and introduces them to other parishioners
• Doesn’t chat too long with her friends; today is a day to chat with visitors
• Doesn’t let guests sit in the back of church (unless they are more comfortable); has reserved seats closer to the front for visitors
• Doesn’t keep coffee and doughnuts a secret; even if you know the visitor is going out from brunch, it’s still nice to be invited to the parish hall for coffee
• Doesn’t hide his own excitement about being a parishioner; invites the guest to come back again next week

Because I travel a lot, I visit a lot of different parishes. Honestly, I’ve never seen a parish that had a team of evangelizers that would do these things. In fact, I very often don’t even get a “hello” from the official greeters at the door because they are talking with their friends. But I never give up hoping. I think if we all keep focused on reaching out to others, we can all grow into a more “evangelizing” mode on Sundays.

What do you think? Does your parish have folks who do these kinds of things? Could it have? What characteristics would you add?

I have a recurring nightmare. I dream I’m at Mass for the Umpteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the assembly is “Amening” in reply to the Opening Prayer. As the presider closes the book, he bends to whisper something to the six-year-old server. The cherub disappears into the sacristy as the lector mounts the ambo. Shortly after “A reading from the prophet Isaiah,” the kid reappears holding a brass candle lighter with so much wick aflame the smoke detector is in danger of sirening.

He jabs the flame upward at the altar candle closest to him, which is about three feet taller than he is. It takes half a dozen attempts to ignite. Then he walks to the other side of the altar to light the second candle. He finally completes the task, as the assembly sings “The Lord is my light and my salvation” in response to the reading. The server extinguishes his torch, and his parents deem it unnecessary to finish punching 911 into the cell phone.

Minimize distractions

Only it’s not a dream. Well, not all of it anyway. I’m sure it’s happened to you. Sometime after Mass starts, you notice something that should have been turned on, put away, set out, marked up, or moved over. Even if you mostly get it right, almost every parish I’ve worshiped in is rushing to set up right up to the minute  Mass begins.

My difficulty with such scurrying is it misses the point of the gathering. The goal is not to get Father to the altar. The goal is to welcome the stranger. If we are distracted by the details, we’re in danger of missing the Christ among us. So here’s a quick checklist of tasks to be completed before Mass begins. Ideally, these should be done before the first worshiper walks through the door, which is usually 20-30 minutes before the scheduled Mass time.

• Turn on and test all microphones
• Set out the communion ware
• Mark and set out the lectionary, sacramentary, and intercessions book
• Turn on all lights
• Light all candles
• Move the cross (and candles) to the church entrance for the procession
• Prepare incense if necessary
• Presider is vested and greeting people as they gather
• Musicians’ rehearsal is completed

Bonus tip

Almost all of these tasks can be delegated to parishioners. Sure, some of the preparation will fall through the cracks once in a while, but investing the community with responsibility for preparing for Mass increases their participation in the liturgy and in the parish.

This article originally appeared in Today’s Parish, September 2008.

I know of a pastor who still buys a display ad in the Yellow Pages. Seriously. When is the last time you went to the Yellow Pages to find a phone number?

Most parishes are probably not advertising in the Yellow Pages anymore, especially since the recession, but how are you getting the word out about your parish? If your community isn’t already on Facebook, drop everything and set up a page for your parish this week.

Why Facebook?

Facebook has more than 400 million users, half of whom are online right now. Of those 200 million folks who are chatting, searching, and playing games at this moment, about 130 of their “friends” (on average) are watching what they are doing and saying. If one hundredth of one percent of them say something about your church, that’s 20,000 mentions, and each mention gets read by about 130 people. Try and get that kind of coverage in the Yellow Pages. And it’s free!

How to get started

Get help from your parishioners. A Facebook account is drop-dead simple to set up. And did I mention it’s free? So why do you need help?

Several months ago, I was at a diocesan meeting of priests and pastoral leaders. I told them it would take five minutes to set up a free Facebook account. More than half the room groaned. They all claimed they don’t have five minutes. If getting your parish onto Facebook seems exciting and energizing to you, you’re probably already there. If you are reading this post, it’s probably because you think you should be on Facebook, and you are looking for a simple way to do that without adding to your workload. Like calling up the nice sales lady at the Yellow Pages and asking her to run your ad for another six months.

So get help. Right now hundreds of your parishioners are on Facebook. Dozens of them have already set up pages for their businesses on Facebook. Make an announcement this Sunday asking for volunteers to create a parish Facebook page, and you are pretty much done.

Do it yourself

If you want to take a stab at it yourself, here are some simple steps.

1. Go to Facebook.com and sign up. Sign up with your name, not the church’s name.
2. Click on “skip this step” until you come to the Welcome to Facebook page. (You can go back and complete the steps later if you like.)
3. Now check your e-mail for a “Welcome to Facebook” message. Open the mail and click on the green “Get Started” button.
4. Now go to facebook.com/pages/create.php
5. Click on “Local Business” and choose “Religious Center” from the drop-down menu.
6. Enter the name of your parish in the “Page name” box.
7. Click on the box that identifies you as an official representative.
8. Click on Create Official Page.

That’s it. Your page will be pretty bare, but you can add to it gradually as you have time. Also, see above about getting parishioners to help. If you want to do something right now, click on the Info tab, then click on “Edit Information,” and start filling out the boxes.

Also, click on the big question mark on the upper left of the page and then click on “Change Profile Picture.” Then upload a picture. Many parishes upload a picture of the church building, but I think it’s better to put up a picture of happy parishioners.

There is a lot more you can do to promote your parish through Facebook, but the simple page you created with these eight steps is already way better than a Yellow Pages ad. If you want to learn how to do more, get some Facebook savvy parishioners together or Google “Church marketing on Facebook” or keep watching this space. I’ll post more ideas in the future.

I follow a listserve focused on catechesis. One strident catechist recently posted, “The whole point of catechesis is to prepare the faithful To Defend The Faith” (caps in original).

Threats to the faith?

Defend the faith from what, I wonder. I think many people who sign up to be defenders are still hoping to turn back the Protestant reformation. If we could just train ourselves make a proper apologetic argument, the thinking goes, we could convince those mired in an imperfect communion of the validity of Purgatory or the primacy of the papacy.

I think there are some defenders who may also hope to rescue the faith from “liberal” Catholics. I’m old enough to remember when well-meaning Catholics could have respectful dialogue regarding differing interpretations of the documents of Vatican II or a recent papal letter. Nowadays, however, such dialogue quickly devolves into name calling and rash accusations of disobedience and even heresy.

And there are those who seek to defend the faith from the boisterous “new atheists.” This is, in fact, a battle I’d enjoy suiting up for. However, many more-qualified Christian commandos have already joined the cause (though the best of them are Protestants!).

There is also the question of what we mean by “the faith.” Lately, defenders of Pope Benedict XVI have taken to the field to decry unjust treatment in the secular press. The defense may be warranted and the press may be unjust, but the criticism of the pope is not an attack on faith itself. Indeed, some of the critics are faithful Catholics whose ultimate goal is to strengthen the faith.

Do you know where your children are?

If we are going to be defenders of the faith, we have to focus on where the real threat to the faith comes from. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that the Millennials (young people, 18 to 29), “are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today” (Religion Among the Millennials).

We are not losing the next generation to the Protestant reformation. These folks are not going to any church. Nor are we losing them to liberal Catholicism. The Pew study reports that the Millennials are fairly traditional in their religious beliefs. And we are not losing them to the new atheism. “Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty,” says the Pew study.

I think we are losing young people because we are spending too much time defending the faith and not enough time living it.

See Christ in the poor

Perhaps I’m too liberal in my own Catholicism, but I don’t believe the point of catechesis is to arm initiates for the defense of the faith. I prefer Pope John Paul II’s explanation:

The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Trinity. (On Catechesis in Our Time, 5)

The challenge, of course, is where do we find Jesus Christ? As Catholics, we believe we encounter Christ most intimately in the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “The principle fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus” (1391). And a direct consequence of that intimate union is a commitment to the poor among us. St. John Chrysostom taught that if we recognized Christ in the Eucharist, but not in the least of our brothers and sisters, we dishonored the eucharistic table (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1397).

We don’t need pollsters to tell us that Millennials value authenticity. They look for and are attracted to continuity between words and actions. They are not finding in their parishes a consistent manifestation of the gospel message, particularly in regard to the social teaching the church. Those communities that do have a strong and active social justice ministry usually see above average numbers of young people in their pews.

A plan of defense

So let’s defend the faith, by all means. But let’s not get distracted by sideshows. Let’s defend the faith from its true threat—our own lackadaisical response to the presence of Christ on our lives. St. James gives us the battle plan:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (2:14-26)

I’m going to be hosting a roundtable discussion on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at the NCCL convention next week. We will be discussing the six principles of the RCIA. I believe these principles are guideposts not only for the initiation process, but for all of parish life.

Initiation is a gradual process

The principles can be found in paragraphs 4 and 5 of the RCIA. The first principle is that the initiation process is gradual. This is a challenge for many RCIA programs that have developed a well-oiled machine. Many parishes are currently winding down their programs and won’t start up again until the fall. Most of the RCIA schedules I find online block out “precatechumenate” in September and begin the formal catechumenate phase in October. The catechumenate ends on the First Sunday of Lent, when the period of purification and enlightenment begins.

The difficulty with this schedule is that it does not allow for the gradual movement of the Spirit. The inquirers are required to conform to the parish schedule instead of the initiation leaders taking the time to discern the movement of the Spirit within the hearts of each individual.

We can extend this need for gradual attentiveness to the rest of parish life. Certainly any sacramental process should be gradual. Preparation for first Communion and confirmation could be much more gradual in most places.  Sunday liturgy would also benefit from more attention to the movement of the Spirit.

A simple way to become more gradual

Perhaps one of the easiest places to add a sense of gradualness to parish life is in our committee meetings. I’m sure your start your meetings with prayer, but is the prayer integral to the agenda of your meeting? If the group forgot to pray, would you miss it?

An ideal initiation process, that is implementing the principle of gradualness, is using the Sunday readings as a focus for catechesis and discernment of the movement of the Spirit. You can do the same thing in your parish meetings. Change the primary purpose. For example, instead of meeting to discuss the budget, meet to discern the Spirit’s will for you as stewards of the parish resources. Or, instead of meeting to plan the next youth event, meet to discern the Spirit’s movement among the teens of the parish. Begin your meetings with a solid (and gradual!) reflection on the Sunday readings and let your faith sharing inform and shape the agenda.

For a free guide on how to do effective breaking open the word, click here.

Share your ideas

What do you think? How is your parish currently attending to the gradual movement of the Spirit? What are some other ways to implement the principle of gradualness?