Interested in More Results from the Disciple Maker Index? Update

Interested in More Results from the Disciple Maker Index? Update: Meeting date changed to Wednesday, May 3

I hope you enjoy these full-color bulletins through our new contract with Pilot Printing. We are grateful to our readers and advertisers for your patience as we transition to this new company. Over the past few months, several people have expressed interest in learning more about the results from the "Disciple Maker Index" survey our parishes participated in last year. This survey focused on how our parishes currently support you spiritually and other ways our faith communities could help you grow, and to serve as a tool for our collaborative's Plan Writing Team. Having never seen professional survey analysis, I was surprised by the complexity of the resulting reports. The organization conducting the survey taught me and the rest of our planning team members how to understand the results and interpret them compared with other parishes and objective ministry studies. Once we understood the reports, we did not find any major surprises in the results. They were helpful in providing objective data about how you think our parishes are doing in helping parishioners to grow spiritually as disciples of Christ.

Last fall I wrote bulletin columns sharing two of our strongest successes and two opportunities for growth. Those columns celebrated the fact that so many of you said "I would recommend my parish to a friend," and that our parishes help people "connect with the Catholic Community by making me feel welcomed and accepted." Important opportunities for growth include people's luke-warm agreement with "My parish helps me grow spiritually as a Catholic" and "Offering vibrant and engaging Sunday Masses."

Now, at the recommendation of the Collaborative Pastoral Council, we are holding an open meeting on Wednesday, May 3, at 7:30pm at St. Martha Parish Hall for members of both parishes who are interested in learning more about the "Disciple Maker Index" and how the results were interpreted. The date has been changed since last weekend's announcement so that more members of our Plan Writing Team can be available to present what we have learned and then answer as many of your questions about the DMI survey as possible.

If you are curious to learn more about the survey results as a whole, we hope you can join us for this meeting. I am grateful to CPC and PWT members from both parishes who will host the meeting, and to the hundreds of parishioners who participated in this survey as one of the ways we are working together to strengthen and grow the parishes in our collaborative!