Case Study Building a Thriving Church by Engaging Parishioners
42%
To their surprise, the campaign raised 42% more revenue than their goal — with most of the funds coming in comparatively small amounts.
CHALLENGE
means more than just filling pews; it requires nurturing an active base of engaged members who are involved in and enthusiastic about their church community. When members aren’t engaged, leaders have a difficult time growing their membership and getting parishioners involved in the committees, councils and other lay ministries essential to running a church. They often strain to raise contributions necessary for daily operations, let alone the capital campaigns churches must undertake to maintain older facilities and build new ones. To staff at St. Columbkille Catholic Church, it was evident about a decade ago that the parish wasn’t thriving as much as it could be in the midst of the growing, prosperous suburb of Papillion, Nebraska. The church was struggling to pay down debts and meet operational costs. Parishioners’ level of trust had declined over the years, resulting in low participation in parish ministries and activities. Many members seemed disconnected from the church and its mission. Renewed focus helped to get finances back on track, and leaders understood that they needed more engaged parishioners to help combat the spiritual malaise that had taken root. They wanted to focus on restoring a stronger sense of purpose, energy and commitment within their membership to transform their church into the vibrant, active parish they envisioned. Only then would it be able to grow and thrive and successfully meet the needs of all of their members and their wider community. BUILDING A THRIVING CHURCH
Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. Gallup®, Q12®, ME25™ and Clifton StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
Source: GALLUP
Case Study
APPROACH
St. Columbkille began working with Gallup in 2007 to measure and boost members’ spiritual engagement, which Gallup defines as the degree of belonging each member has in his or her local faith community. While members’ spiritual engagement may seem like a difficult thing to quantify, Gallup has studied engagement in businesses, nonprofits, governments, schools and other organizations for decades. The company applies that same scientific rigor to its ME25 member engagement survey for communities of faith. The survey consists of 25 questions that measure engagement as well as spiritual commitment and outcomes important to churches and other faith-based organizations. Gallup aggregates all responses and provides a report summarizing the community’s engagement and spiritual commitment results. When leaders at St. Columbkille received their initial reports, their results were slightly below the national average of all churches in Gallup’s U.S. database. Though a bit disheartened by the findings, church leaders now had a starting point to define and quantify what they previously sensed was amiss within their parish. This was empowering, and Gallup’s analysis helped leaders make sense of the survey findings and uncover the strengths and opportunities within the faith community’s engagement results. The data from subsequent surveys between 2008 and 2015 helped confirm the parish was making meaningful changes that were steadily turning things around. When Father Damian Zuerlein arrived at St. Columbkille in 2004, he had prioritized working with the finance council to make accounting more transparent, pay off debt and raise funds before undertaking any new construction. This laid the groundwork for building trust, which the pastor and leaders continued to emphasize throughout the survey process, along with ongoing dialogue and communication with parishioners about spiritual engagement and their vision for the church. They began to focus more on communicating the achievements of their committees, ministries and outreaches — to recognize the hard work of the laity and inspire others to become more involved.
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Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. Gallup®, Q12®, ME25™ and Clifton StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
Building a Thriving Church by Engaging Parishioners
Leaders also perceived the importance of building and fortifying a core group of engaged parishioners, knowing that they would be essential in transforming the culture of the church. One way they did this was by starting weekly faith-sharing groups in dozens of parishioners’ homes. This helped people make connections, develop stronger relationships with fellow parishioners and find new opportunities to deepen their faith. Although it might seem counterintuitive to focus on parishioners who are already engaged, Deacon David Krueger says that investing in them has made a tremendous difference because they have inspired others to grow spiritually through their example. These engaged parishioners have also drawn in new church members because of the powerful example they set at work and in their wider community. “Over time, we can see that the parish is fruitful if that core group of people is growing,” Krueger says. After finding that church members consistently gave low marks to the survey item, “As a member of my parish, I know what is expected of me,” the pastor and parish council began working to provide more clarity in this area. They developed 21 specific expectations of St. Columbkille members in the church’s four core areas of discipleship: evangelization, worship, charity/ justice and formation. They sought feedback from parish members, revised their original statements, rolled out the expectations over a series of Sunday homilies and talks, and followed up with letters and bulletin messages to build understanding, support and involvement. Once current members were on board with the 21 expectations, leaders modified the new member registration process by creating a class called “St. Columbkille 101,” held once a month after the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Besides teaching aspiring new members about the church’s namesake and parish history, the class informs them of involvement opportunities and expectations for membership. People must attend the class to become parish members. According to Krueger, only two families in the first 60 sessions have balked at committing to the 21 expectations. Instead, the class seems to bolster a sense of belonging and encourage most new parishioners to roll up their sleeves and participate. In addition to helping his parish build members’ spiritual engagement, Krueger has worked with Gallup on learning about his top five strengths through the Clifton StrengthsFinder online assessment and applying a strengths-based approach to his work at St. Columbkille. Gallup defines strength as an individual’s ability to consistently perform with excellence, and research has shown that focusing on strengths rather than fixing weaknesses results in more growth. Krueger has introduced the strengths approach to the church’s staff and says it affects how they view their work and make decisions within the parish. They encourage parishioners to let their strengths guide them to areas where they can have the greatest impact within the church. They recognize that if someone is feeling burned out in a position, it’s likely the result of a mismatch between the person’s strengths and the demands of the role.
Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. Gallup®, Q12®, ME25™ and Clifton StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
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Case Study
IMPACT
Gallup finds that when churches purposefully focus on activities that build spiritual engagement, it translates into positive outcomes inside and outside the faith community. When members feel engaged, they regard their parish or congregation as family and demonstrate a high level of ownership for their mission and ministry. Krueger attests that this has been the case at St. Columbkille, and he’s seen plenty of evidence to support it. Results show that engagement in the parish has risen steadily with each administration of the ME25. There are now twice as many engaged parishioners at St. Columbkille as there were in 2007. Additionally, the percentage of actively disengaged parishioners has been cut in half over that same period. These positive engagement trends align with a host of encouraging outcomes. For instance, despite the fact that St. Columbkille 101 and the 21 expectations make it harder — not easier — to join the church, more families are doing just that. In 2007, the parish had 2,650 families registered on its rolls; by 2015, enrollment climbed to 3,211 families. The church is one of the largest in the area and had the highest Sunday Mass attendance in a recent archdiocesan study. These figures are particularly impressive given that the church serves a nearby Air Force base, with high numbers of families transferring in and out of the area each year. Not only are more people joining St. Columbkille, but several parishioners have been inspired to bring fresh ideas and insights to church leaders. Krueger says that since St. Columbkille started offering the ME25 survey and leaders began talking about engagement, the church has launched at least two new ministries each year that were not the idea of the staff or pastoral council. These ideas have included a bilingual preschool ministry, a secondhand store that benefits the needy, and monthly conversational dinners hosted by different parish couples to build fellowship. While not all of these parishioner-initiated ministries have flourished, several have been extremely successful. Krueger believes this is the best model for how new ministries should start. He says, “If you really believe God has given people gifts and if you believe that all of our baptized members are expected to help build up the church, then how can you not expect people to come forward with new ideas and approaches? Yet there seems to be a common mindset that a staff or group of parish leaders is supposed to come up with the ideas, and then everyone else’s task is to simply pray, pay and obey.”
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Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. Gallup®, Q12®, ME25™ and Clifton StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
Building a Thriving Church by Engaging Parishioners
Engaged parishioners tend to provide more financial support to their churches than members who are not engaged. St. Columbkille has seen a roughly 16% increase in weekly giving, while the percentage of debt to income has shrunk dramatically. Further, in 2011, the parish started a campaign to update the church interior. Keeping their word to avoid incurring more debt, leaders set a fundraising goal but established priorities for what would and wouldn’t be done depending on the sum of money actually pledged. The pastor also held listening sessions with parishioners to receive their input about the project. To their surprise, the campaign raised 42% more revenue than their goal — with most of the funds coming in comparatively small amounts. This meant that instead of a few wealthy donors footing the bill, everyone was getting involved and giving what they could. And in a later campaign for the entire archdiocese, St. Columbkille surpassed what leaders expected to raise by more than $300,000. Parish leaders like Krueger see other signs that their shared vision of an engaged, vibrant church is becoming a reality. For example, a record number of catechists have volunteered to help with faith formation — a role the parish used to struggle to fill. And, when asked to vote in a “best of” contest for the county, residents chose St. Columbkille above all other parishes and congregations in the “best church” category. The contest hadn’t been on the radar for the church’s leadership, and no organized effort had been made to get the word out to parishioners — they did it on their own. “People at St. Columbkille 101 tell us all the time that there is a different feel to our church,” Krueger says. “Having the measure of engagement verifies for us what we keep seeing more of — more and more people becoming involved in the parish and growing in their faith. It helps us quantify that this is real, and it makes me excited about the future. I expect us to continue to grow and improve.”
16%
INCREASE IN WEEKLY GIVING
42%
MORE REVENUE THAN THEIR GOAL
$300,000 OVER GOAL FOR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
Source: GALLUP
Copyright © 2016 Gallup, Inc. Gallup®, Q12®, ME25™ and Clifton StrengthsFinder® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
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