Needy Parishioners

By Fr. Jeff Lorig, Director of Pastoral Services

At a recent Clergy Conference many of the priests of the Archdiocese had a chance to dive into the science and practice of engagement. When someone is engaged, we learned, it means certain needs are met. When those needs are met, you can predict, because there’s a science to it, that an employee or parishioner will have deep emotional and psychological loyalty and enthusiasm for the organization. High performing teams, companies, and churches have more engaged people than the average team, company, or church.

High Performance Church

First things first, let’s get past some of the language barriers. We don’t often use the phrase” high performing” when it comes to church because it feels too much like a business term. Churches have a higher calling than corporations and most of us feel uncomfortable treating church like a business. That said, if we had to translate “high performing” to fit more into our church context, how would we translate it? Performance simply means accomplishing or completing tasks or functions. Wouldn’t it be good from time to time to ask, “How are we performing? ” Performing at what though? We know there’s more to our parishes than fish fries and festivals. We know Jesus gave us a mission (Mt. 28:19). Talking about performance in a church context is simply setting and evaluating goals that help the church accomplish the mission. I fully acknowledge that setting performance goals sounds like something Google and Amazon does on a quarterly basis, so in our language we might ask:  “If our church hopes to accomplish anything in the near future, what would we hope accomplish?” or “If we were to execute on the mission of Jesus Christ in the near future, what would we like to achieve? 

The mark of a parish that is moving from maintenance to mission is a parish that’s beginning to ask the above questions.  A parish that regularly sets goals based on the above questions and consistently accomplishes them, you might say, is a “high performing” parish. If the goals our parishes set do not seem to be aligned with the mission of the Church as witnessed in the Acts of the Apostles, then the leaders of that parish need to have a serious discussion, a “Come to Jesus” talk, if you will.

The point is, engagement should never be separated from concrete hopes and goals. We can all talk about the desire for more engaged parishioners, but we have to be able to answer the question, “Engaged in what?”

Needy Parishioners

If we hope to accomplish the goals of the mission, we can’t really leave it up to the pastor alone or to the parish staff. The more parishioners we have engaged in this thing we hope to accomplish as a church, the more likely we are to accomplish it. But how do you help parishioners become more engaged? Studies have shown and my own personal experience can testify that high performing businesses, teams, and churches are able to create environments where certain engagement needs are met. Those needs generally fall into two categories: 1) I’m part of something larger than myself and 2) I know how I fit into that larger thing. In other words, the needs have to do with unity and belonging, which are at the core of our archdiocese’s priority to “Create a Culture of Unity.”

The fulfillment of these needs can be measured by asking some basic questions that are directly linked to performance outcomes. The questions come from Gallup’s ME25 Assessment. Just for fun, see how you would rate your parish experience. On a five-point scale, where 5 means strongly agree and 1 means strongly disagree, rate your level of agreement with the following items.

1. As a member of my parish, I know what is expected of me.
2. In my parish, my spiritual needs are met.
3. In my parish, I regularly have the opportunity to do what I do best.
4. In the last month, I have received recognition or praise from someone in my parish.
5. The spiritual leaders in my parish seem to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone in my parish who encourages my spiritual development.
7. As a member of my parish, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission or purpose of my parish makes me feel my participation is important.
9. The other members of my parish are committed to spiritual growth.
10. Aside from family members, I have a best friend in my parish.
11. In the last six months, someone in my parish has talked to me about the progress of my spiritual growth.
12. In my parish, I have opportunities to learn and grow.

If you would like to learn more about Gallup’s ME25 tool and see how it can be implemented in your parish, Fr. Lorig can be reached at jplorig@archomaha.org.

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