To help you out, here are the instructions again:
a.
Research your parish/cluster Non-involvement (NI) rate
i. List
all teens (e.g. ages 13-17) who are registered in your parish
ii. Highlight
in yellow all teens who are enrolled in RE and Confirmation Preparation
programs
iii. Highlight
in pink all teens who are enrolled in a Catholic School
iv. Highlight
in green all teens who are active in another parish ministry (other than the
ones listed above).
v. Count
the number of teens that are not highlighted at all. These are your
“Non-Involved” teens
vi. Diving
the number of NI teens into your total number of teens. This is your NI rate.
vii. Bring
these lists and numbers with you to our next session.
Post an entry here about what you NI rate is and what you have learned from this process.
St. Matthew's NI rate is 46.3% - It was really eye-opening to see how many youth are parishioners here. It gives me a definitive description of the effectiveness of my communication and the reach of my programs: inadequate.
ReplyDeleteAs I was completing this task I got to thinking about something though. Batman is typically understood as a hero; saving the day etc. But at the end of the Dark Knight he ends up taking the fall for someone to ensure the well-being of Gotham City. He said at that point that he can be whatever Gotham needs him to be, not just what he wants to be for Gotham; a true servant of the people. I often times find myself asking that question, "what can the parish be for the modern day teen?" Do the teens really need more programs, or is that what WE need? "But how else will they be evangelized and catechized?" - is what you're thinking. And I don't know the answer, maybe increased effort put into online dissemination of information/resources. Providing kids who are always on the run with tid-bits of Catholic information from reliable Catholic resources via Twitter/Facebook. Should we be including my kids who subscribe to our Parish's Facebook and Twitter page in my calculations for NI? Could personally engaging in spiritually challenging and emotionally uplifting media/articles provided by me constitute as "involving" teens? All in all, great thought provoking/revealing exercise that all faith formation leaders should do. Thanks. PEACE.
Mike Mettenburg
My NI rate is 25%. I was pleasantly surprised by this until I realized that this would mean my parishes get a "C" grade. So definite room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteMy parish rate was 31.5%. I realized that most of the “not-involved” students are from families who have dropped out and are not coming to church at all. I was pleasantly surprised to find that over 50% of the 11th graders in our parish are involved in some ministry which is due to a change in philosophy of some adults.
ReplyDelete