Growing an Engaged Church

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT can be defined as the emotional bonds between your faith community as a whole and the individual members.

There is a difference between healthy, thriving, growing faith communities and those that are just going through the motions. It's a difference that can be measured - and managed - and maximized.

The difference is Engagement.

To fully energize our faith community in our ministry to the world and local community, we must know how to measure, manage, and maximize the engagement of each parish member. Approximately, every two years our parish will take the ME25. This is an anonymous, twenty-five (25) question in-pew survey used to measure the 12 items of engagement, 9 items of spiritual commitment, four questions regarding outcomes, and then a handful of demographic questions. Gallup then analyzes the data and provides a report on our Engagement as a parish.

Engaged faith community members . . .

• are nearly three times as likely to be extremely satisfied with their lives
• are more than ten times as likely to invite friends to their faith community events
• volunteer more than two hours per week in their communities
• give up to three times more money to their faith communities

. . . vs. members who are either Not Engaged or Actively Disengaged.

An Engaged parishioner is someone who...

...is loyal and has a strong psychological and emotional connection to their parish.

...is spiritually committed.

...is more likely to invite friends, family members and coworkers to parish events or Mass.

...gives more with regard to their time, talent and treasure.

...organizes their lives around their parish because it is through it that their faith has grown and deepened.

...has found opportunities to help and serve others in their community.

...has developed their most meaningful interpersonal relationships within the parish.

...is proud of their church and could not imagine a world without it.

A Not Engaged parishioner is someone who...

...may attend Mass regularly, but doesn't have a strong psychological or emotional connection to the parish; their connections are more social than spiritual.

...gives moderately but not sacrificially and may do a minimal amount of volunteering in the community.

...is less likely to invite others and more likely to leave.

...might be completely "satifsfied" with their parish, but gives less, serves less, and invites less than the engaged do.

An Actively Disengaged parishioner is someone who...

...may only go to church once or twice a year, if at all.

...may be a registered parishioner, but may not know the name of the pastor or the church, but could at least describe the location.

...is unhappy with the parish and is consistently against virtually everything: the mission, ministries, leadership.

Click HERE to see that latest results of our ME25 survey taken last March 2012.