Since I stopped working in ministry, I’ve been a regular parishioner, just like everyone else. Having seen things from both ends of the pew, in a sense, I remain interested in the state of American parishes and efforts to right the wrongs and fulfill our mission as Christians. So I read a lot of books about parish improvement. My most recent read in that vein is Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive, by William E. Simon Jr. of Parish Catalyst. It’s not my favorite in this niche, but I found some gems nonetheless.
Simon begins with an interesting overview of the history of Catholicism in the U.S. I’d never really thought about it from the perspective of the parish before. In Catholic countries, Simon writes, the parish wasn’t important because the Faith was everywhere. In the New World, however, Catholics clung to their parishes as cultural, social, and religious centers. It wasn’t everywhere anymore. Considering that difference got me to thinking about what the ideal situation would be today: to have the faith “in the water,” or to have it be something you have to choose and fight for. One could make a good argument for either.
Unfortunately, much of the book is given over to diagrams and quotations summarizing the findings of the research team. If it hadn’t been so heavy with anecdotes and religion, I would have thought I was reading a thesis or dissertation. If you’ve read an academic paper, you know they’re not terribly fascinating reads. This book wasn’t either, but it had its high points.
About a third of the way in, things started to get interesting. Simon’s thoughts on how to reach people at various level of spiritual engagement reminded me of my experiences in pedagogy learning to teach to students at various levels of understanding. It also reminded me of my desire, when I worked in campus ministry, to give students something to do after faith-awakening retreats besides just join a group. The two groups Simon defines definitely have different needs.
All parishes likely have at least two sets of people in their pews. First, there are the people who have not as yet shown any outward interest in the spiritual growth opportunities offered by the parish. This group needs relevant, entry-level spiritual development opportunities. Second, there are those who have indeed shown interest and have become involved. Perhaps they are in small faith-sharing groups, do mission work, or are engaged in outreach. This group of parishioners continues to need ongoing spiritual development opportunities, which may look different from opportunities designed for those newly engaged in the parish.
It’s easy to focus on one group to the exclusion of others, but they both need specific support.
For all the burdens I felt reading fact after fact and quotation after quotation, one tidbit left me very surprised:
“Increased participation in church activities does not significantly contribute to an increasing love of God and others,’ [Cally] Parkinson writes. In other words, involvement in a parish program does not guarantee a parishioner’s deepened commitment to Christ.
Wow! I feel like most parish programs are designed with that goal in mind, even the ones for people closer to spiritual maturity. It makes sense that people who are already in love with God and desirous of loving others would want to get involved in activities. It’s startling to find out that people who are still growing don’t necessarily grow by getting involved in activities. Maybe we’re doing this parish thing all wrong.
I was concerned to read that Simon and his researchers didn’t directly ask about small groups or Eucharistic adoration as standard questions. That made me wonder about their background research and preparation. Millennials (such as myself) love those things! I understand not wanting to beg the question, but that seems like a large omission.
I did find it comforting that Simon brought up a second factoid that everyone thinks is true but isn’t: that people leave the Church because they are better entertained elsewhere. When you ask churchgoing Catholics why they think their brethren are leaving for evangelical megachurches, many of them will claim that those who leave are seeking entertainment. But when you actually ask the people who left, it’s because they felt like they found God better elsewhere. “They want to be entertained” is dismissive. “They didn’t meet God here” is genuine cause for alarm.
Overall, I would recommend this book if you like social science research as well as the Faith. The methodology is sound, but it doesn’t always read well. I like stories; there were some here, but not as many as in other “fix the parish” books I’ve read. This book left me wanting more, but not in a good way.
What do you think about the state of the American parish? What have you read that helps you reflect about your own involvement, answer the call to evangelize, or improve your parish?
I received a free copy of Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive from Ave Maria Press in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks for their generosity!
What are the four essential practices the author recommends?
That is a great question! I’m sorry I left that out of my review.
They are:
+ Share leadership
+ Foster spiritual maturity
+ Excel on Sundays
+ Intentionally evangelize
I guess the author is a management consultant looking for gigs and one way management consultants drum up business is by writing books promising your organization will get better if you follow their prescriptions.
I don’t know that so many parishes are all that bad off, as much as we expect more from the Church and individual parishes than we did in the past. For centuries a parish had a church building, a graveyard, and maybe a rectory next door. The focus was on worship and the sacraments.
Nowadays the Church does so much more – social clubs for the elderly, teen life hootenannies, Eight Great Dates programs to forestall divorces, etc. Further, church campus buildings host parachurch activities such as Scouts and Alcoholics Anonymous and even programs with less of a tie to the sacraments – English as a Second Language classes for example.
In recent years the US church is moving toward fewer and bigger parishes. This is for economic reasons – it’s more efficient just like it’s more efficient to replace
small shops with huge Walmarts and Targets. This trend should continue and it’s a GOOD THING overall, but bigger congregations mean it’s less likely parishioners know each other and have a sense of tight community.
We’ve only been a country for about two and a half centuries. Also, vocab points for “hootenannies.”
You make a good point about today’s parishes providing more than just worship and sacraments. I’ve definitely felt more attached to parishes that I attend for more than just Mass, Confession, or weddings. The parish feels more like home when I also go there for Bible study, presentations, or group meetings.
I agree that bigger parishes make it harder to know people. I wonder if forming smaller communities (like small groups or intergenerational faith formation) might help. My university experience was like that: 25,000 undergraduates with smaller, university-formed academic/social communities.
Interesting. I can attest to “meeting God” being an important factor from the opposite end: When a kid, and unable to choose my parish, I did not seek or even really desire to leave the Church despite bullying and exclusion from fellow parish youth. I knew that God was in the Church, and leaving the Church meant leaving Him in his fullness, even if some of His followers were awful to me. That desire to stick with God over all else is still my main consideration in choosing a (the C)hurch. (I did leave that one *parish* as soon as I could, though!)
It’s always sad when one leaves a parish, but I’m glad you were able to find a parish home elsewhere within the Catholic faith.
“Maybe we’re doing this parish thing all wrong.”
Indeed, parishes have been “all wrong” for about two generations now.
Maybe you are too young to remember the days when the parish was the center of community life. All your friends belonged to the parish. So did our parents and grandparents. Your parish did “social” things. And that provided a subtle peer pressure to keep young people in the Church.
But things started to change sometime in about the 1980’s. People started investing their free time elsewhere. Families didn’t stay together in the same town like they once did. The social stuff died away, and so did the incentive for young people to stay in the Church.
I know that today, I have _no_ Catholic friends. The few Catholics that are left, I suppose from some sense of tradition and duty, trudge into church every Sunday and run for the parking lot afterwards. Maybe we nod to each other, but we are all strangers.
So don’t talk about “small faith-sharing groups”, whatever they are. Or “spiritual growth opportunities”. Most people couldn’t possibly care less. We’d like to have a reason to engage socially with our parishes, but those days are gone.
Hmm. What was it about the 80’s that puts this change in that decade? What reason was there to engage socially in previous decades, and what can we do to get that reason back (or what reason do we need now)?
“What reason was there to engage socially in previous decades” – are you kidding? Parish life was simply a part of everyone’s life. Volunteering to help put on events (like dinners, picnics, dances) at your own parish, and then attending events at other parishes, was just part of what every Catholic did. It had been that way for generations, maybe “forever”. But the chain has been broken.
A common (and misinformed) response to this (usually by those that are too young to remember any of this, even though it wasn’t all that long ago) is that clergy are too scarce now and don’t have the time to organize social events. No, no. The clergy didn’t do this work before, either. It was the parish acting as its own “community”. But something about the way parishes are organized now, blocks this kind of community life. Everything has to go through the “parish council” and the various “ministry coordinators” that every parish has. I refer to these folks as “Where Ideas Go To Die” because any attempt at social activities gets swallowed up and killed by these folks.
And I am not specifically blaming the 80’s. Maybe it was the 70’s that things started to slow down, and the 80’s or early 90’s when they stopped. It surely happened over the last two generations. Ask the older folks in your parishes, they will remember.
The quote which really got my attention in this article was “All parishes likely have at least two sets of people in their pews” regarding the attraction to “spiritual growth opportunities”. The author cannot seem to comprehend that this is not important to most people, and never was.
I’m not super surprised by his findings. I think in general, regarding faith, work, family, etc, people have become complacent. This is how we’ve always done it, why fix what “isn’t broken”? We need to get out of that mindset and ask God, what is it You want? Am I doing what is Most pleasing to You?
Long time no see Lindsay! Hope you’re doing well!
Hi, Wayne! Thanks for commenting! Your thoughts about complacency sound spot-on. That’s the same attitude that has older generations still believing that young ones who leave the Church will come back when they get married and have kids. That used to be true, but it’s not anymore. The old ways aren’t working anymore. (That topic is addressed better in *Forming Intentional Disciples* than in this book.) Maybe God wants us to find new ways to do the same old work of evangelization.
I don’t think we need something new. Maybe a refresh of something old, but I do think what Jesus did was very effective, to actually walk with and get to know people. And I’ve seen this effective for me at least, whether in small group setting or just getting to know another individual better,it takes personal investment.
One thing a deacon taught me is that perhaps the Bible isn’t only teaching us content for evangelizing but also method. How Jesus for example has his inner circle, and then 72 disciples he sends out and all the people he preached to. I believe forming intentional disciples talks about this too
Reminds me a bit of this quote from Chesterton: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
“That’s the same attitude that has older generations still believing that young ones who leave the Church will come back when they get married and have kids.”
I guess I will try to make my point one last time because you really don’t seem to understand how things work. The older generation has its own problems to deal with. It doesn’t care whether the younger generations stay or go. I don’t think they ever did. Because until very recently, it was unthinkable that the younger folks would leave. It was just assumed that the next generation would take its place in line and pick up the traditions and roles of the past generations.
It was up to each generation to take care of itself. When parishes functioned as true communities, the “social network” is what held everything together. When your closest friends were all Catholic, it provided incentive for you to stay Catholic too. You attended your parish’s social activities, picnics and dinners and etc. – it was just part of what you did, it was part of your life.
But the chain has been broken. There are many possible reasons that most parishes are so far below the “critical mass” that’s required to function as a social community. No one looks to the church for that role in their lives any more.
Gung-ho ministry and “intentional disciples” rah-rah talk just isn’t a fair subsititute.
Also, I heard Divine Renovation: Bringing your Parish from Maintenance to Mission by Fr. James Mallon is pretty good.