Brothers and Sisters,
I hope that things are going well for you in the year 2020! In the final months of 2019 we began the strategic planning process for our parish and I would like to update you on our progress as well as share with you our next steps. As a kind of kick-off we began by inviting all of our parishioners to participate in a fairly lengthy survey. Thank you so much for your time in completing the survey as we have gained numerous insights as well as a lot of great data. As you can imagine with hundreds of responses we received all sorts of information. I would like to share with you ten areas or themes that seemed to rise to the surface. While not an exhaustive list I believe this is a pretty nice summary. In no particular order:
- A hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and a variety of opportunities to grow in that relationship at Saint Simon
- A desire for greater Catholic Identity for all of our parishioners and across our numerous ministries
- Programming focused on supporting Marriages, Parenting and Families, especially a desire for outside speakers
- Doing more to welcome new and existing parishioners more deeply into our parish family as well as outreach to those who have no church home
- The importance of ministry focused on accompanying our Youth and Young Adults
- Continue working for a sense of unity among all of our ministries, most frequently cited was thanksgiving for the steps that have been taken to see our school ministry as a ministry of the parish and not its own entity
- A curiosity about our finances and wanting to know more about how we are good stewards of the treasure our parishioners sacrificially give as well as questions about our financial planning for future maintenance needs for our facilities as well as the impact our debt has on our budget
- An acknowledgement that there are many groups that are underserved in our parish and the opportunity that provides, most frequently cited were Young Adults, Seniors, Divorced, those struggling with addictions, and Empty Nesters.
- Many opinions about the music at our weekend liturgies. There were some who desired to keep things the way they are, while some desired that the music be more traditional and others desired that the music be more contemporary. There was agreement that our choirs, cantors and musicians sing and play well.
- Many opinions about our weekend Mass times. There were some who liked the schedule as is, some who enjoyed the summer Mass schedule and some who would like a different schedule most frequently citing a desire for a Sunday evening Mass time.
Our next step will be to conduct focus groups to flesh out and have more in-depth discussions about the above themes. Please stay tuned as to how you can help us as we begin to wrap up the information gathering phase of the process and prepare to draft an initial strategic plan. Once again thank you so much for your participation in the strategic planning process.
God Bless,
Father Doug
