Summer Outreach: Finding and Inviting The Marginal and Unaffiliated Families in Your Area – Tom Quinlan, Diocese of Joliet
If there ever was a time that we could sit back and assume that everyone with children of catechetical age will find a local Catholic parish and get their children into the religious education program, that time is long past. Today, we have to be intentional, strategic and, yes, aggressive in our outreach to Catholic families and, indeed, all in our community.
I encourage you, the parish catechetical leader, to look at the summer as prime time to take practical action steps to raise awareness to the catechetical program you oversee and to connect relationally with parents. Here are some practical things you can do:
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Do an early-summer follow up mailing or emailing campaign that includes all families who were in the program last year and in recent years. Hopefully, your registration materials went to all these families, even those who have skipped a few years.
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Scour the parish data base to see if there are families who have never registered their children for RE. A special targeted mailing should go to them, one that is especially evangelizing and personal in its tone.
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Get marketing flyers, posters, etc., out in the entire community. Wherever parents go, try to get something in front of them that communicates the desire of your Catholic parish to serve their family’s religious needs…whether they are Catholic or not!
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Enlist your Catholic families to be your best evangelizers. Ask them to invite and encourage other families in the community to try your parish on for size…for faith formation and for worship. They can become your best avenue for growing your program and introducing families to the parish
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In the mid-late summer, execute a game-plan for calling parents to encourage registration and to hear what their questions and concerns are. Take on the posture of pastoral listening. The fact that you (and others who you enlist to your “outreach team”) are actually calling to hear how things are with the family and to share that their families is valued at the parish will make a difference…whether or not it brings them back to the program. I guarantee that this labor-intensive step (be ready for some tricky and grace-filled pastoral conversations) will yield a good harvest in your registration numbers. You will get some valuable feedback about the program and the parish and you will establish and build relationships. (You might even find some catechists or subs along the way!)
Summer really is a time for outreach. The plan for having strong participation in your religious education program should begin in earnest in the spring. But summer is key to bringing back those “iffy” families and bringing in those disconnected families.
Please consider how you can take practical steps in June and July to strengthen your program’s numbers for next year. You work very hard to build and guide a fine catechetical program. Having more families participating in it will be a blessing in so many ways. Our marginal families are the very people Jesus requires us to love back into the Body of Christ. And you (and those you involve and empower) are in a position to do just that!
