We continue to evaluate our communication strategies for Midtown Catholic. I recently stumbled upon this statement from a church communications blog.
Don’t prioritize communicating anything outside of your vision and discipleship plan.
Communication without purpose is just noise. As you define the journey that your church will guide people through, resist the urge to communicate anything that doesn’t fit within that process. Let your vision and discipleship path be the filter that all communication runs through. If it doesn’t make the cut, toss it out.
To be honest, this has given me some pause and a bit of heartache. It’s not the first time I’ve read something similar and while I would like to get us there someday, we are not in a position to communicate in this way for variety of reasons.
- We are going through transition and communicating the changes happening are absolutely necessary for those of you who are stakeholders in our family of parishes.
- We don’t really have a locked in “Vision and Discipleship Plan”. I have an idea of what those are, and we are discussing them internally, but I would like to go through a more formal process with our parish councils in the near future.
- Defining a journey that our church will guide people through is “not the way we’ve always (or ever) done it”. Internally, we call it a “clear path” and yes, we are discussing it as well. If the mission of the Church is to make disciples, then a parish ought to have a clear process with defined steps for a person to grow into a mature faith. Every church that is seeing growth whether it be Catholic or Protestant has committed to a “clear path” for its members.
- Finally, even with a fuzzy vision and mission, we generally know that our parishes exist to reach the lost and make disciples. That said, I feel guilty that we don’t currently offer anything extra outside Mass and some sacramental prep to help people mature in the faith. Be assured that this will not always be the case.
In Christ,
Fr. Jeff Lorig – Pastor