Catholic Community



Stewarding Community with Parishioners

 

Earlier this week, I listened to a Paulist Evangelization Ministries webinar on Families, Evangelization, and the New Catechesis.  Aside from the important topic of evangelization, which is so crucial to spreading the message of stewardship, it made some good points about how we steward community with our parishioners.
 

• A Faith Forming System should take into account that to a great extent there is Church Life and there is Daily Life that our parishioners experience.

 

• We are dealing with parishioners - and people who reside in our parish - that are greatly diverse in how they experience religion, from Vibrant Faith and Active Engagement to Not Affiliated.

 

• Parishes have the challenge of connecting Church Life and Daily Life. (And our culture makes it much more important that we make those connections.)

 

The good news is that Online/Electronic Communications can make that much easier than in the past.  A lot of good and practical ideas were shared.  To listen to this webinar go to:

 

http://eventcenter.commpartners.com/se/Meetings/Playback.aspx?meeting.id=248115

Catholic Stewardship of Social Media

Sherry Hayes-Pierce

Social Media is a big part of many people’s lives.  It, therefore, needs to be addressed by our parishes.  In the last couple of years, our parishes have been asked to include parishioner emailing as a way to communicate to their flock and where this is done, there has been much positive feedback.  Because we needed help to think more broadly about how to use social media beyond the email, the Stewardship and Development office brought in a speaker to help us.  Her name is Sherry Hayes-Pierce and we gained some very good knowledge from her that we would like to pass along to you:

·         As regards Social media – rather than any do’s or don’ts in the Church world, Sherry talked about  the what’s.  Because it is important for parishes to connect with their people, it should be important to do that in the most effective way possible. Social media is one of these effective ways

·         Does your parish have a facebook page?  What are some things that you post on your facebook page?  Is there anything important that you don’t post, but could?  What about the Prayers of the Faithful; Sunday readings; funeral dates and times; messages that drive folks back to your website?  If the sky was the limit, what other things could you think of?

·         What about youtube?  Could you post a message from your pastor?  What about videos of your youth, parish events, witness speakers.

What does your parish do already?  What new ideas do you have?  Please tell us in the comment box below (click on the line - no comment - and a comment box will appear) or send an email to parishstewardship@seattlearch.org.