“How can we best accomplish what God has in mind for us? How can we best use
the gifts and talents of the people who are part of this parish?” Reads Fr. Robert
Rosebrough’s letter to his parishioners. He continues, “These are important questions, and we’ve been wrestling with them for quite some time at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.”
At the age of 66 and 40 years ordained, Fr. Rosy is enthusiastic about the skills he is learning in Good Leaders, Good Shepherds. He is even more excited about sharing these practices with those who serve the parish. He has made it a priority to engage his staff and key leaders in the curriculum. Taking the time to review the materials with them and even create a Good Leaders, Good Shepherds pocket manual. Armed with this knowledge, the Parish Council embraced Fr. Rosy’s recent new agenda item: How do we tap into people’s passion to attach them to our mission? With a confident leader and a process in place, they knew the initiative was achievable.
Good Leaders, Good Shepherds provides priests with practical approaches on recruiting and chartering teams that have a clear mission and set of priorities. Utilizing this skill set, Fr. Rosy and the Parish Council chartered an ad hoc committee called the “Impact Team” to assess the level of engaged parishioners at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Fr. Rosy invited Gallup, an independent research company, to conduct a census of the adult members of the parish. The survey assessed the percentage of parishioners who were either actively engaged in the life of the parish, were only minimally engaged or were actively disengaged from the faith community. The survey reported that only 29% of the parishioners at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta were actually considered engaged members “(consistent with national averages).”
Again, utilizing the practices taught in Good Leaders, Good Shepherds, the team constructed specific goals to increase parish engagement to 40% within the next four years.
The team targeted families within the parish boundaries and invited them to attend a series of small town hall meetings. These meetings centered on identifying passions and discovering where those passions could be developed for the good of the parish. Of the 500 households identified, 36% attended over the course of six meetings held during the month of August.
“We are just beginning to see the fruits of this initiative,” said Fr. Rosy. “People’s eyes are now opened to what is available to them and to the places where they can use their gifts. It is a very exciting time for our parish, I have Good Leaders, Good Shepherds to thank for helping me to develop the process and systems and for giving me the tools to make this a reality.”
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