Our Lady of Hope is participating in an exciting
new endeavor being developed by the Faith
Division of the renowned Gallup Organization.
Shortly before Christmas 2006, 680 parishioners
completed a scientifically designed survey (ME25)
which measures a congregation's engagement,
spiritual commitment, and ministry outcomes. We
are now working to understand the significance
of our results and to use them as we plan our
future.
For Our
Lady of Hope's scorecard, please contact the Church office.
For more information on Gallup's ME25
go here.
For articles about the meaning
of the ME25 questions go
here.
Msgr. Hanson's letter of 11
March 07 about the Pastoral Council's follow-up
on the Gallup Research
Your
Pastoral Council wants to know…
The
Pastoral Council met on Monday evening and we
worked on some things which will help us
reaffirm our parish identity as we approach Our
Lady of Hope’s 20th anniversary.
Taking a lead from what the Gallup ME25 research
has already told us we decided to focus on the
subject of what makes our parish, Our Lady of
Hope, special. We are focusing on the core
values at base of the engagement pyramid where
we got notably high scores. These are the areas
of parish engagement which were expressed in the
two statements you responded to at my parish: “I
know what is expected of me” and “my spiritual
needs are met.”
As we go
forward to the next 20 years we want to build on
our strengths. We want to capitalize on the
things we are doing right. The rest will follow.
Thirty-three percent of you who responded to the
statement “As a member of my parish I know what
is expected of me” gave that a top score of “5”
(Strongly agree). 35% gave it a 4. Already
that’s 68% who agree. A further 23% rated it “3”
(neutral), leaving only 7% who tended to
disagree and only 2% who strongly disagreed.
Clearly the overwhelming majority of OLH
parishioners agree that they know what is
expected of them as members of the parish.
The
Pastoral Council would like to know more about
that. Especially because this is our first
outing with the ME25. It was not spelled out
what YOU think is expected of you, just that you
know that there are expectations. Two weeks from
today you will have the chance to tell us more
about what you think the membership
expectations are at Our Lady of Hope. Spell it
out for us. We are going to ask you through
another brief feedback survey. Next Sunday we
will distribute a form to get you thinking about
membership expectations. That way you can say
what you feel being a member of OLH means. We
will try to ask that question several ways to
help you get a bead on it. We’re working on the
instrument now but it might include things like:
“What does it mean to be a parishioner here?”
“What make OLH special?” “OLH is the parish
that…?” Help us define what makes us unique as a
Catholic parish.
By going
step by step like this, with the advice of our
friends from Gallup, we hope to be able to spell
out what are the values, vision, and mission of
Our Lady of Hope both up to now, and from now
on. If we can get most folks on the same page,
stir up a bit of enthusiasm, and take stock of
our strengths then we will get the confidence
and courage to find our way into the future.
A short
word of thanks for taking the time to give me
feedback on the Mass changes. I hope you can see
that the majority were approving; those who
disapproved were also heard and had a chance to
record their opinion. That’s why I reported all
comments verbatim. I was especially gratified by
the comment “thanks for asking.” I mean to make
that “asking” more and more a feature of how we
do business at OLH. After all, we’re all in this
together.
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