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Putting Your Parish Plan Together
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Developing and implementing your Parish Pastoral Plan creates an energy among parishioners as they grow in faith formation and weaves spirituality of communion throughout their everyday lives.
Working with your parish, you will discern the needs and desires of your community which provide insights to drive the plan. We know this process works.
Parishes implementing their plans speak with joy about increased engagement and enthusiasm among parishioners and a stronger sense of belonging.Go into the world and proclaim the good news to all creation.
- Mark 16:15
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The Overall Planning Process.
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Effective planning is about developing a vision that addresses need and inspires others to follow.
The archdiocese offers resources for parish councils to take the necessary steps and required actions for a pleasant and fruitful planning process.
Facilitators can guide you every step of the way from forming a core team and training in leadership through a parish assessment process, selecting objectives and discerning the ones that best meet your parish’s needs. Once these needs are determined, the facilitator helps you identify and document actionable steps and tasks to support the objectives. Finally, you will receive help, guidance, and support in implementing and tracking the plan.
The right planning process is spiritual, energizing and efficient. You will generate a customized roadmap with actionable elements to live, nurture and share our Faith in richer, more extensive and profound ways.
It could not be easier, right? Check the available resources or Contact the Pastoral Planning team in the archdiocese to get started today.
The 7-Step Planning Guide provides essential elements for conducting the process in your parish.
What do you need to plan about? Study the seven common elements of Parish Life, and conduct an assessment on them or check the Pastoral Objectives in our Archdiocese.
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A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually
the best way to get there.
– H. Stanely Judd
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The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.
–Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
Wonderful things happen when people work together. As a member of your Parish Pastoral Council, you undoubtedly joined because you are eager to support your pastor’s vision regarding specific faith-based goals for the parish that tie to the archdiocese’s mission of spirituality of communion.
As advisory bodies to the pastor, you already bring positive, enthusiastic, and joyful attitudes to the planning process. If you have not embarked on a Parish Action Plan, what obstacles are you encountering? Do you find planning a difficult task? Do you feel you lack confidence or sufficient skill on the council to determine what to focus on and how to carry out the planning tasks?
The good news? The archdiocese has developed a purposeful and intentional process to assist you. The better news? There are experts “at-the-ready” to take you through the steps required for a successful planning process. Planning is not a solitary effort – it “takes a village”. Jesus had a team behind Him. You have a team to support you, and with the ultimate coach behind us, the Holy Spirit, we cannot fail.
Are you ready to help your parish grow in discipleship for Christ and serve the community? Members of the Pastoral Council should meet with the pastor to get the process started and understand his vision. Look around to see if you have the correct skills among council members to take your pastor’s vision and form the pastoral plan. If you require assistance, don’t hesitate to come to us. Let the archdiocese help you “get with the plan”.
To discern how to include new members in your parish Pastoral Council, please contact us.
Check Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium exhortation to live our faith in communitarian joy. How does this apply to your Pastoral Council?
Review Jim Townsend's article, explaining how Pastoral Planning starts with love and listening in our communities. A great tool for reflection in your pastoral council!
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A pastoral plan is not about filling out forms and sending them into the Chancery. It is about recognizing the Spiritual Destination of your community and putting in place the building blocks to get you there.
It is important to analyze the spiritual needs of your entire community to create a compelling and inspiring plan. Understanding improves through studying, listening, and surveying. Meanwhile, discernment comes through dialogue, prayer, and consensus.
Spiritual needs manifest in different forms, depending on age, gender, and family status but also on cultural and ethnic heritage. Therefore, it is important to study and understand the demographics in your area, so worship, evangelization, formation, service, community, and stewardship acquire lively and relevant meaning in your parish.
We have customized demographics reports available for your immediate use. While embracing diversity and inclusion, we move towards the kind and communitarian love Christ taught us to live. For access to this information, please have your Pastor contact the secretariat director for Pastoral Ministries.
You can also observe needs and dialogue about them before, during, or after Sunday Eucharist, in your parish ministries, and every community activity. Remember to look beyond your usual observation zone. Some basic, yet unattended, needs may surprise you. Occasionally, you will find your parish will need to attend to basic matters before moving forward into more elaborate pastoral programs.
Take a look at Bishop Barron and Word on Fire’s perspective on practical pastoral initiatives your parish can do to prevent parishioners from leaving the community.
After that, you will have an educated understanding of things and can have a more objective and comprehensive point of view.
Additionally, you can opt for a structured assessment if you'd like.
The archdiocese offers resources and facilitators to clarify how to organize your planning process, conduct discussions, choose appropriate activities, and help draft the plan. Ask for help. That is what we are here for.
If you want to improve your knowledge about pastoral councils, the elements of parish life, and the preparation of a pastoral plan, you may also find a great resource in this book:
Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council (2001) from Gubish, Jenny & McGannon.
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With an assembled team and the parish needs assessed,
it is time to plan.
You are about to embark on developing pastoral initiatives adapted to your parish, which will mold your community and have a profound influence on connecting parishioners with Jesus Christ, their church, the archdiocese, their community-at-large, and the mission of the church. The success and vibrancy of our parishes depend on building upon current opportunities and organizing new programs that help to live out the desired future.
Planning is not for the faint of heart, but it is not impossible. During the planning session, you will use valuable insights and knowledge compiled during the parish assessment, along with the pathways and objectives as starting points for faith formation and ministries.
However, what about our daily struggles, personal biases, and attachments? Intentionally let the Holy Spirit get involved in the process. There is a Discernment Action Team available to facilitate this action if you want. They will help you select or develop assessment questions to understand what’s most important to parishioners and guide you on where to invest in education, programs, and resources to help your community more joyfully live their life in Jesus Christ.
Do you want to know how to improve your discernment capabilities? We recommend these books for your reading:
Discernment, reading the signs of daily life. By Henri Nouwen.
What is Ignatian spirituality? By David Fleming.All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.
-St. Ignatius of Loyola
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What are the three secrets of a winning team?
- The right talent is recruited for the task;
- There’s a game plan; and
- They train to execute the plan, put it into action and refine it along the way.
You have defined your parish plan; what’s the next logical step? It is time to assign the right leaders and discuss the tasks so that together, you develop the programs and resources that translate the plan into actions.
How do you identify leaders to carry out the parish’s mission? Those who have the heart of a servant leader often raise their hands, but you may need to find others within the parish who have talents and abilities that support the goals. Connecting with them and encouraging their participation are essential to putting the plan into action.
Remember to write down your plan, indicating who will take care of what elements, and when is reasonable to expect positive results. The simple, but useful, practice of documenting commonly makes the difference between good intentions and great plans. We also have a format you will find convenient for this purpose.
You may be surprised with the vast pool of knowledge your parish members can offer. Moreover, mentors are also available through the archdiocese to help you find the leaders who will drive effective outreach and grow ministries that achieve the parish’s desired future. Please contact the office of Pastoral Ministries for more information.
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body . . . If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored,
all the parts share its joy.”
- 1 Cor 12: 12-13, 26
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Who does what and by when? Remember the format?
The value of any plan depends on the team’s ability to implement its strategies and track its effectiveness. How do you know if or when you have reached your goal if you do not have one? How do you take the good intentions of your planning and translate them into transformational actions? What are the right metrics to measure?
Remember. Execution, execution, execution. And also, keep track if the results were what you intended. If so, reinforce and keep going. If not, discern (refer back the section titled: The Big Day) some more, adjust and execute again.
Remember the purpose of a pastoral plan consists of improving our community love. Click here to take a look at Bishop Barron’s point of view. He provides a clear scripture-based way (Gal 5.22) to assess if our pastoral work is moving in the right direction.
At the Archdiocese, we can help with this too. Please remember to submit a copy of your plan to the Secretariat of Pastoral and Educational Ministries, so we can assist you to track your results and share with others, so we all benefit from the collective knowledge we create.
Here are other resources readily available to you:- Step by Step Planning Guide
- Pastoral Planning Booklet
- Sample Demographics Report
- Kickoff Meeting Agenda
- Spirituality of Communion Prayer
- Pastoral Planning Prayer
- Pastoral Planning Intercessions
- Parish Life Assessment Forms and Analytic Model
- Action Plan & Tracking Form
- Checklist for Completed Action Plan
- Ministry Charter template
Remember, if you need assistance, we are here to help.
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Often we envision a ‘strategic plan’ when someone says, “We need a plan!”.
However, a pastoral plan is NOT a strategic plan, nor is about financial planning for the parish, planning the weekly liturgy, outlining parish governance, nor programming for your Catholic school.
Pastoral Planning IS a prayerful and methodical practice by which the pastoral council assists their pastor to establish spiritual goals through listening, discernment, and prioritization. A pastoral plan addresses the current parish community’s spiritual needs. Done well, a pastoral plan lays the path for how best the parish is going to achieve its mission and leads parishioners in furthering our call to Jesus and our ability to lead others to Jesus.
The parish pastoral plan sets the optimal scenario for the Holy Spirit to act among us. It creates the most appropriate local background for our Spirituality of Communion to thrive.
Do you have the right resources and programs in place help your parishioners live a spirituality of communion? How can we help you catch “planning fever”? Contact us today.
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Contact Us
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Jim Barrettejbarrettearchgh.orgSecretariat Director -
rmedinaarchgh.orgDirector
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