Welcome Center Update - Summary of 2015

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1 By the Numbers PAC Meeting February We registered 176 new families they were all contacted via a phone call and an . We met with 37% of the new families. This is lower than the last 2 years. I have re-visited my approach to one-on-ones since most new families are double income families-working during my office hours. I am now meeting with multiple families on Sundays 1-2 times per month. 2. Our age category breakdown is (9 members did not include their age): a years old = 93 new families (starting their families, educating children in our YC and school) b years old = 56 families (they have older children and continuing to grow in faith) c. 55+ = 18 families (grown children, empty nesters, retired, established in their faith) 3. Out of the above age categories (and for those who responded to our occupation question on the registration form) the following families are dual income families : a years old = out of 93 new families 55% are dual income families (51 are dual income families; 25 families are single income families; 18 did not respond) b years old = out of 56 families 43% are dual income families (24 are dual income families; 14 families are single income families; 19 did not respond) c. 55 years old + = out of 18 families; 11% are dual income families (2 are dual income families; 4 are single income families; 10 are retired; 2 did not respond 4. The numbers stated above indicate that over half of our new members who are starting their families and educating their children in our YC and school are dual income families. Meaning, both people work all day and have busy weekends. How do we minister to dual income families? These families are our future. 5. We hosted 2 social events: one spring donut morning (9:00 and 10:45 Masses) garnering approximately 80 people per Mass (mostly new families) and we tried a fall Pasta Party (described on the next page). 6. General demographics/information about our new members: a. Many families have moved from the city out to the suburbs. b. We have a number of alums (both from school and/or parish) moving back into parish with their families. c. We have had a number of families moving into the subdivisions South of 79 th (our old southern border). d. We saw a number of families changing parishes from St. Isaac s to SJC. e. We are seeing more families changings parishes from St. Cletus to SJC. This includes empty nesters, SJC school families and our YC families. f. Many new families register because they prefer our 7 th and 8 th YC home groups. g. We are seeing more new members with the working wife keeping her maiden name and combined families with different names after divorce. Therefore, we need to make sure we are accurate in our data entry to reflect the correct names and marital status.

2 7. Monthly Breakdown of New Members New Members January February March April May June July August September October November December I really believe the questions are: a. What s next for our new families? b. What are we doing to ensure we are a parish in 25 years? c. Are we teaching/guiding/ministering to our new (and current) families? d. Are we reaching/meeting the millennials (18-33 year olds) in the format that they respond best to? e. Are we teaching our year olds what our faith and our parish is all about so they can share this with their children? These young people are our future.

3 Additional Information Welcome Center Advisory Team I now have a Welcome Advisory Team. The team has met 3 times and will be: 1. Helping with 2 annual social events (donut mornings, Pasta Parties, etc). 2. Meet 3-4 times per year to assist Welcome Center on meeting with new families and to contribute to the success of the Welcome Center. 3. Sending a hand-written note in the mail to new members. Pasta Party-New Parishioner Fall/Spring Social Event The goal of the Pasta Party was to introduce the new families to the parish and to other new families. We had 26 new families attend our Pasta Party on September 20 after the 5:00 Mass. Several staff members joined us as well as 2 families who helped host the event. We catered mostaccioli, bread, salad, dessert, pop, water and wine. It was a successful event. We are planning for another Pasta Party in April. Mom s Club I know that the Mom s Club falls under the Women s Club, but I am working with Anne McFadden who has restructured the program. Anne is one of my newish members and most of her mom s are new members. She has put a GREAT program together for new mom s including speakers, cocktail night and outreach. Her programs are garnering about mom s. She is doing a family social night at the Village Club on February 27 and there are 126 people registered (including husbands and children). What a GREAT ministry engaging mom s who engage their husbands and their children. Parish Directory We delivered the 2015 Parish Directory. We received 1300 directories FREE from LifeTouch (based on the number of parishioners photographed). All parishioners photographed receive a FREE directory (not everyone has picked up their directory). We also gave directories to those who did NOT get their pictures taken; we did NOT charge these families. We have 19 boxes in inventory which is about 600 directories. I will be giving out parish directories to all new families. When we run out (in approximately 3 years, we will have the opportunity to purchase more at the cost of approximately $8/directory. Mary Beth Drafz is busy imputing the pictures (of those who had their picture taken) into PDS. Outreach Our new members are looking for service opportunities for their families. Several got involved in Harvest Saturday and Share Christmas. They have asked about more family-focused service events held at the parish. One of my new members, Marnie Dowd, is working with Bill Bright to bring family-focused service events to the parish. I m also looking forward to Laurie Smillie s outreach opportunities being posted on the website.

4 On the lighter side: A Church Service in PASTOR: "The Lord be with you!" CONGREGATION : " And with your spirit" PASTOR: "Will everyone please turn on their tablet, PC, ipad, smart phone, and Kindle Bibles to 1 Corinthians, 13:13. And please switch on your Bluetooth to download the sermon." "Now, Let us pray committing this week into God's hands. Open your Apps, BBM, Twitter and Facebook, and chat with God" "As we take our Sunday tithes and offerings, please have your credit and debit cards ready." "You can log on to the church Wi-Fi using the password 'Lord ' The ushers will circulate mobile card swipe machines among the worshipers: a. Those who prefer to make electronic fund transfers are directed to computers and laptops at the rear of the church. b. Those who prefer to use ipads can open them. c. Those who prefer telephone banking, take out your cell phones to transfer your contributions to the church account. The holy atmosphere of St. John s becomes truly electrified as ALL the smart phones, ipads, PCs and laptops beep and flicker! Final Blessing and Closing Announcements. a. This week's ministry cell meetings will be held on the various Facebook group pages where the usual group chatting takes place. Please log in and don't miss out. b. Thursday's Catechism Study will be held live on Skype at 1900hrs GMT. Please don't miss out. c. You can follow your Pastor on Twitter this weekend for counseling and prayers. God bless, and have a nice day. AMEN!!

5 Mission of Welcome Center --HISTORICAL INFORMATION-- The Welcome Center is celebrating its third year at St. John of the Cross. The Welcome Center is open 2 days a week for one-on-ones as well as on Sundays for those that are unavailable during the week. During our one-on-ones, I ask our new families, Why St. John s, Why Now? This gets the conversation started. We start to understand why it is that our new members are choosing St. John s and the reason for their joining at this time. Some of the reasons I have heard over the last year include: 1. We were church shopping and we liked St. John s because: a. The bulletin showed us that St. John s is modern and doing exciting things b. The people in the pews were friendly and accepting. c. We wanted to live close to our church and school (in Springdale) 2. People have said: d. We are alums and we couldn t wait to come back e. We are baptizing our baby so we thought we d register. f. We just moved into our house, into the neighborhood and wanted to register. Welcome Weekend In the past, we celebrated 2 Welcome Weekends a year which is defined by: 1. At each Mass, we open with a Welcoming Message by the cantor. 2. We pray for the new members during the Prayers of the Faithful. 3. We asked the new members to stand at the end of mass and the parish raises their hand to bless the new members.- No longer 4. We invite new members and ALL parishioners to join us for hospitality in the parish center. 5. In October it worked out VERY well after the 9:00 Mass because we had the children s choir families, YC families and Women s Club registration drive. We had approximately 85 people. After the 10:45 Mass we had about 45 people. My suggestion would be to host the hospitality only after the 9:00 Mass when the children s choir is singing and when YC has class. People are interested in Outreach We ask our new members: Why St. John s, Why Now? I am now following up with What s Next? Now that our new members are registered and given an orientation, I am trying to keep them engaged with Outreach. I have been working with Bill Bright, Katie Hayes and Laurie Smiley on Outreach opportunities.