Living Your Strengths
Know Your Talents
Develop Your Strengths
"Cheryl Doiron ME25 Report"
September 10-11, 2011
Several months ago, 305 members of this parish filled out a survey, which was developed by Gallup, to measure spiritual engagement. In other words, it measured the spiritual health of Holy Family Parish. It is my privilege to share with you what you collectively told us in the survey.
Before I get into that, I want to do two things. Firstly, I want to say a personal "thank you". About six years ago, I started attending mass in this community on some weekends after purchasing a beach property at Jackson's Point. I was both surprised and deeply touched at the warm reception I felt from so many of you.
During my career in the Health field, I have lived and worked in six provinces across this beautiful country. No where have I felt more welcome than here in this parish. I did not need a survey to tell me that you are truly people of God.
I was even more impressed when I learned that you were going through the challenge of bringing two parishes together and building a new church. It is always difficult to let go of places which have been meaningful in your life like you had to do with Nativity and St. Charles. I have seen that so many times in hospitals and health regions which have been grouped and re-grouped. And I am sure that many of you still mourn aspects of your previous parishes. But while buildings are important and we all now have a lovely new one, you proved to me that the church is not just a building but church is the people. You played a major role in my decision to permanently move here when I retired two years ago. I am so grateful to be part of your church.
The second thing I want to do, before getting into the specific survey results, is to provide a little context. About a year and a half ago this parish began a journey called "Living Your Strengths". While this program has been active for a while in the States, the Archdiocese of Halifax is the first in Canada to undertake this process. There are currently seven parishes in our Diocese involved in this journey.
I call it a journey because it us not just a decision, although we did need to make a decision to start. And it is not just an event and it is not just a single survey. But it is a process which takes place over time. Through this process "we" individually and collectively, have the opportunity to become the best people we can be, live our gifts more actively and become even more spiritually alive as a parish community.
In his pastoral letter for Pentecost a couple of months ago, Archbishop Mancini said, "The Mission of Jesus Christ is now in our hands and its proclamation is now dependent on us and what we do with it. We are the church and our world awaits the Gospel which we will bring.”
I don't think he means we all have to start preaching on the street corners. Maybe one of the best ways of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is by being ourselves, and using the gifts God has given each one of us.
Ask yourself this question, "Do I see myself as God's gift to the world?" You are God's gift to the world. I have had very gifted and successful individuals tell me that they have no talent.
I like this quotation from 1 Corinthians where St. Paul says, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”
We are so used to putting ourselves down or being put down by the world around us, maybe at work, at school, by some social circle, sometimes even at home.
The Living Your Strengths process does the opposite. One part of the program focuses on the Parish community and we will get to that later. The other aspect focuses on the individual so we are able to better understand our unique talents and make a choice about developing them into strengths. And do you know the best part of this deal? You will never be happier than when you are fulfilling God's will by using your strengths. I guess you could say that when you act on your God-given talents it becomes an expression of love and spiritually elevates all of us. We are likewise diminished by those who bury their talents under a bushel and never fulfull their God-given potential. But we each need to continue to work on this as we go through life and we need support.
One way our Parish supports us in Living Our Strengths is by providing three 2 hour sessions to explore our talents and strengths. So far about 45 of us have gone through this process and we will begin two more groups of 12-15 parishioners this fall.
You amy have noticed that we now have a wall in the Gathering area which highlights "Living Your Strengths". Below the lovely lettering, provided for us by Maria Boudreau, you will see a photo album which contains the names and 5 top or Signature Strengths of each person who has completed these sessions. We are working at having their photographs included as wel, thanks to Glen White and Ross Ward.
Those who attended these sessions suggested that we have one or two gatherings per year to refresh our commitment to Living Our Strengths. There will be a workshop for all past groups on Saturday, November 5, led by Maryn Anderson, who is a Pastoral Associate at St. Marguerite Boureoys Parish.
Please get in touch with Deacon Howard or myself if you would like to attend the new sessions this fall. Dates for the first group of the fall (Group 1) are:
- October 23
- October 30
- November 6
Dates for our second group of the Fall (Group 2) are:
- November 20
- November 27
- December 4
The Parishwide focus began with the survey which you completed ealier this year. Firstly I'll review a few of our Parish demographics.
This is likely no surprise to anyone, remembering that only those 18 and above participated, they tell us that 70% of us are 55 and older.
They also illustrate that 80% of you have been a member of this Parish for more than 10 years.
We must be a bright lot, because the survey showed that 85% of us has high school graduation or higher. In fact 67% have attended college, technical school or higher education.
While we have great need in our Parish with 36% having an annual income of less than $30,000 dollars, we also have reasonable resources with 33% of us making an income of $60,000 dollars or greater.
It was interesting to note that of those who completed the survey 64% were female and only 36% were men. It also showed that 81% of us had attended mass the previous week.
Now, to the meat of the survey. As I mentioned at the beginning, the survey is intended to measure the engagement level of Parish members.
- Gallup defines engagement in the following way:
- ENGAGED - These members are loyal and have strong psychological connection to their parish, they are spiritually committed.
- NOT ENGAGED - These members may attend regularly, but they are not psychologically connected to their Parish. Their connection may be more social than spiritual.
- ACTIVELY DISENGAGED - They are on the membership roles and can tell you what parish they belong to, but show up only once or twice a year, if at all.
The first two categories both have positive aspects and I wish Gallup had named them differently, like highy engaged and moderately engaged. Our efforts will focus on these two areas so that over time, our surveys will show an increased percentage of highly engaged members. Here is what the numbers look like today.
As you can see, 77% of us fall in the categories which have the most potential for positive change.
Over the summer, some of us have been working with Father Vernon and Deacon Howard with the help of other parishes and Gallup staff to understand how to go about this. In order to come up with the percentages you see, you answered 25 questions. We cannot tackle this objective from 25 directions, all at the same time.
We were advised by Gallup to start with two questions, they also advised that we first look at a question where you indicated strength and then choose a question where you indicated less strength. They called it strength and struggle.
The two questions we decided to address are:
“ As a member of my Parish, I know what is expected of me.”
and
“In the last month, I have received recognition or praise from someone in my Parish.”
In the question regarding expectations, we scored 4.01 out of a possible 5.00. That's pretty god, but we have room to be come even stronger.
In order to do this, the working group which met over the summer developed a plan. Gallup calls this "impact Planning". Even though you scored well on knowing what the parish expects of you, we need to discover what we really mean by that, and if, in fact, we have similiar ideas. Two weeks from today, during mass, you will be given an opportunity to provide a written response to the question:
“ What do you think are the three (3) most important things expected of you as a member of Holy Family Parish?”
In order to facilitate a better understanding of expectations, we are also working on a Parish information package. When its is ready this fall, we will provide it to anyone who wishes a copy but we particularly want to make it available to new parishioners. It will also be available on-line.
At a minimum, the package will include pictures of the church, a brief description of each ministry or group within the Parish and ministry response cards so new parishioners will feel free to ask questions or volunteer for one or more ministry. The Parish Pastoral Council will also be involving you in the development of a Holy Family Parish Mission Statement which will be included in the package when available. Other ideas for the package will be gratefully received.
The second initiative we wish to further develop has to do with creating a culture of recognition and praise in our Parish community. On this question we scored 3.41 out of a possible 5.00.
That says that many of you already put the giving of recognition and praise into practice. But it also shows that we have even more room to improve in this area. We do not need to find great things to recognize. I know how much it means to me when someone says "you read well today" or it may be that you notice a parishioner going out of their way to make someone smile.
There are people in our Parish who quietly give their time and talent witout being noticed. An example which comes to mind is the great job Linda Fraser does week after week designing beautiful slides for announcements and parts of the Mass. And, how many of you know which Parish members made and planted the attractive flower boxes outside?
We would like to encourage more recognition and praise in our Parish environment, but just like your individual strengths, if you develop and practice them more actively, you will take them with you wherever you go, at home, in the larger community and at work or school.
In order to assist us in enhancing this culture, we are developing both recognition cards which will be located on the Living Your Strength display in the Gathering Area and thank you cards which will be used by the Parish and Parish committees to express appreciation when appropriate. I say "when appropriate" because, as you know, it must be sincere. Effective recognition and praise must also be specific, timely, proactive, and meaningful.
We Have Begun!!! In another year or so we will conduct the survey again to see if we are making progress and decide where our next impact plans will focus.
Archbishop Mancini, in his Pentecostal Letter, also said, “With the goal of New Evangelization in mind, a major commitment of the Church of Halifax and Yarmouth must be to bring about engaged dynamic communties of faith with those people and gifts which presently exist in each Parish...” WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE.
As Benedictine Spirituality says, "We have everything we need, and we need everything we have."