“St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church is a growing and diverse community with a small parish feel. United in prayer and worship, we reach out to others, leading and serving as one with Christ.”
 
An Inspiring Vision of Our Future. From Our Parishioners.
Above is the vision statement that Fr. Albert and St. Paul’s Parish Pastoral council drafted in response to the voices of the hundreds of parishioners who participated in the broad survey effort in 2007 and 2008. But the specific vision of the parish tells a lot about the character, hopes, and ongoing conversion of our parish family. There is much more to our Vision than a statement alone can contain.
 
The feedback we got via hundreds of surveys from all corners of the parish spoke of excitement and hope for the future tempered with concern for trying to hold onto St. Paul’s core gifts and identity in the face of change. Specifically, these were the key themes that came from analyzing hundreds of questionnaires from parishioners and from prayerful discernment at a parish-wide visioning night.
 
Voice of The Parish Themes and Concerns:
1. Growing while retaining our small parish feel
2. Encouraging and managing diversity while staying "one St. Paul’s"
3. Outreach both near and far with St. Paul's as a community leader
4. Feeding our spiritual hunger
5. Meeting the challenge of resources (space, money, volunteers)
 
From the Vision, A Way Forward
 
The St. Paul Parish Pastoral Council met in retreat with Fr. Albert, Deacon Luis, and the St. Paul Staff in May to discern what plan of action the parish would pursue to start toward this vision.
 
First of all they focused on indicators of success. What kinds of things would we actually observe in a St Paul’s that is faithful to the vision the parish had set before us? There are many ways in which our parish could execute this vision, but we decided that the most important indicators to focus on were:
 

• Increasing the level of participation in small groups
• Increasing the number of active, vibrant small groups
• Increasing the number of parishioner-initiated ministries
• Increasing the number of parish volunteers
• Increasing participation in adoration
• Increasing the number of multicultural worship events
• Increasing the number and varieties of intentional spiritual growth opportunities in the various parish ministries
• Increasing the amount of involvement in outreach activities

It seems as if the Holy Spirit was helping us lay out the parish’s strategy over the next ten years by:

• Showing us that small groups were the key to keeping our small community feel while growing larger and more diverse as a parish.
• Showing that we need a strong foundation in prayer and adoration in order to be successful in ministry.
• Showing us that one of the key indicators of the effectiveness of worship is to what extent the parishioners in the pews are motivated to “go forth to love and serve the Lord”. The staff should increasingly encourage and equip parishioners to take the initiative in creating and leading ministry.
• Directing us to turn the focus of our dynamic ministries increasingly outward toward the community.

Each ministry is committed to work toward this new parish vision within the capacity of their own ministries.
 
Our Goals: Targets To Shoot For
 
But the leaders also determined some parish-wide goals to pursue that span all the ministries:

• Establish a parish volunteer coordinator
• Establish monthly activities email reminder/newsletter
• Create small groups by fall 2008 for: teachings of St. Paul, families with kids, families with teens, older couples, singles, cultural
• Monthly spiritual prayer experiences in the year of St. Paul
• Promote multicultural family events (all cultures represented in participation and planning)
• Increase the total number of volunteers by 10% within the next year
• Hold a volunteer appreciation night at least once a year
• Develop a dynamic, interactive website promoting events and with online prayer forums
• Develop an ad campaign (print materials, etc) aimed at new homeowners in the area and newcomers to the parish
• Adopt an apartment complex/neighborhood in the area to minister/evangelize to
• Create a welcoming ministry (at least 4 people per mass)
• Establish a sister parish in a developing country

These were discerned to be the most effective immediate parish-wide response to the parish’s renewed vision for the first decade in our new church.