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Welcoming people home is a great act of love!
This is an invitation for parishes, through the guidance of the pastor, to organize a basic initiative to welcome people home. Just like the Good Shepherd, we need to call each of the lost sheep home. This is a powerful way to ensure every person feels known and welcomed as an individual member of your parish family.
Our Parish Family Needs to be Re-United
It’s a familiar story: the family you used to see at Mass every week slowly stopped showing up when “life got busy.” Or maybe there’s a parishioner who just didn’t connect with others. Noticeable or not, there are empty places in our pews.
We Entrust this Initiative to God
An essential aspect of this initiative is prayer.
Ongoing opportunities for all parishioners to pray for people who have been away from the parish will bear great fruit. This may include intercessions at Sunday Mass and weekday Mass, which is a great way to involve the entire parish in prayer for this meaningful renewal! It will be beneficial, and necessary, to invite a group of individuals who will be dedicated to praying on a regular basis so that many hearts will be open to return home.
Let us pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and fortitude to carry out this sacred mission.
What are the Goals?
The goals of this initiative are to provide:
1) occasions for people to feel welcomed home to the parish community
2) opportunities to encounter Jesus Christ and His Church
3) a designated parishioner to walk, for an extended period of time, with a specific adult being welcomed home. Each person returning to the parish will need a carefully-chosen parishioner to accompany / support them on this journey.
Let us welcome each soul with open arms, rejoicing as they return to the embrace of the Lord Jesus and His Church. The opportunity to have a warm connection with members in the parish family will allow them to experience God’s love, mercy, and goodness
Who Do We Invite?
Before you begin outreach, the clergy, staff, and parish team will need to discern the following.
- After the parish is committed to praying for this initiative, asking God to richly bless it, the next step involves identifying specific people who have been away from parish life. Who are the people that the parish community is called to welcome home?
Compiling a List
The downloadable Pew Cards (4 per page) may be provided to parishioners so that they can share whatever information they have about any Missing “VIP” – which stands for a Very Important Parishioner who has been away. Based upon the information gathered from the Pew Cards, and looking over the parish membership roll for further possible names, a list of people can be compiled. There are resources provided below for the various ways that people may be contacted, i.e. in person, by phone, by letter. It will be helpful to divide the list of names among those parishioners assigned to contact people, in the manner that will be most meaningful for each individual.
Parish Resources
Once parishioners have begun praying, and there have been efforts of discernment about the people who will be contacted, it’s time to contact those who have been away from parish life!
Below are a variety of resources you can use to welcome people home who have been away from the parish. Each parish community is a little different, so choose the methods of communication you believe will be the most personal and effective for the people you serve. If you feel inspired to “welcome one home” in a different way, that works too! There is plenty of room for creativity in this effort. A Rosary is being prayed each Wednesday by the Diocesan Curia for this effort.
- Scroll down on this page for resources and information to get started!
To print, choose fit to paper and flip on long edge.
Letters
One of the best ways to reach parishioners who have been away from the parish is with a direct, personal invitation in the form of a letter. Below, you’ll find a few options for letters you can use as a template.
Choose the letter that will best resonate with your community, and copy the text of that document onto your parish letterhead. Feel free to personalize the content, and be sure to edit the custom fields so they contain the correct information!
Mail a letter to each person on the outreach list you discerned above. These invitations can also be sent via email, but in general, a physical letter will be more impactful.
- Initial Letter
- We Miss You Letter
- Join the Parish Renewal Letter
Phone Calling
Having a conversation on the phone with each person will take time, but it is by far the most personal and effective way to connect with parishioners who have been away from the parish. An in-person conversation or phone call creates the opportunity for two-way communication. This provides an opportunity to find out why they haven’t been active at the parish and how they might need your prayers or other support. You may then respond appropriately to what they share, making them feel heard and welcomed as a member of your parish community.
Below, you’ll find a suggested phone script to use as a starting point for this outreach as well as some useful tips for this sort of call. Don’t let these confine your conversations, but rather use them for inspiration as you speak with and listen to parishioners!
Phone Calling
- Phone Script – Welcome One Home
- Best Practices for Welcome One Home Phone Calls
Best Practices
Here are some useful tips for engaging people over the phone:
Prepare with Prayer
Before you pick up the phone, ask Jesus to give you His Heart for this person. Invite the Holy Spirit into the conversation as He knows exactly what this person needs to hear. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide the exchange. Listen more than you speak and become aware of the inner promptings from the Holy Spirit on what to say and when to say it.
Keep Voicemails Short
Many people subconsciously associate the length of the voicemail with the amount of effort necessary to call back. Keep your first voicemail short and sweet. You can give more detail in the next voicemail if they miss your call a second time.
Don’t Monologue
Give the other person a chance to speak within the first 15 seconds. Asking something simple like “How have you been?” before launching into the reason for your call is a great way to get the other person more invested in the conversation.
Project Familiarity
Even if you don’t personally know the recipient of your call, they were/are a valued member of your parish family. On behalf of your parish, speak with the warmth that comes with that connection.
Use Your History
If you DID personally interact with the parishioner when they were active at the parish, include a few details at the right time into the conversation.
Assume the Best
The goal of every call is to make the person on the other end feel seen, heard, valued, and welcomed as a member of your parish community. They should hear genuine concern in your voice, never accusation or judgment.
It’s Time to Welcome People Home!
Ask Open Ended Questions
If you leave them room to answer with a yes or no, chances are they will choose to do so. These one-word responses won’t allow you to truly connect with the person on the other end of the call, and you won’t gain any insight into why they stopped coming to Mass or where they could use support from the parish community. Open ended questions allow you to encounter more of their heart and mind in their answers.
Respond Appropriately
Their responses might pull you “off script”—and that’s ok! The most important thing is that you connect with them, wherever they’re at.
Take Notes
When making a lot of calls, it can be easy to forget the details of each conversation. Have a pen and paper handy so you can remember what they shared with you, and jot some notes after the call. That way you can reference what you discussed next time you speak (e.g., “How’s your nephew feeling after his surgery?”).
Attempt to make a simple plan
If they have questions about Catholicism, have you set up a time for them to come speak with the pastor? If they’re homebound, are you going to send an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion to their home to bring them the Holy Eucharist? Or are they going to say hello to you after Mass this Sunday to continue your conversation? Do your best to get their verbal agreement to a specific action and timeline, without being pushy. The more specific the commitment, the more likely people are to follow through. If it seems appropriate, reiterate the agreement at the end of the conversation so they’re fresh in both your minds, and then make a note. To close out the conversation, it would be helpful to say, for example, “I’ll see you at 11am Mass on Sunday!” This makes it even more likely they will follow through.
Follow Up
Every person is different and so determine what is best in following up with each individual.
KNOWING JESUS IN A DEEPER WAY
RESOURCES TO LEAD OTHERS TO JESUS CHRIST
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