To help you out, here are the instructions again:
a.
Research your parish/cluster Non-involvement (NI) rate
i. List
all teens (e.g. ages 13-17) who are registered in your parish
ii. Highlight
in yellow all teens who are enrolled in RE and Confirmation Preparation
programs
iii. Highlight
in pink all teens who are enrolled in a Catholic School
iv. Highlight
in green all teens who are active in another parish ministry (other than the
ones listed above).
v. Count
the number of teens that are not highlighted at all. These are your
“Non-Involved” teens
vi. Diving
the number of NI teens into your total number of teens. This is your NI rate.
vii. Bring
these lists and numbers with you to our next session.
My non-involvement rate is almost 6%. I can not say I am real surprised by this. I do think that having a smaller parish helps us to not have as high of a percentage of in-active youth. We have the opportunity to have a more one-on-one relationship with each youth and ability to do outreach to them. It is also possible that since many of us are in charge of more then one aspect of faith formation we are better able to keep track of who is participating and who isn't.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do not like seeing by this assignment is the repeat of declining activity following Confirmation. This is something that has been a problem for a long time. I like the idea of looking at a program where Confirmation doesn't feel so much like a graduation, but rather the next step in their spiritual/faith journey.
Our non-involvement rate is 57%. This breaks my heart. The non-involvement is in every grade however after Confirmation, the non-involvement rate is real close to 100%. Our parish has not had religious education classes for the 11th and 12th grade students for a number of years. I feel like this gives them the impression that Confirmation is graduation. Also, this is the first year that we've had youth ministry for the past 8 years; we just hadn't given them anything to stay involved in. I am really hoping to start turning that around here real soon!! Ugh...57% :( ..wanna trade?!
ReplyDeleteI believe we are somewhere in between. I did not redo this homework assignment but last year we were at 27%, mostly seniors after Confirmation. We also have a small number of teens at each grade level who have never been involved in RE or Confirmation.
ReplyDeleteWe had 52 confirmed last year. This year five were catechists, nine were in RE, two additional on our Peer Ministry Team. So RE and leadership programs provide opportunities for about 1/3 the seniors.
This coming year we are going to focus on connecting teens to current parish ministries and offering a year-round Wednesday night youth ministry. Our hope is the consistency will meet a need to connect in a safe place. The emphasis on parish connections came out of the Confirmation retreat when the teens said they felt connected to St. Paul School of Religion but not their parishes. I plan to count any parish involvement to reduce our non-involvement rate.
The other thing is we hope the year-round offering will help make it feel like Confirmation is just part of the faith journey and not the end. Same with parish involvement - moving confirmed into the lector and Eucharistic ministry roles. Our liturgy committees are sending letters to every newly confirmed person with a list of liturgical ministries and contact info to get involved. I am tickled the letter is coming from outside this office.
We are considering a teen ministry fair at the start of next school year. It will include both adult tables and teen tables to see if that draws interest. Think it will?
Our NI rate is either 9.8% or 19%. I found a little ambiguity in the labeling of involved/uninvolved. I'd like to hold the standard of involved meaning attendance at least 50% of opportunities; however, if we plan to count any parish involvement than I found the difference of about 10%.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally our parishes have had post-confirmation classes for juniors and seniors to attend. We confirm in 10th and 11th grade (possibly increasing NI rates for the reasons of I'm confirmed). However, one or two of our parishes had stopped doing post-confirmation classes and so we've had a revamping year; even moreso because we combined the post-confirmation classes to be cluster-wide. Additionally, we made it a requirement this year that at least 50% of post-confirmation classes needed to be attended in order to be recognized at Senior Mass. Thankfully 20 of 22 will be recognized these upcoming weekends. Per this requirement this year, there have been some heated discussions and certainly disagreement.
Father and I are trying to find a solution for as mentioned the "graduated" feeling after Confirmation. I feel that by not having Post-Confirmation classes we are only encouraging that mentality. Furthermore, Father isn't sold on the idea of Post-Confirmation and argues that energy should maybe to channeled more to Youth Group. However, with Youth Group being optional on Sunday nights (and also just starting this year) it is really hit and miss with the kids. Thankfully our community still respects and reserves Wednesday nights for church. I've had to talk to administration a couple times this year but they've been very cooperative--even to the point of cancelling baseball open gym so that the kids didn't have to choose.
I've learned that we are 'reaching' a large majority of our kids, but I'm not convinced that they are as involved as I would hope (especially when I look at mass attendance). Enough. . .
Our non involvement rate, similar to Brenda's is around 5%. Our small parish size and the fact that our parents are very sure of having the kids there. I also dislike how confirmation is looked upon as graduation and then we very rarely see these kids again. A few do return and help with various aspects of RE or do some LM once in a while but usually not.
ReplyDeleteI did not see a place to put the Warren comments, so here they are:
ReplyDelete1) I like how he brought in about cautioning rather than shoving people into catechesis. However, unfortunately the reality seems to be that if given a choice very few would attend RE as it is currently being presented, at least in my opinion.
2) The part about teachers recognizing and responding to the students' hesitations about religiousness is good in a perfect world, but different teachers bring different gifts to this area as to all areas of the process.
3) It is very important to recognize that the Church, however you define it, ultimately is made of those believing, struggling, worshiping people and not a pure perfect ideal.
4) Conversion does have an element of being a carefully planned process, as mentioned, but we always have to keep in mind the activity of the Holy Spirit, no amount of planning can stand in the way of or completely allow the work of the Spirit, sometimes we have to stand back and let that work
5) I would like to have the comment about paying closer attention to official church teaching fleshed out a bit more. I agree with this but wonder what exactly is meant by that in his context and how best to pass that on.
6) I agree that all people should be viewed as equal creatures of God and that this is the capstone of what we want to pass on to our young ones. This is very hard to see in our world as it is today, it was obviously very hard to see during Jesus' time as well, as His message was so misunderstood.