Next Generation Parish
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What is a Next Generation Parish?
July 2024
In the fall 2023, about 250 men and women met every Monday at Saints Martha and Mary for seven weeks. 250 adults. Every Monday. For two hours.
Some were seniors, some empty nesters, some young parents (a few even brought their kids). Most were parishioners, and others weren't even Catholic.
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They came to "search." They wanted to know more about their life. Where did all "this" come from – people, the planet, the heavens? Why are we here? What can we know about God? What happens when we die?
They came with these deep questions and many more. And, the great news is, they got answers.
After the program ended, some attendees felt affirmed in what they believed. The majority were enlightened and grew deeper in their knowledge of the faith and developed great relationships with others. Several rededicated themselves to the faith and got more involved.
This is a Next Generation Parish!
Saints Martha and Mary Parish is thriving. We are a place of joy, welcoming and love – all sourced from the saving power, grace and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
As Roman Catholics, we exist to draw ourselves and others closer to Jesus and to eventually enter complete communion with Him, Our Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven. To continue to strengthen and grow our parish in word, sacrament and community and to create a sustainable and vibrant church for our children, we are building our Next Generation Parish (NGP) today.
The NGP initiative started when Bishop David Zubik asked all parishes in the Pittsburgh diocese to create pastoral plans for the next three years. We've now completed our plan with the donated support of the Catholic Leadership Institute, and it details a blueprint for what our NGP can be and how we hope to get there. This plan is based on the tremendous response of our parishioners to the parish survey conducted in the spring 2023.
While most parishes responded to their surveys at a rate of 25% to 50% of their Sunday Mass attendance, Sts. Martha and Mary had a response rate of more than 70%! We can't thank our members enough!
The data we collected, along with guidance received from the Holy Spirit, enabled us to create meaningful priorities that are guiding the implementation of our NGP plan.
The identified priorities are to:Grow in knowledge of our Catholic faith
Develop a stronger prayer life, and
Strengthen engagement in parish life
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A team of lay volunteers, guided by Fr. Bob Vular, Fr. Mike Roche and parish staff, have been working hard to create plans to achieve these priorities. Additionally, NGP is supported by the hard and prayerful work of Sts. Martha and Mary’s Pastoral Council, which operated as the Envisioning Team in this process. Their thoughtful and prayerful discernment of their role as Pastoral Council made them the ideal group to create the game plan for our parish to flourish through the NGP process.
The result of their work is the expression of our parish's Purpose, Mission, Vision and Values, plus the priorities for NGP's implementation.
To learn how you can get involved in shaping our Next Generation Parish, please reach out to Gary Fritsch, director of Evangelization.
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Gary Fritschgfritschsmmpgh.orgDirector of Evangelization
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