You may have heard this quote from Pope Francis, “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community.” (The Joy of the Gospel, #28)

As we envision the future together, we have partnered with the team at the Catholic Leadership Institute to grow into a Next Generation Parish. This experience provides our community with a process to assess our greatest opportunities and strengths, develop a plan to move into the future, and cultivate a deeper missionary spirit within the community.

Get involved today!

Together, our parish will move from maintenance to mission, as we fully embrace the four key traits of a vibrant parish. We increasingly seek to become a parish that:

• Fosters Spiritual Maturity with a plan for discipleship of its members
• Shares Leadership with a commitment to organizational health
• Offers a Vibrant Sunday Experience via hymns, homilies, & hospitality
• Embraces a Missionary Impulse to go out and bring others to Jesus

The Next Generation Parish experience takes approximately four years to complete. During this time, different groups help move forward a shared parish vision.

Phase 1 - PREPARE

To grow our parish for now and the future, the first step of the process is to learn about what a parish community is doing well and where there is opportunity to grow.  In 2022, the Saint Matthias community participated in a survey called the Disciple Maker Index (DMI).  From this we learned more about our parish and parishioners.

The Disciple Maker Index (DMI) is a survey that was completed by the parish in 2022.  In this survey parishioners answered questions about their faith and engagement in worship.  Thank you to all who participated in the survey.  The results offer benchmarks for understanding our parish’s greatest strengths and opportunities for growth.  For example - consider these findings about Saint Matthias:

•  71% of our parish attend Mass weekly and 85% agree or strongly agree that Mass helps them to grow in their faith
• 50% of our parish strongly agrees and 39% agrees that Saint Matthias supports their spiritual growth but 29% of our parish community wish to grow more 
• 60% of our parish strongly agrees and 28% agrees that Saint Matthias is a welcoming community
• Only 36% of our parish strongly agrees and 37% agrees that Saint Matthias is helping to develop a personal prayer life that connects them with God

For a summary of our Parish data, click here.

Phase 2 - ENVISION & PLAN

Learning from the DMI data, the parish community then develops a vision plan for the future.  During 2023 a group of parishioners at Saint Matthias, called together by the parish pastor, participated in the envisioning process. This process helped to articulate a Parish Purpose Statement, a Parish Vision Statement, Parish Values, Priority areas for growth, and Goals for the future.  

Upon completion of the DMI survey, the parish pastor at Saint Matthias identified a group of parishioners to serve as an Envisioning team for the Parish.  A special thank you to those who served in this role - Deacon Ernie Angiolillo, Amy Simon, Monique Timberlake-Brady, Gabriela Goodman, Allison Heid, Ray Nepomuceno, Roxanne Nepomuceno, Eileen Keenan, Maggie Duffy, Paul McVoy, Beata Kasia, Chris Kasia, Megan Zak, Father Brian Kean, and Monsignor Francis Beach.

First, the implementation team reviewed the DMI data and identified strengths within the parish and areas of growth across five foundational ministries.  The team identified the following:

Second, the Implementation Team crafted a Parish Purpose Statement to articulate why our parish exists, why our parish is important to the archdiocese, and why our parish is relevant in its contributions to the Kingdom of God.
To move from a parish purpose statement into action, the next stage of the envisioning process was to identify the Core Values of the parish.  The values represent the how.  Values inform our behaviors. These values will help St. Matthias parishioners move towards a vision and fulfill its purpose.   

From our parish purpose statement and values, the Implementation Team derived a Vision Statement for Saint Matthias. The vision statement seeks to describe where we see Saint Matthias growing into the future - the goal is to have a vision that is exciting, engaging, and challenging.  

Envisioning is a prayerful process of discernment. Prayer and our relationship with Christ was central to the process of developing a purpose statement, identifying values, and constructing a vision statement. As part of this process, concerns and opportunities were identified by the Envisioning Team and discussed to reflect an authentic vision for St. Matthias Parish Community.

The final step of Phase 2, the Envisioning process, was to identify three priority areas for growth.  The goal of this portion of the process is to leverage the best of what Saint Matthias parish has to offer while setting a plan that will transform our parish into the future. With each priority, the Implementation Team was tasked with identifying measurable SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals.  

Derived from our parish purpose, values, and vision, the Implementation Team identified the following 3 priorities with corresponding goals:

These priorities become the backbone to Phase 3 - Implementation. 

Phase 3 - IMPLEMENT

The implementation phase then takes the articulated parish purpose, vision, values, priorities, and goals from Phase 2 and puts them into action.  This phase empowers parishes to sustain and expand their pool of leaders by training support clergy, staff, and parishioners in leadership and evangelization.  At Saint Matthias, we are all called to participate in implementation.  

The Envisioning Team has identified 3 priority areas for future growth - Faith Formation, Service, and Parish Family (see above).  We will now begin to put implementation efforts into action to achieve the goals outlined for each priority area.  Each priority will be led by 2-3 parishioner-leaders.  These leaders will then look to the larger parish community to help them execute plans. We thank the following individuals for stepping forward to take on a leadership role: 

Faith Formation co-Leaders: Deacon Ernie Angiolillo and Carla Falco 

Service co-Leaders: Amy Simon and Maria and Bill Kuttruff

Parish Family co-Leaders: Monique Timberlake-Brady and Gerald Tran

During the implementation phase we will articulate why we are doing an activity, what success will look like, what is next, and what we want participants to do.  This webpage will be updated as Implementation Team work moves forward.

If you are interested in becoming involved, sign up on this page or please contact Kate Burns at kburns@saintmatthias.org.

Phase 4 - ASSESS & GROW

The final phase guides parishes in measuring the impact of efforts, celebrates successes and refines the parish plan.  In 2025, Saint Matthias will again complete the DMI survey, like in Phase 1.  We will then begin planning for the next steps, in the future.