2024 Family-friendly New Year’s Eve. Photo courtesy of Sunburnt Studios.
By Laurie Stiegelmeier
The American family continues its descent into crisis mode. “The Fifth Annual Index of Family Belonging” found that 54 percent of U.S. children reach their 17th birthday without married parents in their home. At the same time, according to “The American Family Survey 2015-2018,” “nones”—unaffiliated with any religion—are increasing rapidly generation to generation. In contrast, millennials from married homes are 78 percent more likely to attend church than their peers from unmarried homes.
Communio, a nonprofit ministry, does not believe that family and church decline are randomly simultaneous, but rather correlative. It states that the primary factor behind the mass exodus from religion appears to be the collapse of the family and that churches are in a unique position to repair both. Their website, communio.org, claims that partnering with Communio drives divorce rates down and both church attendance and weekly generosity up.
To achieve this, Communio assists with analyzing the marriage and relationship health of church and community members with survey and data insights tools. Then Communio equips the church with its Data-Informed, Full-Circle Relationship Ministry® to strengthen the relationship health of the church and evangelize the community at each stage: single life, pre-marital formation, marriage enrichment, and marriages in crisis. Predictive analytics and data insights then continuously identify those in relationship-need to micro-target outreach.
The climb begins
The first rung of the Ministry Engagement Ladder® is a wide-reaching invitation to community, beginning with outreach events. Churches host two or three community outreach events, creatively designed to include enrichment content with fun. Attendees are invited to register for the next rung on the ladder—Ongoing Engagement.
On this rung the church hosts smaller monthly gatherings or experiences, like date night or family night. Outreach attendees grow in friendship and build strong relationships at the same time that enrichment content increases.
The final rung is Growth Journey. Churches regularly host couples and individuals in small or large group gatherings that are about half relationship enrichment and half fun. Communio provides churches with ideas on skills-based content.
On the way up
Holy Spirit Parish, part of Good Shepherd Pastorate, is already off the ground with Communio’s process, defined at Holy Spirit as Relationship Ministry.
During his assignment at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, Good Shepherd Pastor Father James Mason became acquainted with Communio’s founder and president, J.P. DeGance. On his return to Sioux Falls, familiarity with DeGance and his book, “Endgame: The Church’s Strategic Move to Save Faith and Family in America,” led Father Mason to initiate Communio at Holy Spirit as part of their Set Ablaze pastoral plan.
Discipleship and Evangelization Director of Good Shepherd Pastorate Julie Wieseman explained that southeastern Sioux Falls is growing rapidly; a burgeoning population surrounds Holy Spirit. “Father Mason saw this as an opportunity to engage people who remain in, or move to, Sioux Falls. By hosting Outreach Events to the community, Holy Spirit creates a welcoming environment and draws people to the Church. This is an opportunity to continue to extend invitations so that people flow into Ongoing Engagement activities and into skill-based offerings in the Growth Journey.”
Discussions began in summer 2023. Then on two consecutive weekends, Mass attendees 18 and older were invited to complete a relationship health survey—one for singles and one for couples. After compiling the survey results, strategic planning began in late August that year and the first Outreach Event was held on Sept. 30.
Rung by rung
Holy Spirit began by casting the net as broadly as possible to include the community as well as current members of the church. They then held two Outreach Events: Fall Festival in September and Family-friendly New Year’s Eve in December. “Attendees gave glowing reports on both,” Julie said.
An All-Saints’ Day Celebration for families is one example of an Ongoing Engagement activity. For couples, a date night held at Blarney Stone featured Dr. Chris Burgwald, diocesan director of discipleship formation. His talk on building a eucharistic marriage was also reinforced by offering a skills-based course. Another Ongoing Engagement focused on young adults; about 73 enjoyed community and food in Holy Spirit’s parking lot for the launch of Sioux Falls Catholic Young Adults.
Julie says these events and activities have created a powerful energy at Holy Spirit. However, offering activities along each rung of the Ministry Engagement Ladder requires people. “The pastorate team is of a modest size, while the time needed to strategize, organize and implement is great. In a world where volunteerism is declining, it takes a great deal of discussion to find new volunteers for the many activities,” she said.
A better view at the top
In addition to the energy, Holy Spirit is experiencing growth. Julie explained that while not all growth is attributable to Communio/Relationship Ministry, it is a positive fruit of all that is happening at the church. These statistics are encouraging:
Steady growth in engagement: The 2023 Fall Festival drew an estimated attendance of 1,500 people, while the 2024 festival attracted an estimated 2,100. In 2024, an almost equal number of non-members joined current members at the event.
Growth in new memberships: Since August 2024, 74 families have joined Holy Spirit, an average of about 15 new families per month. As of December 2024, the number of registered families is just over 2,300—up from the prior family membership of over 1,800 in May 2021.
“At the beginning of Holy Spirit’s engagement with Communio, goals were set; in many areas to date, we have exceeded them,” Julie said. “Communio recommended a 15 percent increase, but Father Mason set Holy Spirit’s goal at 18 percent to build-in the growth being experienced in the Sioux Falls community.”
That means Holy Spirit’s growth goal was set to increase average Mass attendance from 2,033 to 2,399 by June 30, 2026. As of April 2024, Holy Spirit’s Mass attendance averages just over 2,400, already over the goal 14 months early. Julie said that Communio considers Holy Spirit one of its leading examples among organizations it works with.
Since Communio markets itself for all denominations, both Father Mason and Julie have been in conversation with Catholic churches in Fargo, Chicago and St. Louis to share Holy Spirit’s leading practices and learning. They are also in discussions with Communio to curate more Catholic-specific content.
A high calling
“At Holy Spirit, we learn something new each time an event is offered,” Julie said. “Father Mason is committed to sharing our learning and leading practices with other pastorates throughout the Sioux Falls Diocese.”
We all share Holy Spirit Parish’s mission of bringing souls to Jesus Christ through strong marriages, relationships and families. Together, with work and prayer, let’s raise our faith and our families to renewed heights.
Laurie Stiegelmeier is active in faith formation for all ages at St. John de Britto Church, Our Lady of the Snows Pastorate. Above career and volunteer work, being a mother and grandmother is the most important and rewarding “job” she ever held.
