This document discusses the need for Catholic parishes in Australia to explicitly focus on spiritual and numerical growth. It notes that many parishes currently do not have plans for growth and assume people are becoming disciples without evidence. The document advocates for parishes to have clear visions for growth, plans to achieve their visions, and practices like leadership focused on growth, adult formation, and small groups to foster discipleship and strengthen bonds of faith.

1. Growing our Parishes:
Vision & Practices for Making Disciples
Daniel Ang
Email: DAng@parra.catholic.org.au
Blog: www.timeofthechurch.com
Twitter @DanielAngRC

2. • Parishes remain the primary experience of
Church for many Catholics
• A “critical moment” for the parish in the
Australian Church
• 5.4 million Catholics in Australia
• 662,000 Catholics attend Mass on any given
weekend (a 12.2% attendance rate)
The pastoral reality
These statistics are taken from Robert Dixon, Stephen Reid and Marilyn Chee, Mass Attendance in Australia: A Critical
Moment. A Report Based on the National Count of Attendance, the National Church Life Survey and the Australian Census
(Melbourne: ACBC Pastoral Research Office, 2013).

3. The pastoral reality
• A third of all Mass attenders are between 60
and 74 years of age
• Of all Catholics aged between 20-34,
only 5-6% of these attend Mass
These statistics are taken from Robert Dixon, Stephen Reid and Marilyn Chee, Mass Attendance in
Australia: A Critical Moment. A Report Based on the National Count of Attendance, the National Church
Life Survey and the Australian Census (Melbourne: ACBC Pastoral Research Office, 2013).

4. The pastoral reality
• Migrants account for over 40% of all Mass
attenders
• Second-generation Australians, the children of
Catholic migrants, are far less likely to practice
than their parents
These statistics are taken from Pastoral Research Office E-News Bulletin, ‘Issue 18: Who goes to Mass? -
First results from the 2011 NCLS - 2 December 2012’. Available online at
http://www.pro.catholic.org.au/pdf/ACBC%20PRO%20E-News%20Bulletin%2018.pdf. Accessed 18/8/14.

5. The pastoral reality
• 13,000 Australian Catholics stop attending Mass
each year
• Across all age groups more than 20,000
Australians every year cease to identify
themselves as Catholic
These statistics are taken from Dixon, Reid and Chee, Mass Attendance in Australia: A Critical
Moment, 4; and Robert Dixon and Stephen Reid, ‘The Contemporary Catholic Community: A
View from the 2011 Census’, Australasian Catholic Record 90/2 (2013): 144-146.

6. Consequences
• The prospect of Catholic institutions, including
schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, nursing
homes and aged care facilities but fewer
parishes where worship of God enjoins a
community of believers
• We need our parishes to grow as they are
integral and indispensable to spiritual identity of
the Church

7. The problematic
• Many parishes:
o have few or no plans to grow
o have no explicit vision for making disciples
o assume people are growing and disciples are
being made despite evidence to the contrary

8. God calls the Church to grow
“Go . . . and make disciples of all nations, baptising
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you’
- Matt. 28:19-20
“ . . . to pray and labour that the entire world may
become the People of God”
– Lumen Gentium 17

9. Where are we going?
• Parishes have not always made actual growth in
faith and the gaining of new members their
specific goals
• Without such clarity of purpose, parishes can be
resigned to a ‘decent minimum of religious
conformity’ and too many undigested
experiences of Mass and the Church

10. Parishes and discipleship
• 60% of Australian Mass attenders reported only
some or no spiritual growth through their
experience of parish life
• 72% of Australian Mass attenders reported that
they would not or did not know if they would
invite someone to their parish
These statistics are taken from NCLS Research, Denominational Church Life Profile:
The Catholic Church in Australia. A Report from the 2011 National Church Life
Survey (Strathfield: NCLS Research, 2013), 10; 17.

11. Fallout of a ‘no growth’ mentality
• We draw on the same, small pool of laypersons
for ministry and service
• We struggle with succession in ministries leading
to burn out and fatigue
• We become trapped in a self-affirming culture
neglecting our God-given purpose to evangelise
• We risk becoming communities content or
resigned to grow old rather than move forwards

12. Growth matters
• Interior growth goes hand in hand with
evangelisation, the commitment to reach out to
others
• We are called to grow in person and community
(spiritually and numerically)

13. Obstacles to Parish Growth
• Parishes called to be ‘schools of prayer’ (NMI 33)
but we assume people know how to pray
• We can assume our parishes are welcoming but
not attend to the experience of the newcomer
• We can assume those coming for the sacraments
are, ipso facto, disciples

14. Sacraments alone?
“An administrative approach
prevails over a pastoral approach,
as does a concentration on
administering the sacraments
apart from other forms of
evangelisation”
- Evangelii Gaudium 63

15. Discipleship
“. . . baptisms, confessions, weddings, funerals, daily
devotions, anointing, and adoration. It’s all good
stuff, it’s how some Catholics grow spiritually. For
others, it’s what they do instead of grow . . .
For certain, the sacraments give us grace to put us in
right relationship to God and his life in our soul,
nourishing and strengthening us for our discipleship
walk. But they’re not mean to replace it”
- White and Corcoran, Rebuilt, 77

16. Parishes and discipleship
• People can be ‘sacramentalised’ without being
evangelised
• If the concept of ‘discipleship’ is reduced to
liturgy or Mass attendance alone, then even the
practice of attending Mass is likely to weaken
over the long term as the very point of a
sacramental life is lost on those participating

17. Obstacles to Parish Growth
• The teaching mission of parishes has generally
focused on catechesis of children
• We need adult formation as adult Catholics
witness to younger Catholics what a mature
faith looks like
• Sources of adult formation normally limited to
the parish bulletin, a homily, the sign value of
the sacraments . . .

18. Practices of growth
• Leadership for growth
• Parish leaders and ministry groups must have
the desire to grow, have a renewed belief in
Jesus and his Church (‘disciples make disciples’)
• A parish vision for growth (clarity of purpose)
• What is the vision for your parish over the next
three years?

19. Practices of growth
• Parish planning
• Wanting to grow is not enough. We have to
plan and be organised to grow.
• Making no plans for growth results in little or no
growth every time
• When done well, planning processes allow a
parish to let go of those activities and groups
that do not make disciples

20. Practices of growth
• Recognise that the 90% of Catholics in your
parish who do not join us, our ‘unchurched’
Catholics, are not strangers nor are they
statistics
• Skill and empower practicing Catholics to start
the conversation of faith with their relatives,
friends, neighbours

21. Practices of growth
• Small groups
• “Community life” one of the most valued aspects
of parish life in Australia
• At the very bottom of this scale was
“small groups” and “reaching out to others”
This information was presented by Dr Claudia Mollidor, ‘Parish Life – Who’s Involved and Why?’ at the Pastoral
Research Office Conference: ‘Beliefs and Practices of Australian Catholics’, 20 February, 2014.

22. Practices of growth
• Prayer focused on the outreach of the parish
• Prayer brings us to what is most important in
our lives of faith
• Therefore, we should pray that the mission of
the parish will be effective, that our people will
reach out to others with joy, and that
relationships will be transformative (a lack of
prayer leads to a lack of time)

23. Summary
• We have surveyed the pastoral reality (parishes
key to our future)
• Retrieved the need for our parishes, ministries
and parish groups to set themselves the goals of
spiritual and numerical growth
• Discussed the consequences of a ‘no growth’
mentality and assuming discipleship in our pews

24. Summary
• Affirmed the need for leaders with a heart and
vision for growth
• Parishes with explicit and articulated purpose
• Adult formation that focuses on discipleship and
conversion
• Small groups to create bonds of faith that grow
discipleship