Description

As a new, larger parish takes form, we must become more intentional about spiritual friendship and a deeper commitment to helping one another mature as disciples. A thriving parish is one where the grace received in Sunday worship bears fruit in everyday discipleship.

The parish will develop small groups of 8–12 people: recurring, pastorally guided, and parishioner-led gatherings for prayer, formation, and mutual encouragement. These groups bridge Sunday worship and the rest of the week, helping discipleship take root in everyday life. They complement families, friendships, and broader parish life, not replace them.

Supporting Data

25% - When asked what would help families grow in holiness, 25% responded “community and small group fellowship”, indicating a need for belonging, spiritual friendships, and accompaniment.
64% - 64% of parishioners indicate they do not regularly practice devotion, study, or mission beyond Sunday. Parish life remains somewhat “Sunday-centric”.
23% - 46% of parishioners serve in ministry, and another 23% are “willing but idle.”

The Opportunity

We are starting from a solid foundation: 47% report meaningful parish friendships that strengthen faith; and 46% describe community, hospitality, and belonging as among current strengths. At the same time, parishioners are asking for more structured ways to build accompaniment above casual connection.

The listening sessions echoed this theme from another angle: parishioners want formation and accompaniment, not more activities. The 23% of parishioners who are "willing but idle" are the prime candidates to lead, host, or support this structure.

Conclusion

Parishioners are already asking for this kind of structure. The Discipleship Survey identifies “small groups & community-building” among the leading areas needing improvement because people want structure and repeatable ways to build relationships.

Small groups will provide the relational opportunity in which parishioners can be known, supported, and encouraged in Christian life.

Description

To hand on the faith across generations, our parish family should give younger parishioners a recognizable spiritual home: a visible center where worship, formation, and belonging reinforce one another.
Accordingly, the parish will designate Holy Family’s Sunday 5pm Mass as a youth-centered liturgical anchor for Youth Ministry. Youth programming, formation, fellowship, and related ministries can gather more naturally before and after this Mass – giving Youth Ministry a clear weekly center while no less connected to the wider parish family.

Supporting Data

68% - Parishioners identified ministry to children, youth, and young adults among the most effective ways to help families grow in holiness. This concern is reinforced by a meaningful number of Catholics age 14 and older who have not yet received Confirmation, and by the fact that 68% of households with adult children report that some or all have lapsed in the faith.

↓- The parish demographic profile is aging, which can make it less clear for younger parishioners and families to find places of connection in parish life. Passing faith from one generation to the next is a vital challenge, but it also brings exciting opportunities. 

18% - In the Discipleship Survey, 18% identify youth & family support among the leading areas needing development and growth.

The Opportunity

This initiative seizes an opportunity to concentrate Youth Ministry around an existing Sunday Mass rather than scattering efforts across many times and places. This 5:00 PM Mass can become a stable weekly anchor where worship, formation, fellowship, and service all reinforce one another.

Conclusion

Youth will be invited to serve in visible liturgical roles as lectors, altar servers, hospitality ministers, and musicians, while formation and fellowship can take place before or after Mass. In this way, the parish stands to make better use of limited resources while giving younger parishioners a clearer place of belonging and growth in personal discipleship.

Description
The sacraments of initiation are not points of completion, but new beginnings for life in Christ. Intentional disciples grow throughout their lives in prayer, sacramental practice, understanding, and virtue. Yet good and faithful parishioners are not always sure where to begin, what to do next, or how to respond to Christ with confidence. In response, this parish family will seek to establish visible, pastorally guided pathways of discipleship
extending beyond Confirmation: clearer avenues to take the next faithful step in becoming more deeply rooted in Christ and His Church.

Supporting Data

36% - 36% of individuals frequently engage in devotion, study, or mission beyond Sunday, suggesting opportunity for growth.

22% - 22% of parishioners explicitly asked for Liturgy: Preaching, Reverence, Sacred Music. 14% of parishioners asked for Adult Catechesis, Formation. 10% of parishioners asked for Confession, Adoration, Prayer.

High - The listening session data supports a strong demand for Catechesis & Apologetics, Prayer & Adoration Support, and Pastoral Availability & Mentorship.

╬ - The Discipleship Survey shows that weekday growth often comes through simple, concrete practices such as daily prayer, scripture reading with a plan, and occasional retreats or missions.

The Opportunity

The parish family already has a strong sacramental foundation. The opportunity now is to help parishioners build upon that foundation with sound, and sometimes tailored, pastoral guidance. In this way, visible pathways can make the journey of faith easier to understand, easier to begin, and easier to continue over time. Many parishioners have already shown receptivity for concrete assignments and ‘homework’ from the pastor.

Conclusion

Pathways can provide content and sequence for growth through classes, prayer practices, Scripture study plans, retreats, confession and adoration opportunities, works of mercy, and other concrete steps. Together with small groups, which can help carry this work relationally, parishioners may be equipped to not only identify the right paths to follow, but with whom to accompany.

Description

This moment is not only about managing scarcity but about strengthening the conditions in which vocations naturally grow. A healthy parish family makes vocational witness visible and familiar, so that priesthood, consecrated life, and holy matrimony are seen as real, honorable, and inviting paths. Clear witnesses, accessible guidance, prayer, and encouragement help create a culture where these callings feel possible and worth pursuing.

Supporting Data

18% - The projected 18% decline in diocesan pastors by 2036, on top of fewer seminarians and ministry leaders, reveals how fragile our vocational landscape has become. With only 66 pastors expected to serve 174 locations, we must intentionally cultivate the parish family culture where priesthood, consecrated life, and Catholic marriage can take root and flourish. Archdiocese of Seattle website, Partners in the Gospel Questions and Answers

19% - A nearly 19% decline in Catholic weddings, paired with falling baptisms, Mass attendance, and registered households, reveals a shrinking sacramental life at the very heart of family formation. Archdiocese of Seattle website, Partners in the Gospel Questions and Answers

↓ - Far fewer women are entering religious life today. 245 women religious serve in prayer, justice, and works of mercy, from hospitals and prisons to shelters, retreat houses, and parish ministries in the Seattle Archdiocese.

The Opportunity

The parish family can make vocational witness more ordinary and visible in parish life. This may include more regular priestly and religious presence, intentional encouragement of discernment, prayer for vocations, opportunities to hear vocation stories, and stronger witness from Catholic marriages and families living their calling with fidelity and joy.

Conclusion

Vocations do not emerge by accident. They grow where a parish family intentionally prays, encourages, witnesses, and accompanies. By honoring priesthood, consecrated life, and holy matrimony as real and imaginable paths, the parish can help form a new generation ready to hear and answer God’s call.

Description

Many parishioners desire fuller participation in the life of the parish, but ordinary burdens can make that difficult. A thriving parish family should help remove obstacles where prudent and feasible, so parishioners can participate more fully in worship, formation, and parish family life.

Supporting Data

25% - 25% of respondents revealed practical and developmental gaps of participation among young adults, working families, parents, seniors with mobility limitations, and other groups. 

23% - 23% reported barriers to participation because of childcare, schedules, and transportation.

16% - 16% of census respondents reinforced the same pattern, repeatedly naming key areas of difficulty: working families, parents, seniors, mobility, communication, information, and accessibility & hearing impairment.

The Opportunity

There is a significant opportunity to help more parishioners participate fully by addressing ordinary and predictable barriers. This may include clearer communication, easier registration, childcare where feasible, transportation support, hearing and mobility access, better scheduling, and attention to parishioners who are homebound or less able to attend.

Conclusion

The parish family should take prudent and feasible steps to reduce common obstacles that hinder fuller participation in worship, formation, and parish life. In doing so, the parish can strengthen belonging across ages and circumstances and help parishioners respond more readily to parish life and grace.