The Conundrum of Parish Involvement

By David G. Bonagura, Jr. ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 06, 2025

After weeks of build up and advertising, my parish recently held a “ministry fair.” Parishioners were urged to “get involved” by joining one (or more) of over twenty ministries, which span five areas of Catholic life: liturgical facilitation, sacramental preparation, prayer, charitable works, and fraternal organizations.

Following all the Masses of the weekend, parishioners could survey the offerings and sign up for any that beckoned them. From my seat at the baptism preparation table, I noticed that most of those coming in had something in common: they were already involved in a ministry. They were coming to relieve, or hang out with, their confreres and talk to friends manning other tables. New recruits did come survey the offerings, but they were few in number—certainly fewer than hoped and anticipated. Millennial parents and their children were conspicuous by their absence.

Pastors rightfully seek ways to involve the lay faithful in as many aspects of parish life as possible. It’s a simple calculus: the more the faithful engage in various parish events, the more they come to love their parish. They will then support more events, make the parish seem alive and attractive to others, and, most importantly, their efforts will push them to grow deeper in their own faith.

But with so few people interested in the standard parish offerings—it seems 1% of a parish population is involved in 99% of its workings—a pressing question lingers: How does a parish involve its parishioners beyond Mass each week?

I’m not knocking, as some do, lay involvement in the aforementioned parish ministries; I participate in one myself. With every American parish short of priests (and some not having even one), lay people can facilitate necessary sacramental preparations, catechesis, and charitable works. They have to do so in the right way, of course, and under the direction of pastors, but that is a conversation for another day.

I would submit, though, that elevating ministry work as the summit and source of the faithful’s involvement in a parish, as mine and many others have done, is not the most effective approach. Given the nature of ministry work, only a handful of zealous, committed parishioners will have interest. For ordinary church goers, attending Mass is more than enough, spiritually speaking, to satisfy them. Urging parishioners to participate in a ministry will barely move the needle measuring how many more people engage in parish activities.

To increase lay participation in parish life, we do not need more parish ministries, but more social events, social groups, lectures, concerts, and study groups of various kinds. Most lay faithful do not want to feed; they want to be fed, both spiritually and socially. Of course, it is incumbent on the pastor and his collaborators, including lay collaborators, to devise these opportunities and then organize them. It is exhausting work, and often frustrating for the same reason that ministry work can be: for the most part, the same people come to these same events—they can become multiple ways to preach to the choir.

But these events that hold more promise are harder to find. When, in my baptismal preparation talk, I urge the new parents to get involved in the parish, these mostly non-church goers have no interest in parish ministry. They could perhaps be enticed to join a “mommy and me” social at the parish, to attend a “Mass and then playgroud” family outing on a Sunday, or maybe to come listen to a highly touted speaker. But I do not have these occasions to offer. If they were to look at our ministry brochure, they would see works like pre-cana, bereavement, prayer, altar server, catechism instruction, church music, lector, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. These are all good, holy, and necessary activities, but advertising them as the totality of parish involvement will leave parishioners with tenuous faith paradoxically feeling alienated at the moment they are invited to get involved.

Decades ago, the parish was the center not just of religious life, but of social life for a community. Secular events would begin or end in the church with a blessing, and the parish would sponsor all kinds of social and spiritual events, from bingo to Stations of the Cross. Today, with the fracturing of community life and with multiple events per evening on every family’s calendar, attendance at such events is sparse. Lack of demand has subsequently precipitated a lack of supply—these events are few and far between, if not absent from many parishes.

But if we want lay people involved in a parish, there has to be a constant supply of social events prepared with the hope expressed in Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Only several may come. Since our Lord extolled seeking out saving the one lost soul and the gathering of just a few in His name, low numbers do not mean that the event failed. It means that it contributed to glorifying God and saving souls. The well-intentioned and enthusiastic lay people who run ministries could apply their creativity to generating and facilitating these social events. This would be proper lay involvement in parish life, for it stems from the laity’s vocation of bringing Christ to the world.

It is from ministries to social activities, some of which certainly will include a spiritual component, that parishes should shift their focus in this age of disaffiliation, when ex-Catholics rival the number of practicing Catholics. It was not until Jesus sat down with Zacchaeus in his home that the tax collector repented of his sin and vowed a new life. With so many Catholics unchurched, church-adjacent social activities and major events at church provide the most effective way to minister to those who have wandered from the Good Shepherd’s fold.

David G. Bonagura, Jr. is an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary and Catholic International University. He is the author of 100 Tough Questions for Catholics: Common Obstacles to Faith Today, and the translator of Jerome”s Tears: Letters to Friends in Mourning. He serves as the religion editor of The University Bookman, a review of books founded in 1960 by Russell Kirk. See full bio.

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• Posted by: anne.adamczyk - Feb. 14, 2025 3:08 PM ET USA

  Your article makes me think of the parish we attend. There are all kinds of social events, from Sunday brunches to pickleball. The weekly catechesis starts with a big dinner, then the kids head off to their classrooms and there is Bible study for adults. We started making friends at these events, and now my husband is doing Exodus 90 with a bunch of the guys and we have people to do pro-life and activist stuff with us. I think you're on to something - getting involved can start with friendship.

• Posted by: grateful1 - Feb. 09, 2025 1:08 PM ET USA

  I am happy to report that there is a good blend of ministries and social events in my parish, The Cathedral of St. Thomas More, in Arlington VA.