Lenten Resolutions

Thanks for joining us for the Resolve series, inspired by our top 5 takeaways from the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Church Communications Ecology Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Here’s our short list of each topic. Catch up on the series, or make it your professional Lenten resolution for this season!

1. Be authentic and vulnerable. It is critical to be accessible and real. Lead with truth in love. Shift to a “lived'' religion. Take an individualized, relationship-based approach to communication, and follow the processes you have in place.

2. Embrace co-responsibility. Be more intentional about providing practical tools for the laity to have an “algorithmic authority” alongside the “traditional authority.” Does your community defer to a priest to oversee all major decisions, provide every final decision, and/or lead every prayer intention? If so, what about your culture needs to change in order to embrace co-responsibility?

3. Be more intentional about staffing and training. Every parish should have access to a communications staffer with proven experience and expertise in the profession. Give parish communications and digital creativity top priority. You can help each parish community - and ultimately the archdiocese as a whole - project a brighter image. Rising tides lift all boats.

4. Think like a hybrid church. Over the last two years we saw religious groups’ relationship with technology and the internet experience a seismic shift. Continue developing your digital ministry space. Be flexible and experimental. Develop blended online and offline communication that works together, creating a new context. Websites, social media and eBlasts are all tools for evangelization, not substitutes for personal relationships.

5. Build connections. Effective digital creativity and technological experimentation thrives in a collaborative framework. A hybrid church requires a team-based approach. This year, resolve to dismantle the silos that prevent innovation.

Whether you’re engaging with one facet, or working to implement all five ideas, we’d love to hear from you! Send us a short note here, and let’s be in touch!