Friends, I am ceding this article again to Heidi Indahl, who works alongside us so well. I just spoke about the pros and cons of measurements and metrics myself at a conference last week and it’s like she was there! Heidi works at Designed for Discipleship and focuses on parish faith formation and Catholic school education vis a vis discipleship.

We live in a “numbers game” society.  Within our parishes we take Mass attendance counts, track sacrament rates, and publish giving amounts. Numbers can certainly be helpful.  They give us a quantifiable look at the way our churches are growing or shrinking and that has obvious implications for evangelization.  

When it comes to faith formation, however, numbers should not be our primary marker of success and failure of programming.  In fact, sometimes, the most popular programs from a numbers standpoint are the ones that actually ask the least of families. Which, in most cases, is not what we actually want. 

Look around your region and you might discover confirmation programs that meet once a month with limited parent or sponsor requirements often have much higher enrollment than those that meet weekly with a higher requirement of involvement.  Turn the corner to the ongoing life of discipleship, however, and those smaller programs often outstrip the larger ones in the quality of student engagement during and after confirmation.

On the opposite side of the numbers game, it is quite common in parishes that implement a program of evangelical catechesis that the overall enrollment and sacramental numbers fall for the first year or even two years.  Volunteer numbers might drop off as catechists find themselves being asked to do a different job than they used to.  In these cases, the numbers do not look good on paper and can even be quite discouraging for parishes. 

To measure progress accurately, especially early progress, we need another kind of data–qualitative data.  We need information that tells us about the quality of the stuff.  Here are two real world qualitative examples from different parishes actively implementing evangelical catechesis that I’ve heard in the last few weeks during First Communion celebrations.

“This was the first year in my priesthood that I recognized every single family who had a child receiving First Holy Communion.” –-Priest of over 20 years

and

“Usually we struggle to convince a small group of students to bring up the gifts during Mass for First Communion.  This year they all wanted to help.” –-Faith Formation Coordinator

Here are other qualitative items you might want to pay attention to that indicate that families and individuals are engaging more deeply and responding to the work of evangelical catechesis:

*Process, disposition, and ease/difficulty of recruiting volunteers inside the faith formation program

*Relationships between students/catechists, parents/catechists, catechists/directors, and more

*Student engagement within the program, particularly in the form of discussions and reflections

*Types of engagement by students and families outside of the program

*Diversity of involved parishioners such as different ages, genders, and socio-economic and racial-ethnic backgrounds than previously engaged in activities

*Types of questions students and parents ask

*Suggestions and initiation of new ideas, regardless of if those ideas are ultimately carried out

*Student experiences, shared through things like confirmation interviews

*Observing students and families making connections between the sacramental life, the catechetical content, and the ongoing life of discipleship

*What students are reading, watching, listening to and spending their time doing for fun

*Spontaneous and personal prayer habits of all involved

*Comfort, reverence, and respect for and inside sacred spaces

*Evidence of crossover and support between work of family and work of the parish

Qualitative data can be collected in the form of on the ground feedback without the need for formal surveys and analysis.  In both examples above, the new experience this year represented a palpable shift from many prior years of ministry.  It isn’t the numbers that are the important thing, but the evidence of change. The quality mattered not the quantity. Both individuals shared they felt encouraged by a renewed sense of hope as a result of their observations. 

If you are struggling with discouragement, or maybe in the weeds of a number decline, take a week or so and make an intentional effort to collect at least one qualitative observation each day. Jot them down in a dedicated notebook.  You can add stories, direct quotes and even photographs. They don’t all have to be positive, but make sure that some of them are.  

Turn forward in your planner or create a reminder on your phone for a couple months from now and make a note to do the same thing again.  Between now and then when someone shares a key experience with you, add it to your collection of memories and observations.  Over time you will begin to see subtle shifts that can provide encouragement for those days that the change seems difficult or even impossible. It is reassuring and helpful to make the effort to notice and record these unofficial milestones. 

We may live in a numbers game society, but the heart is playing a much more delicate tune that can’t be shown on a graph or balance sheet.  Looking at qualitative instead of quantitative data can help encourage you through any slumps related to the early implementation stages of incorporating evangelical catechesis. The numbers will come, but be assured that in faith formation, we don’t need the how much or how many as much as we need the how well.

You can reach Heidi for faith formation or Catholic education consultation at Designed for Discipleship (TM).