How did All Souls reach so many new souls?
Amidst the pandemic, All Souls Parish in Sanford, FL, is spreading God’s Word in miraculous ways. Look at these amazing numbers:
- 152% increase in offertory from the start of the pandemic until now
- 926% increase in website traffic, 27% increase in virtual Mass attendance, and 157% increase in YouTube views thanks to communications efforts and virtual Mass streaming
- 500+ new Facebook followers since January
- 204% increase in Twitter impressions
How are they doing this?
Meet Beatriz
Beatriz is the Director of Communications at All Souls. Her motto is, "Expanding our reach to bring God’s Word to all!"
She is also one of the lay leader participants in Catholic Leadership Institute’s Next Generation Parish initiative. As part of this effort, All Souls created a parish vision with goals and milestones based on parish statistics, onsite interviews, real data, and responses to the Disciple Maker Index Survey.
The plan allowed Beatriz to boldly take communications to the next level: "During the pandemic, communications is the lifeline and a vital connection. The [groundwork] CLI laid for the parish plan of research, analysis, education, and support were a foundation in order to be able to develop effective communications from there."
Beatriz saw the need for increased communication to her fellow parishioners; she mobilized the parish around helping members feel connected (especially if they are not technology savvy) and worked together with a team of spiritually motivated people to establish:
- A weekly Spanish radio program that offers preaching and interactive phone-call questions
- Virtual offerings added to the website to engage families, such as a faith formation program "Fruits of the Holy Spirit," the "Testimony Tuesday" program for missionary discipleship, and a series of Catholic educational videos presented by the parish priests
- Creative marketing through online Masses, bulletins, yard signs, social media, website, and personal outreach
And Beatriz is far from finished – you can hear the passion and persistence in her voice when she speaks about what’s next for the parish (and this is just for the next six weeks):
- 71 new parish videos
- 6+ radio shows
- 123 "regular, relevant, and original" new social media posts
- enhancements to the website (that has increased traffic at an astounding rate)
. . . all with the purpose of bringing the Good News to more people.
If we could learn one thing from Beatriz it would be this:
Fellow lay leaders, God is communicating with us. We CAN and WILL make a difference if we listen for God’s communications, read his heavenly tweets/emails/posts, and respond according to His will. Souls are counting on us!
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