St. Patrick will be participating in a parish survey about discipleship conducted by the Catholic Leadership Institute! We need your help!

Please help us by participating in a 10-15 minute survey online. The survey can be accessed through an online link from December 1, 2023 - January 4, 2024 and will ask you to reflect on your own spiritual growth and enable you to provide feedback on our parish’s efforts to help you grow. All responses will be confidential and the parish will only receive information about the community as whole. We will share the link with you a bit closer to the launch of the survey.

We are trying to get the highest response rate possible. This information will be invaluable to Father David and our various ministries as we plan for the future and strive to be the best disciples we can be. We will receive the results this spring/summer at which time we will share what we have learned with the entire parish.

If you prefer a paper copy we will be doing two separate “Survey Days” after our regular Masses this December. To make special arrangements for getting a paper copy, please contact the Parish Office at 248-698-3100.

Thank you in advance for helping with this important project!

Take the Survey

About the Survey Design

• How was the Disciple Maker Index survey created?
  • Catholic Leadership Institute gathered 100 bishops, priests, diocesan officials, parish leaders and authors/thought leaders (Sherry Weddell, Matthew Kelly, etc) to a 2-day “think tank” on parish engagement which produced some initial hypotheses. CLI then took a smaller group of the same constituents and crafted the survey. After that, CLI shared the survey with 15 bishops for feedback and edit. The survey was first administered in 2014 and to date has received more than 226,000 responses.
• This survey looks like it is geared to people in the pews. Aren’t we supposed to be going after “the lost” or those not present in our pews?
  • The survey will most likely be completed by people who are coming with some degree of regularity to your parish. The survey results will tell you what about the parish is keeping them engaged, as well as things that might be prompting them to start falling away. Both elements will help inform how we can reach out to those completely detached from the parish. Additionally, it is our belief that more deeply engaging and equipping those who are present in our pews is a major step toward bringing others into the Church. How can we equip those in our pews to be disciple makers? These results will help us find those answers.

About the Survey Distribution

• How do I access the Disciple Maker Index survey?
  • The link to take the online version of the survey can be found on your DMI Dashboard in the CLI Portal. The survey can be completed on a computer or via a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet. Note that this survey will only be active during the launch time. A paper version of the survey is also available to download in more than 10 languages.

Taking the Survey

• How long does the survey take to complete?
  • 10-15 minutes
• What is the youngest age able to complete the survey?
  • Keeping in mind local diocesan and civic policies, Catholic Leadership Institute recommends that only individuals 18 years of age and older complete the survey, however in some cases, it may be beneficial to have children take the survey.
• In which languages is the survey offered?
  • The survey will be offered in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese (Brazilian and EU), Polish, French, French (Canadian), Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Tagalog, Italian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Kirundi, Swahili and Kinyarwanda. As Catholic Leadership Institute continues to raise funds, it is our hope to expand it to other languages. 
• What other dioceses have participated or will participate in the Disciple Maker Index?
  • Archdioceses of Boston, Camden, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Galveston-Houston, Omaha, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, and the Dioceses of Biloxi, Bridgeport, Burlington, Fort Wayne-South Bend, Green Bay, Harrisburg, Houma-Thibodaux, Jackson, Lansing, Miami, Milwaukee, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Portland, Pueblo, Rockville Centre, St. Augustine, St. Paul & Minneapolis, St. Petersburg, Saint John NB, Savannah, Toledo, Tulsa, Wichita and Wilmington.

About the Survey Results

• How will the Disciple Maker Index results be shared with parishioners?
  • Those staff and parishioners who the pastor invites to be a part of the consultation session or planning process will get the full survey report. We do not advise sharing the whole report with all your parishioners because it is a lot of information and needs to be put in context. We suggest that you summarize what you have learned, highlight 2-3 things to celebrate and 2-3 opportunities. Catholic Leadership Institute has sample bulletin inserts and communication pieces to assist you and we can also work with you to craft the most helpful summary and update. It is important to both thank your parishioners and share with them some reflection of what you learned, in addition to incorporating it appropriately in your plans for the future.
• What about confidentiality? With whom will my parish’s results be shared? How about individual parishioner’s responses?
  • We take parishioners’ confidentiality very seriously. We want them to provide honest feedback. No one in the diocese or on your parish staff - including the pastor - will have access to individual parishioner responses. As for your parish’s results, your results will be shared with you and those key leaders you bring with you to the consultation session or planning process. Catholic Leadership Institute will not share your parish’s individual data without your expressed written permission. If one of your parishes receives the highest feedback on a particular question (liturgy, preaching, social outreach), that will be indicated on every parish’s report in an effort to share best practice.
• What is the Net Promoter Score?
  • The purpose of the Disciple Maker Index is to provide a tool that will help us equip and call forth disciple-makers – people who bring others to know Jesus. We want to build promoters of the faith and promoters of our parishes, so that they can spread the message of parishes as places of community where we encounter Jesus on a personal level. Given this purpose and the fact that the survey will most likely be responded to by people who are already coming to the parish, the Net Promoter Score is a helpful and cutting edge way to analyze survey responses on a 5-point scale of agreement for any given question. When we take the percentage of those who give a specific question a 5 (aka a promoter) and subtract those who gave a specific question a (3 – neither agree nor disagree, 2 – disagree or 1 – strongly disagree) we have the net percentage of promoters for that question. If that net percentage is positive, that is probably not an area you need to be concerned with. If it is negative, it most likely is something you want to think about more. Research shows that the unprompted positive behavior and endorsement of those who give something a 5 on a 5-point scale will influence another person’s behavior. As part of the Disciple Maker Index, you will receive the survey results through this lens. You will also receive all of the data for each question.
• Why are you comparing parishes against each other?
  • For the data to be as helpful as possible, it always needs to be put into context. There is not a one-size fits all parish model. Inner city parishes look different than suburban parishes. Northeast parishes look different than Southwest parishes. It’s helpful for a parish to understand the results in the context of parishes of like profile. It’s also helpful to see what was possible on a particular question. If my parish has 30% of parishioners who would recommend our religious education program to a friend – that is one piece of helpful information. If the national average of 100 parishes for that question is 35%, it still is an opportunity to improve but perhaps it is not where we need to focus right away given limited time and resources. Conversely, if the national average was 67% and parishes of like size and location was 57%, 30% would mean something different. CLI will ask you to provide some demographic information including setting (Rural, Suburban, Urban), Average Weekly Mass Attendance, Number of Registered Parishioners.
• What is the needed response rate from the parishes?
  • Catholic Leadership Institute would hope to see an 8-10% response rate from your parishioners. If your response rate is less than 8%, the data will still be helpful, though not as conclusive as if you had a higher response.

Click here to take the Disciple Maker Index Survey today!

Take the Survey