Pastoral Planning

Pastoral Planning Update

We’ve embarked on this Pastoral Planning Process as a means to establish a clear strategic vision for our parish. It’s a methodology adopted by over 20 parishes throughout the St. Louis Archdiocese that relies on parishioner engagement to voice our priorities, our aspirations, and insights necessary for developing a mission and plan to achieve those goals.

Step One – Visioning – Complete!

Our Visioning was the first step in this pastoral planning journey. Thank You to the 200+ parishioners who participated. Facilitated by planning consultant of the pro-bono Leadership & Development Institute, Vince Estrada, via Zoom breakout groups, we closely examined many of Sacred Heart’s strengths and aspirations across the four critical aspects of parish life: Service, Formation, Worship, and Finance/Admin.

Step Two – Parish Survey – Complete!
See the results here.

The consolidated list of Strengths and Aspirations formulated by the Visioning Day process is now being presented in the form of a parish-wide survey. Each of us will be asked to review and select what we believe are the greatest priorities for our parish. Please check the bulletin & parish website for more information including a link to the survey, available the week of November 9. As a community of faith, all our voices are welcomed! Paper copies of the survey can also be mailed to upon request by contacting the parish office.

The insights gained with this survey will become the basis for our refined Mission Statement. Parish Council will utilize the 4-pillar structure of the process (Worship-Formation-Service-Administration) to establish commissions and eventually formulate a detailed 3-5 year plan to execute on this vision.

As each step of the process occurs, updates will be provided. If at any point you have questions or would like more information, please contact a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, listed below. Thanks again for your participation and God Bless!

Step Three - Mission Development
On January 9, members of the Parish Council met with the leaders of every parish organization. The purpose of this meeting was to provide information surrounding the effort to reorganize our parish clubs/groups/ministries. You can view the full presentation here.

With the survey complete, the Parish Council led the effort to organize our 40+ SHVP groups/ministries into one of the four pillars, also now referred to as Four Commissions.

Each Commission is comprised of 1-2 Parish Council members along with a designated Representative from each parish organization/ministry. This structure allows for better communication across the parish and provides clarity regarding which organizations are leading certain projects. See the visual below.