Parish Statistics Update

It is time for our updated parish statistics. Since we are such a growing parish, twice a year I go through our registration database and update the statistics for the parish. As of a few weeks ago, we are currently around 870 families with a total number of parishioners of 2775. We gain about 8 families a month as we continue to grow. One of the interesting things is how young the median age is here, and that is 24. If you go to the 8:30 or 10:30 Masses, it will not surprise you that our two largest age groups are kids, with 23% of the members here under the age of 10, 21% 10–20-year-olds, and only 17% over the age of 50. With that, the next larger groups are the parents of the children with 15% in the 30-40 and 17% in the 40-50 age range. These numbers paint an amazing picture of what our parish looks like, and what our needs are.

Most of you have seen the plans for our construction phases and what we hope to look like in the next 20+ years. Whenever I have someone introduce themselves and tell me that this is the first time that they have come to Mass here, I warn them that we have very “active” Masses here with the number of kids here, and that is a wonderful thing. I often say, I would rather have the kids making a bit of noise and have them here, than to not have them come. We sometimes hear that children are the future of the Church, but I argue that for them to be the future, they need to first be the present with their parents, even if they make some noise.

We do and will continue to have some growing pains here because we are growing faster than we can afford to construct buildings, so we have to be creative in the way we do things. I will take this opportunity for a shameless plug to say if you would like to help, we have our “Future Phase Fund” available to donate to! We are hoping to begin fundraising for Phase III classroom and office space project around the end of this year and the active pledge phase in the early part of next year, with a completion expected for summer of 2027. We have accomplished a lot since we started as a parish, but we still have a long way to go. In the 2016 school year, we had 246 kids in our Religious Education classes and 93 in the school.  In the past school year, we had 373 in the Religious Education classes and 346 in the school and are estimating over 380 for the upcoming year.

I know the Mass overflow to the gym is not ideal, but, currently, it is necessary. I would love to start the worship space next, but we are living on limited time with our portable classrooms. I must admit, even though there are many challenges here, and the celebration of Mass is not the peaceful, quiet, and contemplative way that would be ideal, it is such a blessing to be here amid the vibrant life and excitement that is here. So… Parents, keep up the good work of bringing the kids to Mass every Sunday, it can only help to strengthen the faith that you have, and that you can continue to give your children.

God bless,
Fr. Ken