AMDG
The most critical aspect of promoting the
Steubenville Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal is having at least one
representative in each parish to mobilize the men to attend......i.e.
considerable one on one personal selling. This is so important since many men
quickly browse through the church bulletin if at all, don't notice the poster,
and don't look at the brochures and pamphlets in the back of the church. With
the abundance of fallen away and drifting Catholics, the pastor is happy that
they make it to Mass at all. Even if they are aware, we have to overcome
inertia: “I don't know; I'll think about it; Maybe I'll go; I'll see how my
schedule is; I may have to work; we'll see; I may have something else going on”
etc.
Another crucial aspect is the local
Councils of the Knights of Columbus.
They are most important to mobilize their knights to attend and to help
the Parish Representatives in mobilizing the men of the local parishes to
attend the Conference.
Then there are the many men who come to Mass
occasionally if at all or is on the verge of falling away. Many others indeed
have fallen away and we may have to take advantage of a casual meeting at a
football game or in a store. All of the above are the men we are trying to
reach.......the indifferent Catholic who's happy where he is in his spiritual
growth and has no desire to get any closer to God. It's in this area where the
Parish Representative can be a true apostle and missionary. It's evangelization
at its best. The Men's Conference could provide that spark to set them on fire
and bring them closer to the Church. This is the New Evangelization that
Blessed Pope John Paul II promulgated and Pope Benedict XVI continues to do,
especially in this Year of the Faith.
This is perhaps the first step to renew families and parishes The men must take spiritual leadership..
Thus I sent out
the following e-mail to the parish representatives of my Nativity of Mary
Deanery which occupies the southern extreme of the Diocese of Steubenville
which extends over one hundred miles and 13 counties. I included prospective
representatives throughout the diocese.
MARKETING THE 2013 MEN’S CONFERENCE AT THE
PARISH LEVEL
The Crucial Importance of the Parish
Representative
Dear Parish Reps of the Nativity of Mary Deanery for the
Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal:
Thank you so much for your past help with our
last four Men’s Conferences. Believe me,
it’s crucial because the key to a great turnout is promotion at the grass roots:
(1) at the parish level and (2) at the level of each Council of the Knights of
Columbus. We must reach the men, many of
whom are drifting and have fallen away except perhaps for Mass on Christmas and
Easter. Mobilizing the men of your
parish to come to the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal on March 22 at St. Mary Church
in St. Clairsville (off of Exit 215 of I-70 half an hour west of Wheeling) from
9 am to 3 pm is a very important part of the New Evangelization. The men are invited to bring their teen age
sons, grandsons, nephews, godsons, students, friends, etc. An added feature is a Holy Hour with the
Blessed Sacrament at the end of the day.
At this year’s Men’s Conference we have a
great speaker……nationally known Dr. Ray Gaurendi…….dynamic and
entertaining. He’s an acclaimed
conference speaker to secular as well as Catholic audiences. He has his own international radio and television
shows on EWTN. Father of ten children,
he will help the men to become better connected with their families. Dr. Ray will give tips on being better
husbands and fathers as well as more effective spiritual leaders of their
families now and in the future. It will
be a great day of enjoyable fellowship and spiritual invigoration. We’ll go together in the parish van. We’d love to have you (and your son) join
us. Can we count on you? That’s my sales pitch (7 lines) this year in
my encounters with the guys……one on one or in small groups. You can make it even shorter and better for
your men. Even if the person doesn’t
come, the message will make him think.
In parting give him our brochure as a reminder to decide and register.
If a guy tells me a definite yes, I try to get
him to register in advance. If the
answer is “maybe”, I'll approach him again in a friendly jovial way, hoping and
praying that I don't make a pest out of myself and come over as a
telemarketer. True, that's a risk, but
it does take some persistence. I try to
avoid phone calls unless one is a good prospect a few days before the
Conference. Of course, phone calling is a good option with men whom you don't
see. At the same time, I'm enlisting the
help of the guys who went last year to help me to talk it up and promote
it. They are a great testimony.
At the
diocesan level we’ll probably have three
articles in the Steubenville Catholic Register plus our brochure on the back of
the first section of the January 31 issue.
On the bottom of the home page of the diocesan website (click on www.diosteub.org) there is a link to (1) our
brochure and (2) “Additional Information” until after
the Conference. Our Bishop will give a talk and preside
at Mass to open the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal.
At the
parish level, we’re hurting unless we can
confide in your help. With the critical
shortage of priests, we can’t count on the pastors because they are so busy and
overworked. Many of them are responsible
for two or even three parishes. They
don’t have the time to do the grunt work of promotion. Thus we ask you to cover some or all of the points
below to the extent that you are willing and able. If you can cover at least the first three
items well, your campaign will be a success. The rest of the items are bonus if you can. Only item #3 may be difficult and/or time
consuming. Samples of items #2, #5, #6,
and #7 will be e-mailed to you for possible use and adaptation to make it
easier for you. Numerous resources and
helps for you will be posted on the Conference Blog at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com,
beginning with Blog #54. It’s worth it
all because that makes you a true missionary and apostle. Ask other men to help you recruit.
SUGGESTED TASKS FOR THE PARISH REP FOR THE MEN’S CONFERENCE
1.
*Every parish should
have received a poster and a batch of brochures. If they are not available in the church,
please ask the secretary and the pastor.
They could have been set aside and forgotten about. Please be sure that the posters are posted in
good spots, perhaps one in the church and another in the Parish Hall as well as
a few brochures at each exit of the church. You can duplicate the attached brochure or download
one from the diocesan website and then duplicate them in color or black and
white. The brochure contains a
registration form.
2.
*Ask the secretary with the approval of the
pastor to put in a short announcement in the Church Bulletin each Sunday of the new
year until the Conference date as long as there is space available. You can put in a slightly different message
each Sunday. I sent a number of possible
blurbs which you could adapt to your parish.
They are also available as Blog #59 at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com.
3.
*****The most
important of all and the key is to mobilize the men one on one, collect
the $25 fee, and register them on the form inside the brochure or the
one attached to the poster (a sheet with three forms is also attached). After talking to each man, give him a
brochure as a reminder to decide and then register. Men may register individually or the
parish representative may collect the registration forms with payment and send
them to Roger Huck; %Men’s Day of Renewal, P.O. Box 54; Beverly, OH 45715. This would save considerable time waiting at
the door. Checks for the Registration cost of $25.00 per person
are to be made payable to the Diocese of
Steubenville with “Men's Day of
Renewal” written on the memo line of the check. Early registration helps with planning as number
of lunches, etc.
Enlisting the help of a couple of other
men would enable us to reach almost every man in the parish. That could be the start of an evangelization
team, which every parish very much needs.
Ask the men who have attended a previous conference to talk it up. Word of mouth is the best form of
advertising. You can see the men before
and after Mass, at family, community, or parish functions as the Fish Fry, by
phone, perhaps at work, and anywhere else you may run into somebody you
know. If there is any unemployed man who
would like to go, but cannot afford it, ask the pastor or a parish organization
for help. I myself would be willing to
pay for a few registrations if no other help is available. Money should not be an obstacle for any man
to go.
4.
Organize the men if
possible to travel together as part of a car or van pool. A larger parish or
group of parishes might be able to fill a bus if the Conference is well
promoted. That will make for enjoyable
fellowship and foment a more cohesive parish community as the men get to know
each other better and become better friends.
It would be ideal if the pastor (free of charge) could accompany the
men, thus giving him an opportunity to know his men better. We need confessors. If the distance is great, that will give it a
pilgrimage flavor, especially if the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy are
said and the men discuss the conference on the way back.
5.
Put a sign-up
sheet on a clipboard on a table in the back of the church. Ask the pastor to
include the sign-up sheet in his announcements at the end of Mass as a reminder
each Sunday. The sign-up sheet should
include the name, phone number, and e-mail address to contact for registration
and confirm the time and place of departure in the car pool van or bus.
6.
Obtain permission to
put a one sheet (front and back) insert
into the Church Bulletin. This would
include selling points, benefits for the men, details about the speaker, and a
registration form. There is an
example on the Conference Blog #66 at http://diosteubment.blogspot.com,
which you could use as is or as a model for adapting it to the culture of your
parish.
7. Ask the pastor to
say a few words to support the
Conference with a few words in the announcements after Mass. His enthusiastic support and help would be
huge.
8.
Perhaps a
leader among the men could say a few words after Mass with the pastor’s
approval. One who has been to a previous
Conference could give great testimony.
9.
Enlist the help of
parish organizations and the local council of the Knights of Columbus and its grand knight to mobilize and organize the men.
Even members of the Catholic Women’s Club and other women could encourage their
men to attend……husbands, boy friends, fathers, sons, godsons, nephews, friends
of the family, etc.
10.
To obtain the best
speakers in the country (they are expensive), the Steering Committee asks for donations
and/or ads for the program booklet from local businesses or council of
the Knights of Columbus. Attached is a
form with instructions for obtaining the ads.
If the proprietor or key person in the business is Catholic, it should
be a much easier sell and his business would have exposure throughout our far
flung diocese……13 counties in all.
If we can get the men in good
spiritual shape, we renew the family.
If we renew the family, we renew the parish, soon the diocese and
ultimately the Country. We let the women
be the pillars of the parish when the men should be spiritual leaders in the
parish and especially in the home. If
the mother takes the spiritual lead in the family, there’s only a 40% chance
that the children will remain faithful to the church as adults. If the father takes the spiritual lead, that
probability doubles to 80%! It's our job
to put Christ into the market place......in our professions, on the job, and in
the community. That's why this
Conference is so very important and you have a crucial role. That’s why it’s so important that the
every pastor asks a leader in the parish to be a parish representative for the
Conference.
To
get a good turnout (each soul has immeasurable value), we need a solid program
plus MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING.......PROMOTION AND PERSONAL SELLING.
This is 21st Century evangelization at its best. Certainly,
St. Paul and the original apostles after Pentecost would have used every
marketing tool if they would have them.
I think that they were marketers of the Gospel. May we follow in
their footsteps in promoting this Men's Conference. If we could draw an average of ten men
from every parish in the diocese, this would be a big success.
The Conference Blog at http://diosteubment.blogspot.com is
designed to help you promote the Conference and when it is over, to improve and
maintain men’s spirituality with excellent articles. My personal blog at http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com
has many more articles of a spiritual nature.
If I can be of any help, please call me at 740-245-9404 or e-mail me at
pauls@rio.edu. Thank you so much for
your help and God bless.
*********************************************************************************
St.
Joseph, model of a true man of God, pray for us and the success of the Men's
Conference.
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