Is Your Parish a Good Fit for a Drop-in Event?

A look at the requirements to succeed at "Light for Love" and similar drop-in mission initiatives, and then how to be a missionary outreach parish even if you can't host the big come-and-see events.

Last week I made the case for offering a Light for Love type of event next time Taylor Swift is performing next door to your parish. I’m sure that happens all the time, right? So this week let’s talk about the concept generally, from a pure parish decision-making standpoint.

The #1: Do people ever just “drop by” your parish?

Our number one requirement for a successful drop-in mission event is that there is a critical mass of people who just happen to be walking by our parish at the time of the event.

You want to invite them in to light a candle or whatever, but are they even there to invite inside?

This requirement is pretty demanding. If you are on Main Street, right there in the middle of things where everyone is wandering the weekly farmer’s market (for example), you’ve got a green light for our minimum requirement. People are walking right by. They are there.

If you are a block away, out of the regular pedestrian traffic flow? You’re not going to get the same foot traffic. You are most likely better off to see about setting up some street-missionaries to sit under an awning and pray with people who request it.

If you are on a busy roadway in the ‘burbs or a rural area, but your parish is *right there* out next to the main road, and it is super easy to get in and back out again, you might be able to do a drop-in event picking up road traffic. It would require a lot of signage and promotion and cultural concept-building, but it’s not inconceivable.

If your parish is hidden in a low-traffic area, with multiple turns or confusing access, you don’t have an obvious set-up for a drop-in event.

That said, there might still be times when your parish does in fact have a drop-in audience, albeit probably a relatively smaller one.

What about parishioners and visitors?

Your parish might not get heavy foot traffic passing by from total strangers who have nothing to do with your parish, but there might be times when a lot of people are in fact passing through. The three most common situations:

• Religious Education drop-off and pick-up.

• Parish school drop-off and pick-up.

• Recipients of charitable assistance (food bank, clothing closet, soup kitchen), if service times are limited such that everyone in need comes at the same time, in a single large group event, rather than at personal appointments throughout the week.

However, there remain two hurdles:

• The passersby have to actually get out of their vehicles and walk to the church door.

• They have to have the time and energy to make a visit.

So if your religious ed or school pick-up system is strictly a carline, that won’t work for encouraging drop-in visits for Adoration.

Likewise, even if parents or assistance recipients do get out of their vehicles and come inside for whatever their business is, if that business is a long or difficult walk from where Adoration is being held, you are unlikely to receive many Adorers.

Can you remove barriers to participation?

Let’s not give it up yet. Maybe you have a busy carline right now for your religious ed pick-up. Is it possible to switch to a default of parents coming inside and picking up? You could still have a mini carline for parents who need curbside pick-up due to a disability or a sleeping baby in the car.

(Parents coming inside to pick up at the classroom door also makes it easier for catechists to meet the parents, which is invaluable in itself.)

Here’s another barrier: Your parish church is uphill and around the corner from the warehouse where St. Vincent de Paul distributes grocery bags of food to families in need. Furthermore, it’s a rough neighborhood and you can’t just leave the doors unlocked.

Okay, looks like a drop-in is ruled out, and maybe so. But: Is there a small room, even just an oversized closet, that could be turned into a mini-chapel right there on site? Imagine something slightly larger than a home prayer-corner, with a crucifix, soft lighting, a few Bibles sitting around, and a quiet place to settle down for a moment and recollect your thoughts.

This is obviously a different kind of drop-in “event” — it’s a mini-opportunity, likely no Adoration — but it is filling the similar role of inviting the visitor to come take some quiet time with God.

Maybe your faith formation or school building has a similar corner.

Can you create traffic to your parish?

Let’s say that none of the ideas above apply to your parish (entirely possible) but you are still intrigued by the idea of “Light for Love” and don’t want to give up on it yet.

Okay, last-ditch effort: How can you get people to show up at your parish at a time when you would able to host a church drop-in event?

• If you are near but not quite at a high pedestrian traffic zone, can you divert some of that traffic to your parish by offering free parking?

• If you are within walking distance of a major stadium or arena, is fundraising via offering event parking a realistic choice? If so, could you also host open-doors at the same time?

• If you are far from anything . . . can you develop an event that is a destination in itself?

Think about your community needs.

• Is there interest in (appropriate) concerts and a shortage of nearby venues?

• How about open-to-the-public holiday events, such as Easter pageants, All Saints Eve graveyard tours, or Christmas caroling?

• Do you have space to host recreational sports leagues for athletes who otherwise have no place to play?

• Are you a suitable pick-up location for a produce cooperative?

• Would a buy-nothing fair (people bring their still-good junk and give it away) be a big draw?

And lest we overlook the obvious: Do you already host a parish fair for fundraising purposes, but until now you haven’t hosted an Adoration event (or similar) to go with?

If you’ve managed to figure out how to get people to be walking past your doors, you’ve cleared the first hurdle.

If you realize you simply can’t generate the visitor traffic for hosting a come-and-see event, skip down to #3 where we talk about outreach to the tiny trickle of visitors that come your way anyhow.

#2 Do you have enough volunteers to staff the event?

Just because it is a great idea doesn’t mean your parish can pull it off this year.

Maybe this year all you do is wander the parish fundraising event handing out invitation cards that let people know when the parish is open for what, and also that if they want to take a few minutes to pray, the doors are open right now.

Maybe you can’t do a chapel in your food pantry warehouse, but you can give out bulletins and invite people to join you for Mass any time, here’s the schedule.

Maybe carline is the only choice and anyway the parents are exhausted and over-booked, but here’s a card with the e-mail address for sending in prayer requests.

Maybe you can’t host anything else at all, but at least you can put a cheerful “All Are Welcome, Please Visit!” sign out front where you post Mass times, and that’s not nothing.

What I want to tell you is that if Taylor Swift is in your neighborhood, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. What I know for reality is that you can’t do everything, and maybe your parish just really isn’t in a good position to host the big thing just now.

But what if you are? Or what if you are even just doing one small upgrade in your inviting people to pray at your church? Then what?

#3 What’s the follow-up network?

Okay you have somehow managed to facilitate an encounter with Jesus in the form of whatever thing it was that someone came to. Maybe it was for your special event, or maybe it was just this one person who showed up randomly.

They lit a candle for someone they love, or they decided to see what “vespers” is and now they’ve seen it, or they did indeed take you up on on the open doors during the fair, mostly to get out of the heat and away from the noise of the fair games, but also they had a moment with Jesus too.

Now what?

As your visitors are headed out the door again, what will be helpful to them for continuing on the path? You have to think this through.

If your traffic is from a regional, national, or international event (Taylor Swift, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, etc.), most of your visitors aren’t even going to be in your city next week. Can you provide cards, pamphlets, or QR codes for some reliable “Start Here” resources suited to someone being sent out into the wilderness?

This might include things like seeker-friendly podcasts, how to find a Catholic church, a reputable national ministry that answers questions people like your visitors tend to have . . . lots of choices. The main thing is that your suggested resources should be usable to someone who is going to be long gone from your local area.

Info about national human trafficking rescue lines and similar may also be a useful thing to have posted.

If your traffic is locals unaffiliated with the Catholic church, your resources will be heavily seeker-friendly (as above), but may also include invitations to local inquiry classes — or wherever it is locals can come get their questions answered about the Catholic faith.

You may also wish to include some specific emergency resource contact info, such as help for domestic violence, if your parish or diocese offers such a support. Think here: What is it we happen to do that people need to know about because it is an important human need, so let’s let them know it exists!

If your visitors have a connection to your parish community already, then how can you strengthen that connection? For someone already attending Mass, invitations to specific opportunities to get more involved in parish life (Bible study, volunteering, etc.) are great.

However, a lot of practicing Catholics have a tenuous hold on parish life because they can’t “get involved” in an active way. What’s the process for getting Communion brought out to a sick family member? Is it possible to have someone from the parish (priest, deacon, catechist, parish nurse or social worker, you-name-it) come for a pastoral visit without having to clean the house and host dinner?

What’s the process for getting a ride to Mass if the bus lines don’t run on Sundays, or if your regular carpool can’t pick you up this week?

And finally, if you’re not Catholic at all, or are not currently practicing the faith, what is there for you? What is the schedule of events (intellectual, social, or spiritual) suited to seekers? What are the events (think: Adoration, Vespers, concerts, etc.) where you can show up and not be required to get involved in a social scene just yet?

Can you get a pastoral visit when a loved one is in the hospital, or in another crisis situation, or just because you need someone to listen to you and pray for you . . . even though you aren’t Catholic? Again: This might not be from a priest. In many situations, the kindly-old-ladies who are the backbone of parish life are actually the better persons to come and pray and listen.

Your parish probably doesn’t Do It All. But what things does your parish offer that would match up to the needs of your drop-in visitor? Put those things on an information card and on a QR code and distribute liberally.

Every parish needs an outreach plan.

Even if you’ve determined your parish can’t do any kind of special drop-in event, people still come to visit. Some are Catholics from out of town, some are curious locals, some are friends and relatives of parishioners.

People come during times of crisis (see: funerals, but also every other kind of personal disaster imaginable) and need emotional and spiritual and practical support.

People come for major occasions (weddings, baptisms), and are briefly curious about this place and what happens here.

People come because they want to find out about the Catholic faith. What do they find?

Even if you never send a single missionary even so far as the sidewalk out front, what’s your mission game just inside the building? What’s on the brochure rack? The bulletin board? The cards in the pews?

If I come in these doors, I will find Jesus. That’s what a Catholic church is. What will I be able to take with me to continue the journey when I head back out again?

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Photo: Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Dayton, Ohio, holy door for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, 2016, CC 4.0. Taken by Wikimedia content-creator “Nheyob” who specializes in Catholic buildings in the Ohio area.