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The best way for you to gather views will depend upon your individual group or parish community, but you are likely to get the clearest picture by including evidence from all areas of your church’s life. So, be creative, and take the time to explore ways to gather information from those groups who could easily be missed out if questionnaires were, for example, only handed out at the beginning of a specific church service.
- Congregations at different Masses and other services. You probably won’t want to take over part or all of a service to gather views interactively, so a questionnaire is probably the best way. See the appendix for one to use or adapt. The exception may be where you already have an informal service (perhaps all-age) where one of the other methods suggested might work well either during or immediately after the service.
- House groups. These lend themselves easily to informal, interactive view gathering and are often a feature of parish life during Lent or Advent. Again, the appendix gives several suggested methods. Fellowship groups can also be an ideal basis for forming all-age ad hoc groups that can include those on the fringes of your church as well.
- Age, gender or interest groups. The appendix includes suggested methods for adult, youth, and children’s groups. How many such groups meet regularly already in your parish?
- A church weekend or day away. If your programme includes such a thing, this can be an ideal opportunity to include one or more of the ideas from the appendix. The whole theme of the day or weekend could be formed around understanding what it means to be a family.
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