If you are reading this article, you are probably one of the 7%! This is the number of Catholics who are highly engaged in the Church today. Research conducted by Dynamic Catholic and its founder Matthew Kelly, show that 7% of Catholics do 80% of the work to build up and grow the Church, which includes volunteering and giving.

This is a tiny but mighty group considering that with this small number, the Catholic Church is the one of the largest charitable organizations in America, bringing relief and comfort to those in need.

Still, the Church needs more champions of prayer, giants of service and heroes of generosity to make an even greater impact on our community and our world. That’s why Dynamic Catholic is introducing Dynamic Parish, a five-year research project to better understand best practices for engaging Catholics who are at Mass each Sunday but have not been empowered or invited to take their faith to the next level.

Local Participation

Five parishes in the Diocese of St. Petersburg have been selected to participate in this research project, at no cost, and will be introducing Dynamic Catholic programs, resources and events to awaken deeper and more meaningful faith experiences for Catholics. This connects to Courageously Living the Gospel, which seeks to equip parishioners as Missionary Disciples, another term for Dynamic Catholics.

The five local churches participating in Dynamic Parish are Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Dunedin; the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, St. Petersburg; St. Clement Parish, Plant City; Resurrection Parish, Riverview; Corpus Christi Parish, Temple Terrace.

“We believe in meeting people where they are and leading them to where God has called them to be,” said Scot Landry, Dynamic Catholic Co-Leader.

The stakes could not be higher for the Catholic Church, which seeks to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

“What we do every day, will determine what the Church will be like in the future,” said Matthew Kelly in a video explaining the mission of Dynamic Catholic.

Engaging Catholics

In only five years of existence, Dynamic Catholic has grown into one of the most influential Catholic movements in America serving 10,000 parishes and hundreds of thousands of individuals. They have conducted the largest research project by the Catholic Church in America to explore differences between highly engaged and disengaged Catholics. This research has given the organization insights into how a parish can intentionally direct efforts to empower Catholics in new, more accessible ways and lead them back to church with renewed purpose and faith.  One of the ways to do this is to use “entry level language,” that helps an individual to take the next step of their faith journey.

“We have developed resources that inspire people to want to take the next step in faith and uncover or rediscover the genius of Catholicism. We are helping people to become the best version of themselves and help parishes become the best version of themselves,” said Landry.

Four Habits to Develop

To do this, they help individuals and families develop the four habits of a dynamic Catholic: daily prayer, study, generosity and evangelization.

“We want to impact every parish and engage every Catholic. We believe if every Catholic is engaged in prayer, study, gratitude and is willing to claim the faith and share the faith, our parishes will be dynamic places where the faith is growing and spreading,” said Landry.

Dynamic Parish kicks off at five local parishes in November and in January, they will hold their first event titled “Dream.” This event is designed to unleash the power of dreaming, which Dynamic Catholic believes to be one of God’s greatest gifts.

“We want to engage more and more people in their relationship with Jesus Christ and with the family of the Church, and take to heart their baptismal vocation, which is to share the Good News,” said Father Gary Dowsey, pastor, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.

To learn more visit, https://dynamiccatholic.com/