Tag Archives: parish

A Thank You From Diocesan Publications

We know that parish work can be hard and there is a lot to get done with the many hats you wear. But the work you do is so important for the future of the church.

So we just want to say thank you.

Our mission at Diocesan Publications is to help you with your mission as a parish. We are dedicated to helping you with all your communication needs. Give us a call, 1-800-783-1623. We would love to hear from you.

As Diocesan Publications’ Solutions Evangelist, Tommy is committed to showing parish and diocesan staffs how to use our communication tools to their best advantage.  He has worked for years in various, youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. As an expert on Catholic communication, Tommy uses his parish and diocesan experiences to help you make your ministry effective. To bring Tommy to your parish or for general inquiry, contact him at tshultz@diocesan.com.

Groups feature

It’s A Group Effort: Making The Most Of The ‘Groups’ Feature

As a myParish App administrator, you’ve hopefully had a chance to check out the new Groups feature. (If you haven’t, please do. We know you’ll find it helpful!) This feature has the potential to not only help with day-to-day communications needs of a parish, but also help with information needs for religious education, schools, small groups and the many other groups that a church employs for the faithful. The Groups feature is flexible enough to handle targeted communication as well as on-going discussions.

Here are just a couple of ideas to help your faith community make the most of the Groups feature:

  • If you are using Groups for administrative needs (i.e. church/school employees), make sure your list of members is up-to-date.
  • It may take a bit for people to get used to using the Groups feature. A few reminders are a great idea.
  • Again, for administrative needs, keep Group discussion timely. You don’t want to post a reminder for something that is a month away. People will forget. On the other hand, posting something the day before won’t give you the best results either.
  • Make sure you (and any Group moderator) know your diocesan policies on social media usage. For instance, any group that involves children and teens (18 and under) should have two Group moderators, so that two adults can view all messaging. This is for the protection of church staff and volunteers, as well as our children.
  • Let small group leaders know about the Group feature and how to use it. For instance, if your parish typically has Advent and/or Lenten small groups, the leaders can become Group moderators in order to extend discussions and post reminders.

These are just a few simple tips on how to use the Groups feature. If you’d like to know more, or to activate the Groups for your parish, please use our contact page. We’ll be happy to help.