Newly-merged parish plans strategic, renewed communications

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
Our Lady of the Plains Parish is just in its infancy, erected as of July 1, 2024, by a decree merging St. Francis of Assisi in Rockwell City, St. Thomas Parish in Manson and St. Mary Parish in Lake City. There are 536 families registered in Our Lady of the Plains, covering all of Calhoun County and a corner of Southern Sac County.
 
Along with providing for the sacramental needs of his parishioners, Father Brian Feller, pastor, recognized a need to effectively communicate with his flock that is not centered in one community. He has created a parish communications task force as of January with staff and volunteers.
 
“Our goal is to create and initiate a system of communication that is helpful to the people of our parish and advances our parish mission,” he wrote in a Jan. 2 memo to the task force members. “Our system of communications is not only meant to inform the community about activities and schedules, but also to foster a sense of community and share the good news of our faith with the people in our communities.”
 
Maria Monahan, newly-hired parish director of operations, was charged with leading the nine-member task force. She explained staff members in the group include Father Feller and staff member Sandra Hildreth, director of religious education, as well as Monahan. There are six parishioners who volunteered to lend their time and talent to the communications initiative.
 

Father Brian Feller preaching at a weekend Mass at St. Mary Lake City

“The team members seem to be excited and eager to help us make some changes. They each have a different background and perspective, which has been great to help us view our overall communications from various perspectives,” she said. 
The pastor asked the new task force to complete a SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – regarding parish communications in an effort to “initiate a communications system of best practices.”
 
Monahan said the analysis was completed at the first group meeting on Jan. 20 with members providing valuable input.
 
“We went through the SWOT analysis and the members provided great feedback,” she explained. “I asked them to take the next two weeks to gather feedback from other parishioners and report back to me by the end of January.”
 
The operations director said she also plans to gather feedback from more parishioners as they work to improve Our Lady of the Plains communications.
In the SWOT exercise, there were numerous opportunities identified for the parish to strengthen communication and awareness between the various communities in Our Lady of the Plains.
 
“A key suggestion was posting more on social media,” she said. “When posting on social media, making sure we are promoting our various groups within the church – Knights of Columbus, Women’s Guild, WinGS (Women in God’s Service), Holy Name … We found that many people didn’t know these groups existed and didn’t know how to join them, if they could join them.”
 
To enhance relatability in social media content, it was suggested that posts contain more original photos from parish activities and events. Our Lady of the Plains has a Facebook account – Sts. Thomas Francis Mary Catholic Churches – and the task force suggested expanding the social media presence beyond Facebook.
 
“It was suggested to also add an Instagram page as this would attract younger generations,” Monahan said, noting the group recognizes the communications strategy needs to take into account multiple demographics and generations.
 
Task force members expressed a need to better communicate with younger Catholics so that they feel welcome in the church and educated on the parish and its ministries, parishioners, staff, events and activities. There is also a desire to invite the younger parishioners to become more involved in the parish.
 

The Manson St. Thomas area KCs offer a youth free-throw contest

One obstacle in reaching Catholics of different age groups in the parish is the old parish website Monahan said, pointing out that it “wasn’t user-friendly and was outdated.” 

“We are now launching a new website that will allow us to have an online calendar, online forms, online giving, email and text notifications and more. This is a big step forward for us,” she explained.
 
As of August 2025, the task force hopes to complete their mission to renew and strengthen the parish approach to communications and create a sense of unity throughout the communities in Our Lady of the Plains.
 
“Through cooperating with God’s grace, we want to help extend Christ’s kingdom of peace and harmony in our communities. In short, we want God to be all in all (1 Cor15:28),” from Father Feller’s operational mission statement.