It’s already back to school time! The entire Meitler team wishes each school a blessed school year, and that the coming year is filled with the presence of our Lord. We look forward to watching your schools grow and thrive in 2021-2022. We are here to support you in any way that we can.
Schools
Triangulation and Pentecost Listening
“Be assured we will always triangulate the data” is a phrase used by the Meitler team when working with our clients. We triangulate the data to ensure we are not dealing with outliers and are accurately reporting the quantifiable and qualitative data collected. More specifically, a survey reveals information that is tested in a number of focus groups and further supported by collected demographic data, thus triangulated and included in a report. This type of triangulation aids in assuring the validity of the research by using a variety of methods to collect and analyze data on a particular issue.
Another form of triangulation that is happening today in the public sector and within our schools I find less helpful and one in which Ann Garrido in her book Redeeming Conflict addresses. The term is used to describe efforts to draw folks into a conflict for the purpose of creating a team of supporters. If I am wronged, I reach out to someone or several individuals to garner their support and validate my feelings thus creating a situation that has a victim (me), a rescuer (the person(s) I reached out to in order to validate my feelings) and the villain (the one who I think wronged me). It is used as a means to avoid conflict. Triangulation allows us to avoid having uncomfortable conversations. It allows us to find a third party who will tell me that I am not the one with the problem. In this way, triangulation has a victim, a rescuer, and a villain. Unfortunately, our school and parish leaders are often forced into the role of villain.
Given the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 and the way in which it propelled the conversation of systemic racism forward, our parish pastors and school leaders have often found themselves in the hot seat. If a pastor or a principal stands up against racial injustice and attempts to address systemic racism, advocates see racial progress while opponents see reverse discrimination. Or if a pastor or principal adopts the phrase “all lives matter,” advocates will stand in agreement while opponents will say true but it is time for the Catholic church to embrace the values of the Black Lives Matter movement and practice what it preaches. And, rather than the “opponents” going directly to the pastor or principal, often times they take on the “victim” role and rally the support of others to assure them they are not wrong in their protests.
What Garrido suggests is that this type of triangulation comes at a huge cost as it violates the principle of human dignity and subsidiarity. Problems, disagreements, conflicts are best dealt with directly. Yet, too often these conversations happen behind closed doors, in the parking lot, on social media, and most often neglect to bring the “villain” into the conversation. Garrido tells the story of a pastor getting so tired of issues not getting addressed during the meeting but then seeing small groups of people gather in the parking lot post-meeting that he moved the chairs to the parking lot saying “it would be better to gather out here since this is where the real meeting is” (p.21).
The time is now for all to muster up the courage to listen toward understanding. The greatest insight I took away from Garrido’s book that continues to challenge me today is what she called Pentecost listening. Pentecost listening, listening for understanding, or empathic listening is the kind of listening that unites in the midst of diversity.
This is my prayer for our world today. This is my prayer for school leaders, church leaders, teachers, pastoral councils, and all those who are served by our Catholic institutions. I pray that we all learn to be brave and have the courage to speak directly to those with whom we disagree. I pray that we enter into those conversations with Pentecost listening believing that through dialogue and empathic listening we can indeed make a difference. I pray that, like Olga Segura’s expression “the Call is Coming from Inside the House,” the call moves all of us to respond in whatever space we find ourselves. We must work for a better church, a better community, a better school, a better world. We must work for all to embrace our belief in the inherent dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God. Let’s triangulate the data, not our communication with one another.
Meitler at 50 – Formation
In 1971, Neal Meitler started a project from scratch with no practical experience or knowledge of the Catholic church, and no sales experience. He refined his research and analysis techniques, building his business with extremely talented staff and the prayerful support of his wife, Carol.
We are celebrating fifty years of Meitler’s “God Story,” as Neal calls it, with a series of interviews, personal reflections, and memories from the consultants who built the company and some of the clients who have experienced the transformational power of data-based planning.
Do you have a favorite Meitler story? We’d love to hear it and maybe share it in our collection. Email us at info@meitlercom.flywheelsites.com.
My consulting career started in 1970 with an MBA in finance, six years of experience in a General Motors HR department, and a willingness to take some risks. However, with no experience in consulting, no sales experience, and zero knowledge of Catholic schools and churches, it is a “God story” about how we eventually developed the Catholic church consulting business.
My only experience with parochial schools was eight years of Lutheran elementary education in rural Kansas, and our two sons attending a Lutheran elementary school. In 1971, after trial and error of consulting on my own, I joined a small commercial consulting group in Milwaukee. The President of the firm was open to letting me try new things and it was there that the Catholic school/church consulting business was born. It is important to note that the consulting adventure was started on a prayerful foundation with encouragement from several Christian mentors. Also important was the willingness of my wife, Carol, to be supportive of the many risks involved.
The school consulting business started with a handful of Catholic and Lutheran elementary schools in Milwaukee. As we developed confidence based on our work with these schools, we slowly expanded to other dioceses in the State of Wisconsin, including some small high schools. Our school consulting group expanded to six full-time people and one religious sister and one priest, each a former superintendent of Catholic schools. It was during this time that we began to speak of our work as a “mission” to the church. We also began focusing exclusively on strategic planning with Catholic schools and dioceses. We had not started out with the objective of being a national firm, but as we expanded to more and more dioceses, we eventually had a national client base.
Being a realist, I became increasingly aware that my being a non-Catholic presented a limit on how much the firm would be trusted by bishops in larger Archdioceses with big assignments. At that time I was working with Tom Heding, the Superintendent of the Diocese of San Bernadino. Tom had the confidence of his bishop, all of the principals, as well as fellow California superintendents, plus he was seminary trained as a member of the Society of the Divine Word. He agreed to join the firm as our President and I was happy to step back into the role of senior consultant, letting Tom take the lead. Tom and his team are to be credited with leading the firm to the national reputation that it has today. His team also solidified the Meitler Consultant reputation with high schools and parish planning.
I enjoyed our mission of working with Catholic churches and schools. As data-based consultants, we had confidence in the strategic recommendations that we developed. Consequently, Meitler Consultants developed a reputation for integrity which was consistent with our desire to be good stewards in the work of the kingdom. During the past 50 years, the Lord has blessed the firm. As the first leader of the firm, it is good to know what I started in 1971 continues under the leadership of Angela Gunderson and her dedicated team. At age 83 I have no regrets and would do it all over again.
Neal Meitler
Why Strategic Planning?
When you have a map, you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. This is a great time to develop a strategic plan for your organization to have that map. Our experienced team can help you clarify your organization’s goals, then develop and guide your community through implementing the plan to get there!
Evangelization Then and Now
The notion of a Catholic church in the United States which evangelizes was not a common understanding for most Catholics in the past. From the days of the earliest Catholic settlers to the latter part of the twentieth century, the church grew primarily through immigration and birthrate. The church also added new members through the conversion of non-Catholics who became Catholic in order to marry in the church.
There was evangelization activity but it was referred to as “the missions” because it took place far away from the local parish. Catholic school children contributed their pennies, nickels and dimes to benefit “pagan babies” so that they had enough to eat. Catholic missionaries throughout the world were financially supported by parishioners through special collections. During the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, the church in the United States provided 25% of all the Catholic missionaries in foreign countries. Evangelization did not appear to be needed on the North American continent then.
The reliance on immigration and birthrates as the primary means of growth has now changed for most parishes in the United States, but not all. Parishes in the South and Southwestern United States are still growing due to immigration from Central and South America as well as Asia. Birthrates among these immigrant populations are greater than the national average birthrate, particularly among first-generation immigrants.
There are other factors which are influencing the need for an emphasis on evangelization efforts. Catholics are not automatically joining parishes and are leaving the parishes they have joined. Even though the numbers continue to grow, the decline is happening not in some organized movement but “one Catholic at a time.” Unfortunately, a growing number of Catholics do not see the church making a difference in their personal lives or on the world.
Most of the parishes around the country need to come to the realization that the “good old days” of organic growth are over and evangelization ministries must be designed which seek out and invite searching Catholics and new believers. These ministries need to be focused on reaching out to those who are on the peripheries of the parish community, those who are not members of the community, and those who can experience the love of Christ activity through the social ministries of the church. The guide for social ministries can be found in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as well as in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. The guiding principles for evangelization ministries must be rooted in a clear articulation and practice which witnesses to the difference the church can make in the world and the impact faith can make on individual lives.
The next blog will focus on some key ideas for effective and measurable evangelization activity flowing from parish data and demographic information.
