Catholic Discipleship Parish Profile

When a parish decides to use the CDP all parishioners are invited to take the survey of Catholic discipleship, which takes about 15 minutes. Each parishioner completing the CDP receives a personal profile of the way she or he reveals patterns of living as a disciple of Jesus. The aggregate compilation of these individual parishioner CDP profiles allows the leadership of the parish to see a parish profile of how parishioners tend to exercise discipleship. The parish report enables pastoral leaders to see patterns in the discipleship behaviors of their parishioners and use the report to direct future planning and faith formation. 

The CDP enables your parish to get a third level of reporting beyond the individual and group reports.

The Individual Report. The parishioners receive their own CDP individual report which helps them see how they live out discipleship in comparison to the whole parish. Parish leaders can use the parish report to understand more clearly areas in which parishioners are intentionally living as disciples of Jesus as well as identify areas of needed spiritual growth that parish leaders can remedy through pastoral planning.

The Group Report. Additionally, parish leaders can establish groups to receive a CDP group report showing the aggregate discipleship responses of the group. Group members can compare their individual responses with the group aggregate responses as well as with the aggregate parish responses. These comparisons yield additional insights for personal and spiritual growth. Examples of these groups include catechists, the parish pastoral council, organizations within the parish, and groups of parishioners interested in exploring ways to grow as disciples.

The Parish Report. Parish leadership and parishioners also can benefit from participating in a process to reflect on parishioners’ aggregate responses. Pastoral leaders can review the results and initiate processes among parishioners to further the development of discipleship in the parish. The parish report, which includes parish demographic information by age, sex, and ethnicity, becomes a useful tool through which the parish can see a snapshot in real time of its behaviors as disciples and make plans to grow as a community of missionary disciples.

View a sample of the CDP individual report here, the CDP group report here, and the CDP parish report here.

Parish leaders follow this process to assist parishioners in their growth as disciples of Jesus.

1. Decide to use the CDP survey and determine a date for the process to begin and end.

After deciding to use the CDP, parish leaders determine the best time to implement this ministry given the desire to have as many parishioners as possible participate. Once the beginning and ending dates are set for parishioners to take the survey, parish leaders can set the date for generating the parish report.

2. Set up your Parish Leader Dashboard

The parish leader dashboard has the versatility to successfully help the parishioners take the survey. The parish-designated CDP Administrator will set up and administer the dashboard. She or he can share access with other selected parish leaders as needed. The dashboard will 1) allow you to input the names and emails of the parishioners who decide to take the CDP; 2) indicate how many have completed the survey; and 3) allow the CDP administrator to generate the parish report when she or he determines that an optimal number of parishioners have completed the survey.

The dashboard also allows parish leaders to create various CDP parish groups and place parishioners in those groups. This means that groups within the parish (e.g., catechists, lectors, parish pastoral council members, extraordinary Eucharistic ministers, etc.) can see how people exercise discipleship as part of a group. Moreover, parishes can create groups of individuals who want to explore discipleship more deeply. Pastoral leaders will determine both the groups and one group leader for each group who receives and shares the group report. The minimum required number for each parish group is 8 members, which includes the group leader.

3. Communicate with Parishioners via the Dashboard

After a parish campaign designed to encourage parishioners to register to take the CDP, their names and email addresses appear on the dashboard and parish leaders can track their progress. They can send reminder emails to individuals who have not started or have not completed the CDP. These types of communications can be done easily from the dashboard.

4. Generate the Parish Report

Once the CDP administrator sees that most people likely to take the survey have done so, she or he clicks on the “Close and Generate CDP Parish Report” button of the dashboard. Prior to generating the parish report, leaders can add parishioners at any time. However, once the survey portal is closed and the report generated, additional individual responses cannot be added. The report will appear on the computer screen and as a PDF. Parish leaders can send the report to those they wish to study it, especially members of the pastoral staff and parish pastoral council. They then can decide what aspects of the report they wish to communicate to the parish and what are the best processes to make use of the report.

The parish report is organized around the five common expressions of discipleship which statistical testing of a large number of participants verified as valid and reliable. The report presents information in these five expressions of discipleship:

1. Encountering God
2. Integrating Faith and Life
3. Accompanying and Being Accompanied
4. Serving Others
5. Living as a Catholic

When the parish report is generated, the designated group reports will be generated as well. This permits parish leaders to coordinate their efforts with the designated CDP group leaders in a parish.

5. Using the Individual, Group, and Parish Reports

The CDP provides the parish three kinds of reports to foster growth of the parish as a community of missionary disciples.

• Individual reports enable each parishioner who completes the survey to get a snapshot of how she or he tends to live out Catholic discipleship.
• Group reports for designated parish groups show the ways in which discipleship is most frequently lived out among group members. A process for group leaders to unpack the group report can be found here.
• The parish report permits parish leaders to establish an overall process of bringing a parish to a more complete living of Catholic discipleship. While the initial pages of the parish report can serve as an “executive summary” for the parish as a whole, the more detailed subsequent pages can provide material for more thorough analyses and discussion.  

Learn more about the role of the CDP Parish Administrator

The CDP Parish Administrator, under the direction of the pastor, is responsible for implementing the CDP in a parish. Learn more about the role of the CDP Administrator by clicking on the options below:

Click here to watch the CDP Administrator Orientation video. (coming soon)
Click here to view Resources for the CDP Administrator.