With an eye toward equipping parish leaders and ministers with resources to effectively serve their communities, the Diocese will conduct a pastoral planning workshop Feb. 18 in the Chancery in Trenton. The workshop, led by Ken Perry, associate director, diocesan Department of Pastoral Planning, will present ways to access demographic information and tools for research.

The workshop will teach participants how to learn more about the people in their parish territories, helping them to practice their ministries more strategically. They will learn how to use MissionInsite, a web-based tool for researching parishioner demographic data for the purpose of mission.

“Ministry is always customized for a particular population,” said diocesan Department of Pastoral Planning director Terry Ginther. “MissionInsite is a service that lets us know more about the needs and preferences of those a parish serves.

“By using it, we can make sure that what we are offering matches the needs of the community,” Ginther continued, “to be responsive, and meet them where they are – and hopefully share the Gospel.”

The website consolidates data from public and commercial databases, encompassing 95 percent of American households. For example, MissionInsite can plot on a map how far congregants drive to church, whether the parish is serving a particular neighborhood or a larger region, and household information such as socioeconomic and marital status.

Ginther said that using MissionInsite saves research time by centralizing data relevant to specific areas, an otherwise tedious and time-consuming task. The diocese is already registered with MissionInsite and has been utilizing this tool for a few years.

Available workshop times are 10 – 11:30 a.m. and 7 – 8:30 p.m. Admission is free, and registration is required. Contact Ken Perry at 609-403-7202, or email [email protected]. More information about MissionInsite can be found on the website http://missioninsite.com.