By Father Tom Knoblach
“Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, “This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.” (Luke 14:28-30 )
The Check Engine light is on in your car. What now?
Someone – your dealer, a local repair shop or a parts store, or maybe you if you have a code reader – will plug in a device to the OBD II port under the dash; and after it scans your vehicle’s computer, that device’s screen will give you one or several codes. “OBD II” is for onboard diagnostics, second generation. From a faulty thermostat to an engine misfire to an evaporative emissions leak to a bad oxygen sensor, the device will reveal what triggered that light.
Yet that is only the beginning. One light is tripped, but it could be one of literally of several thousand possible codes. And even when you find the P1009 or P0442 or P0304, it still needs interpretation, tracking down the cause, and fixing the situation. The device will give you the data, but not necessarily the solution.
What’s the problem, what’s the cause, what’s the fix? The data do not provide the answers by themselves but they help assure that a need to address an issue goes beyond concern to a concrete resolution.
The pastoral planning process of the diocese is guided in part by “data-driven decision-making.” You have seen some of this data published in the November 2024 magazine, and we have much more than we could share there. This data includes curiosity into questions like: where are our people? Where is there growth in population and where is there decline? What the trends of financial support, Mass attendance, number of baptisms and first Communions and confirmations, marriages and funerals? What is the capacity of our buildings and which need overdue maintenance deferred because of budgets?
None of this data carries a judgment about the parish, its people or its leadership. These are objective facts, rooted in common measurements across all our parishes. Data does not give us answers. It gives us facts. Data alone does not determine the destination. It tells us how far we have to go and how much time and fuel we’ll need to get to our destination.
“Data” is the Latin plural of the singular “datum,” meaning “something given.” Data is something objectively observable, a reality present apart from our preferences or desires. Data is just there. Understanding, interpreting and acting upon data is another step.
That said, there are other kinds of data essential to our planning process besides raw numbers, trends and statistics. The Scriptures, the sacraments, God’s grace – these are “data,” things given to us that we receive in stewardship as constitutive parts of the Church. Parish histories, traditions and cherished customs are data – they are as real as the financial reports. Emotions and virtues like hopes, fears, grief, gratitude, uncertainty, anxiety, trust, faith – these are data, too. They cannot be so easily measured but they are just as real and often more influential in our personal choices.
So, when we describe “data-driven decision-making” for our pastoral planning, we mean both kinds of data. The numbers are essential to wise stewardship. But so are the people and their faith journeys, every one of them. For Scripture contains other numbers, too – the prodigal son, the one lost sheep, the widow’s two small coins, the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Focusing on one kind of data without the other – only the numbers or only the outcome we would most like – gives a picture that is incomplete. Both aspects are essential if we are to succeed.
What are we trying to do? Create the best possible conditions in our time and circumstance to make disciples of Jesus Christ. What do we need to be successful? The data do not provide the answers by themselves, but they help assure that an abstract vision can become concrete reality, lest we begin to build a new future together, but do not have the resources to finish. Or lest on some cold Minnesota morning, your car just won’t start.