What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.

Parish Profile:
Where We Start Our Journey

One of the most amazing things the webteam has discovered in the 3 years of stjoan.com is the geographical reach we have. Since the website is a part of the “World Wide Web”, it is possible to log into stjoan.com from any computer in the world. And our parishioners and friends are doing that. Parishioners on travels enjoy being able to visit our website and catch up on happenin’s. Former parishioners stay connected from their new homes via the website. One of the most common requests we get goes something like this: “We are former parishioners who have been transplanted in     (insert area of country here)    and have found no churches like St. Joan’s in our new home. Do you (the staff or webteam) know of any churches in the     (insert area of country here)    area? We would drive a goodly distance if you know of one anywhere in our part of the world.”

Carol and Charlie Ossell: Buffalo,MN- 42 miles: 
Charlie and I have been members of SJA for 25 years and so SJA came before our move to Buffalo. We were looking for a contemporary Catholic Church all those years ago and family friends of ours had "found" SJA and knew that we would enjoy the services. It took one Sunday and we were hooked, became members in the years when "Harvey" was here.

Now that we have moved "to the country" it does change our routine on Sunday, but we try not to let it. We really make an effort to make the drive and get our lift and enlightenment for the week. We are so taken by the services, the chemistry, the music. After 25 years it is so much a part of us that we are too connected to settle for anything less. We both feel that it is so important to become a part of the community that we live in, but it's , oh so important to hold onto what makes one whole.

A side light............Charlie and I came out to Buffalo looking at property to invest in for future profit. The land we looked at was Deerlake Orchard; a gorgeous piece of property. It's a 30 year old, Wright county tradition! Rolly hills, a big red barn from 1911, 3,000 apple trees, a Maple woods, 2 ponds and petting zoo. We were so taken by it, we bought it in a weeks time.....................................a wonderful adventure.................a new lifestyle.
Peace be with you, Carol and Charlie Ossell

It is this oft-repeated question on our comment form that caused us to ponder: How far do parishioners drive to Mass at SJA on Sundays and why? We all know friends at St. Joans that live a distance from church. Some make the journey more than once a week. And, conversely, how many of our parishioners actually live in the neighborhood of the parish? Do we all merely descend on this neighborhood on Sunday mornings not to return til the following Sunday? With the help of Nancy Logan, staff bookkeeper, we were able to produce the following report.

Indeed the membership of St. Joan of Arc spreads great distances. We have registered parishioners living in New Jersey(2 households), California(4), Florida(2) as well as 11 other states. With the exception of Wisconsin(15 households), these out of state parishioners probably are not regular mass attendees. The bulk of our parishioners are Minnesota residents and mostly from the Twin Cities metro area.

Cindy Shelton: Minneapolis,MN- 16 blocks: 
I lived in my home before I found SJA. I love living close. Regardless of the weather or hectic pace of my life, I am always so close that I can always make time.

If I were to move out farther, I would stay a member of St. Joan of Arc because the mission of the church is an exact fit for my personal ministry. However, if I lived way out, I am sure I would attend less frequently. I have sat next to many suburbanites on Sunday mornings. My hat is off to those of you who travel great distances. But, I have no trouble understanding why you stay.

Cindy Shelton

The most recent tally of our parish profile(July 2001) showed 4162 households totaling 8691 individual registered parishioners. Since St. Joan of Arc has experienced membership growth each and every year since 1988, those numbers in 2002 are probably slightly higher. Of the 4104 SJA households that live in Minnesota, 4022 reside in the 7 county metro area. Of these most households are within easy driving distance to Sunday Mass or events. However, some of the metro area households are as much as 45 miles each way to St. Joans.

Don and Pat Renner: Mankato,MN- 78 miles: 
We been going to St. Joan's for about 20 years. We heard about St. Joan of Arc via the Newman center at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Before coming to Mankato we had gone to a "alternative" church in Cincinnati called the Community of Hope. Not sure it exist any more. When we came to Mankato we looked around for another church and we found St. Joans. St Joan's was better for us than what we had left in Cincinnati. The emphasis on Social Justice, the speakers, the singing, the liturgy all keeps us coming back.

The distance is a problem and keeps us from being as involved as we would like. Meetings during the week are problems. Our SCC group meets on Sunday after Mass. And we usually combine other events on Sunday in the cities.

Other local parishes in Mankato are not much of an option for us.

Don and Pat Renner

Of good news to those concerned about neighborhood churches and urban sprawl, the largest number of SJA households of any zipcode is in the 14 by 20 block rectangle that is home to the St. Joan of Arc campus. Three hundred and four households share the 55409 zipcode with our parish. And about 1700 of the 4022 metro households reside within 4 miles of church. Of course that means that over 2000 metro households are traveling greater than 4 miles to church on Sunday. The Archdiocese defines the parish boundaries for each church. Of our 8671 registered members, 2087 live within the defined parish boundaries. Certainly St. Joan of Arc draws from “outside traditional parish boundaries”.

Mary Graf: Minneapolis,MN- 14 blocks: 
I have lived in the area for 15 years and learned of St Joan of Arc through Shane Speltz. I attended once and loved the atmosphere, music and people so much, I was instantly hooked. It is so great to have such a welcoming and diverse church just a few blocks away.

Time is a real limiter for me as I work full time and attend the College of St Catherine. I feel fortunate to love so close to St Joan. I also love the fact that I can ride my bike, when weather permits. It takes me about five minutes to get to the church and parking my bike is a breeze.

If I were ever to move a distance away, I would still attend SJA. A community such as St Joan's is worth a drive. My sister and niece live in Norwood/Young America and drive an hour on Sundays to meet me at St Joan. One could say that St Joan has brought my sister, niece and I closer. They both love St Joan as much as I do and feel it is well worth the trek into Minneapolis.

Mary Graf

In a city where the average commute to work is 10-12 miles, how many of our parishioners drive farther to church than to work? Approximately 3400 of our 4100 households live within a 10-12 mile radius. Whereas, we no longer fit the model of the “neighborhood church”, most of our parishioners do not drive great distances to Mass.

YearHouseholds% Increase Net Household
Increase
19881948--
198920413.493
199022108.3169
199124199.5209
199225344.7115
1993287113.3337
199429994.5128
1995332410.8325
199635005.3176
199735912.691
199837203.5129
199939646.5244
200040552.391
200141625.6107
Sixty four percent of our registered parishioners have been at SJA for less than 10 years. There has been tremendous growth in membership in the last 10-12 years. In 1988, the date of the earliest census, there were 1948 households registered at SJA. That number nearly doubled in the next 10 years. In 1998, there were 3720 registered households. SJA has averaged a 6% increase per year in membership since 1988. In an era when many churches are losing membership and struggling for survival, this is indeed noteworthy. The increase in membership may have reached it’s peak as the last couple of years show 2%+ increases. Because we have standing room only Sunday Mass services, we may be discouraging new membership simply because there is no room at the inn. Two years ago, the staff tossed around the idea of adding a 3rd Sunday mass to meet the needs of more parishioners. That idea was at least temporarily shelved due to the need to increase staff to accommodate such an addition.

Marilyn, Dana, Caleb and Abby Trouth: Hanover,MN- 33 miles: 
The distance never keeps us from attending mass - other reasons may, but not the distance! It's a given that on Sunday morning we need to allow 50 minutes of travel time and it's always worth the commute. There are evening activities that I(Marilyn) sometimes consider and then dismiss because the longer distance home will make for too late a night. If it's something I'm really interested in, I head to church and my students pay the price the next day!

After college graduation (1983), I moved to the metro area and lived in St. Louis Park, merely a few minutes drive from SJA. When a friend from college visited, she suggested St. Joan's. We checked it out and I've been coming back ever since. On another occasion a less liberal friend from college was visiting and I took her to my new church. After we prayed the "Our Father", she stared at me in disbelief and said, "That was the "Our Father"? She hasn't been back to St. Joan's.

Originally SJA was sort of in the neighborhood, but I kept moving further away. When I moved to Brooklyn Park, it was still a short drive. Anoka made the drive a little further but still not bad, especially since we didn't have kids yet. Now with two kids and a commute from Hanover, I sometimes question our decision to drive so far to church. It seems wasteful in terms of fuel and it means getting the kids up an hour earlier than if we went to a neighborhood church. I've tried the neighborhood churches and they just can't compete with SJA. I go through withdrawal if we're out of town a couple of weekends in a row.
Marilyn, Dana, Caleb and Abby Trouth

How many households of parishioners live within your zipcode? A listing of households by zipcode is available at this link.
Other interesting demographic information came from the 2001 census. In 2001, there were 94 newborn(babies) parishioners. Ten parishioners died during that year. We have 3701 male parishioners and 4990 females. Only 227 parishioners are over 70 years of age and 1865 are from 0-15 years old. Our largest demographic is the middle-aged. Almost one half of our parishioners are between the ages of 26 and 55 years old. There were 13 marriages held at SJA in 2001. And of our members, the vast majority are Catholic(7889 out of 8671).

Anne Garvey grew up Catholic in Appleton, Wisconsin and spend most of her adult life in the wilds of western New York State. She is the mother of two mature and interesting teens and is a confirmed dilettante. Anne discovered St. Joan of Arc one year ago this August. It succeeds the Rochester Zen Center as her favorite real live religious community.
Jeff Rholl is the volunteer webmaster of stjoan.com and lives too far from St. Joans. Fortunately, much of his work can be done remotely.
St. Joan of Arc is an “interesting” parish. What makes it interesting are the people and their fervent and diverse ministries, not our statistical demographics. We have been and will continue to document those stories on this website. Those stories are what makes St. Joan of Arc Church and this website so popular. We thought you might be interested in some of the numbers behind those stories.


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