Disciple Maker Index

This past Spring, parishioners across the Archdiocese of St. Louis were invited through their parish to share their thoughts, reflect on their spiritual growth as well as provide parish leadership with invaluable insight regarding their parish’s strengths and opportunities through a survey, the Disciple Maker Index (DMI). The DMI survey is designed to capture information regarding attitudes and beliefs, relationship and satisfaction, participation, and demographics using a quantitative tool that can be used for benchmarking and trending information.

About the Disciple Maker Index

The Disciple Maker Index was developed by Catholic Leadership Institute in 2013 with the guidance and input of bishops and priests nationwide, and the expertise of professional survey teams to be an instrument that is statistically sound while at the same time focusing on important aspects of our Catholic Faith.
The Disciple Maker Index (DMI) is an anonymous survey of parishioners that provides insights into the level of missionary discipleship in the parish in addition to the effectiveness of the Mass experience, preaching and other aspects of parish life.
The data results are visualized for parish and archdiocesan views, and include benchmark information based on all parishes in the national database. The benchmark of parishes of similar size or in similar environments provides a national perspective to local results. The survey and results were designed so that parishes can repeat the Disciple Maker Index every two to three years to see changes over time through longitudinal data comparison.

Archdiocesan Results

Based on the average October Sunday Mass count from 2015-2021, about 60% of Mass-going Catholics participated in the DMI Survey. This equates to 22% of all registered adult Catholics 18 years and older who participated in the survey. This is above the national average for other dioceses who have taken the DMI nationwide.

One of the three goals of All Things New is to help Catholics grow in their prayer life and their relationship with the Lord. Several different evangelization subcommittees have been working for the past year to develop strategies and resources to assist clergy and lay leaders with helping their people grow. As the Disciple Maker Index results from across the archdiocese show, the Church in St. Louis is starting on a strong foundation.