Dedicated to Bringing Technology Ministry to Catholic Organizations

Over the course of the last few years, the accepted means in which people communicate, interact socially, and find information has changed dramatically. What was once considered toys or fads for younger generations, or digital natives, is now everyday tools used not only by the natives, but also by older generations, or digital immigrants, with increasing acceptance and regularity.

Because of its wide generational membership, this cultural shift has had great impact on the Catholic Church and the way it currently approaches connecting to the members of its congregations. Almost all individual parishes suffer from outdated websites, few and infrequently used social network pages, old hardware, and areas where installing technology is long overdue with limited to no personnel to change these circumstances.

Hence, there is a deep need to find a solution to solve this dysfunctional dilemma. Arms Wide Open Solutions can help your church create a plan and develop answers for these issues. Beyond this, Arms Wide Open Solutions provides workshops and presentations for staff, catechists, parents and teens to address many of the mainstream issues technology can create.

To find out more about how Arms Wide Open Solutions can help your Catholic organization, please visit the Consultation and Presentations and Workshops pages.

What Our Customers Say  

Marc and Arms Wide Open Solutions helped our parish develop its resources and talents into a Technology Ministry Team, which is now prepared to lead us forward in effective equipment management, online presence, and with new communication techniques for our parish, the community, and beyond.   

St. Joseph Parish, Grafton, WI

Working with Marc and Arms Wide Open Solutions has given our parish new insight on using technology in our ministries.  We are now reaching out to our parishioners in new ways using the technology recommended by the technology ministry team under the guidance of Marc. 

St. John Evangelist, Kohler, WI

We have had Marc at our Christian Formation adult sessions.  With his various backgrounds he knows how to teach yet how to make his talks interesting and fun.  A very successful program he led was having the high school students discuss questions regarding internet ethics in the classroom while the parents discussed the same questions in a large group.  The “homework” was for the teens and parents to talk about their answers after the session.  We received many positive comments regarding this program.

I would recommend Marc to any youth or adult group.       

Divine Mercy Parish, South Milwaukee, WI

Marc and Arms Wide Open Solutions is a great resource for parish ministry. With the knowledge that was shared my catechists were better equipped to teach the faith with the many useful tools out there in technology. It helped my program to come out of the medieval times and bring it to the 21^st Century. Now my students are more engaged as well as more enthusiastic to come to class.

Tri- Parish Religious Education Program, Wauwatosa, WI

Contact Us Today!

Please contact us anytime! We look forward to hearing from you.



Connecting Solutions  

Ministering to the New Mindset in View of the New Evangelization: A Clash of Cultures 

Ever since I started my work in Technology Ministry, one point I have tried to make very clear is the number one priority of any church: to build community. In turn, technology is a tool to help build community, especially in light of the new paradigm of the younger generations that I have talked about in my last couple of posts; however, there is a stark reality that is challenging parishes in this mission: the decline of the local community church.

So what is creating this issue? One cause is consolidating churches. Over the last few years, many parishes have merged with their neighbors for various reasons (priest shortage, under staffed, low attendance, budget management). Many congregations moved into this situation grudgingly fearing a loss of identity. This in itself is a roadblock to creating relationships with members from the joining faithful. In addition, the community is now bigger, which one would think would provide greater opportunity for making personal connections, but instead works in reverse because it is easier to get lost in the crowd especially for anyone not closely affiliated with the parish (which describes the majority of those in younger generations). The reality is that consolidation is a necessary step. There is no reason in the 21^st century for three churches of the same denomination to be operating within a ten mile radius. Unfortunately it comes at the price of parish cultures’ being forced to mingle and form a new community. But if we live up to our Christian virtues and values, this transition should be easier than people are making it.

Read the full article on the Connecting Solutions blog   

Technology Tools for Ministry

Check out this website showcasing Web 2.0 tools for ministry. It is developed by Sr. Caroline Cerveny and has contributions from Tim Welch, both who are leaders in Technology Ministry. Enjoy the knowledge they share!

http://catechesis20.org