Auburn Hills — It’s never been a huge parish — in size, that is.

Spirit is another matter. When you walk into St. John Fisher Chapel University Parish in Auburn Hills, the energy is unmistakable.

It’s been that way for as long as Fr. Jerry Brzezinski can remember.

“This is not just because it’s the 50th (anniversary),” Fr. Brzezinski said on Sept. 17. “You can come any Sunday or Saturday and you’ll hear that level of participation and the quality of the music.”

Fr. Brzezinski, who shepherded St. John Fisher from 1983 to 2015, spoke after a Mass concelebrated with the parish’s current pastor, Msgr. Michael LeFevre, in honor of the community’s half-centennial.

That energy is a trademark for St. John Fisher, which has served as the hub for campus ministry for Oakland University since Fr. Tom Hinsburg first received permission from Cardinal John Dearden to build a church across the street in 1965.

As a university chapel, the new church served as the campus’s Newman Center until 1989, when, because of the vibrancy of its ministries and a surging area population, Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka elevated it to the status of a parish.

Through the years, St. John Fisher has never lost its identity as a “university parish,” Fr. Brzezinski said, but its ministries today extend far beyond its relationship with Oakland University, with numerous outreaches to families, seniors, teens and the community’s poor and marginalized, in addition to its vibrant music ministry and young adult community, Agape.

“As a small parish, we have 750-800 families, but we have over 45 ministries and over 300 people involved in the ministries,” Fr. Brzezinski said. “That’s just phenomenal.”

Fr. Brzezinski credits such involvement to the reminder that greets parishioners as they leave Mass each day, a sign above the door inside the church that reads “Servant’s Entrance.” The placement might be confusing to anyone not familiar with St. John Fisher, but not for parishioners.

“When you say ‘Servant’s Entrance,’ everybody here knows exactly what that means. When you walk out, the servant’s entrance is out here, not in there,” Fr. Brzezinski said. “We get fed, we get enriched, but we come out here and do. That’s our unique character.”

Michael Daly, a 45-year parishioner, still remembers the early days of St. John Fisher Chapel, when he met his wife through the church’s “folk Masses.”

“My wife and I each taught CCD here and Catholic youth. We were both presidents of the board here,” Daly said. “At the time when this was a chapel, the chapel board actually interviewed priests to see who they wanted to come here to carry on the spirit and keep the spirit of the community going.”

Msgr. LeFevre, who took over as St. John Fisher’s pastor last year, said the parish’s focus on social justice and mission is still a source of amazement for him.

“What has astonished me is the clarity of focus on St. John Fisher Parish, a focus that allows us not just to frame a mission and vision and values statement on a wall, but to allow that to come to life in the very fiber of our being,” Msgr. LeFevre said.