More information is needed, please. How many men? How many women? What does your "instrumentalist" play? In what way are your "abilities" limited?

Right now we rehearse the new missal stuff.
As a choir we sing every Sunday, every Good Friday, Easter Vigil, every funeral and every Christmas Eve - midnight Mass.
Our last male singer died just over a year ago.
All together, there are seven women, if you include me.
Greg (organist) plays our out of tune piano, guitar, cedar flute, native drum when we had one, and our organ when it was alive. He has a mean baritone when on guitar, drum, or acapella.
I am limited in that I was trained as a song leader, and a choir singer, but not a conductor. I am a living bouncing ball. ("Just follow the bouncing ball...")
We are five hours from the nearest city. (Four, if you speed.)

We used to rehearse once/week, and we rocked. No more. If I call rehearsals now more than a handful of times in a year, they simply don't show up.

One more thing you can do, even if they don't come to rehearsals, is to start with 3 people, 2, or even just yourself. Read Jeffrey and Arlene's article about starting a garage schola (that's what inspired me).

http://www.ceciliaschola.org/pdf/garage.pdf

I do not know any more about your situation than what you've posted here, so what I'm about to suggest might be wrong...

Perhaps your problem in recruiting new folks for your choir is... well, the old folks. Sometimes groups become so comfortable together that when new folks show up, they're not exactly welcomed... They might change things and make things different, they might not dress quite like we dress, they might want to come with us to breakfast and really we fit very nicely at our breakfast table together now....

If I were in your position, and what I typed above was at least somewhat true, I would start a second choir. If the choir above is called the Adult Choir, start the Schola Cantorum or the Parish Choir... or the St. Someone Singers. It doesn't matter, but it should have a noticeably different name than the the choir I described above. Then I would advertise for new members (not even mentioning it to any of the members of the Status Quo Choir) and set a day and time for a weekly rehearsal beginning in a month and start advertising it in the bulletin. Every week. In a different spot.

Then the weekend before I would ask that an announcement be made at the Masses (if there are announcements made at Masses) about the new choir. Then I would show up for rehearsal and perhaps bring a book with me. It's possible that nobody shows up. Show up, read your book, pray, then lock up and go home. Go back the next week - and keep those announcements in the bulletin. Bring your book. Maybe someone will show. Maybe you'll read and pray.

Eventually someone will show up - unless perhaps you're the problem, and if you might be the problem for whatever reason, don't advertise that you're directing the new choir in your bulletin ads. Then if someone shows up, win them over that you're not a problem with your kindness and competence. Two people do not make a choir, but you can learn some stuff (there's really easy stuff out there that can sound pretty fantastic with two people) and by singing at Mass and showing your competence and combining that with being at parish events and showing your kindness (and "normal-ness," which is a key in running a successful music program), you'll start to grow. Have them sing at the same Mass as the Status Quo Choir, but don't let the lines be blurred that they become the same choir. Eventually the new choir will grow and the Status Quo Choir will retire.

Be patient and if all else fails, just keep showing up to non-musical events and acting really kind and really normal.

Dear PurpleSquirrel, With that many women in your choir, you certainly have enough to be a schola and do a lot of plainsong chant which would not require any accompaniment. I agree with one of the above in that you might want to consider starting a separate schola of just men perhaps. Until both are well underway, I would keep 'em separated and bring 'em together only for special occasions and then later down the road as a mixed adult choir.