Stewardship Tip April 2007

Stewardship of parish families

Take a good look at the families in your parish.  Are they coming to Mass as a family?  Or are family members coming (or not coming) to Mass as individuals, at different times in the weekend?  Does whole community catechesis “work” at your parish?  Or are children just “dropped off” for faith formation classes despite your best efforts to include the whole family?  Are “family” events well or poorly attended?  It may be time to re-evaluate our traditional ways of doing things in the face of changing family demographics.

In many places, the parish church is no longer be the center of family activity – at least not in the same ways and to the same degree it once was.  One or both parents may have a long commute to work – or may travel to distant cities for days or weeks at a time – and not be able to attend evening functions or activities.  Are there military families in your congregation with family members deployed overseas?  These and other single parents may have difficulty coming to a “mandatory” First Communion parents’ meeting if there isn’t good child care available – for that First Communicant and his or her siblings.

Good stewardship of our contemporary parish families means meeting them where they are and inviting them into a deeper relationship with the Lord and with each other.  Each parish is different, but here are a few suggestions to get you thinking…  A group of parishioners might consider staffing the refreshment stand at the Little League games or soccer tournaments as a way of being present to the families gathered to support their children’s involvement.  Or perhaps instead of a lesson-extending project or assignment to be done at home, each child in the faith formation program could take home a finished project – an Advent wreath or a seasonal centerpiece, a prayer or the “question of the week” to stick on the ’fridge with a magnet.  Anything to catch the eye of the person sitting down to wolf down a sandwich or grabbing a cold soda on their way upstairs to finish their homework and remind them that it’s Lent (or Easter or Pentecost) and that God loves them.  And, who knows?  If family members are able to gather around the table for an occasional meal together, these reminders of their connection to the larger faith community might become the catalyst for some serious conversation.  (Note, however, that we quickly become blind to even the best symbols and conversation-starters if they aren’t renewed or replaced fairly regularly!)  Is your parish bulletin appealing and “reader friendly” with something for everyone inside, cheerfully distributed after Mass, and available on your parish website?  And is that website interesting enough – and changed often enough – to be a good “home page” for the family computer?  Does it provide easy access to what’s happening at the parish and good links to other community activities and family-centered sites?
 
We can wring our hands about changing family patterns and just keep hoping that things will get better.  Or we can take a long look at where our families are and what they’re doing, and see how the parish can support and encourage them in new ways.  The catechism says that our parish families are “the domestic church” – the place in which the faith is first learned and lived.  They are a treasure – a precious gift to the parish – that we must receive gratefully, cultivate responsibly, and for which we must be accountable to the Lord.  So, what’s happening with the families in your parish?  It would be good stewardship to try and find out!