August 2006 Stewardship Tips

Finding stewardship’s place in the sun…

Last month’s tip featured some ideas to invigorate your stewardship committee this summer and enhance the stewardship climate at your parish.  Here are a few more:

Make yourself some colorful name badges identifying you as members of the parish stewardship committee and wear them everywhere – to the parish picnic, the ice cream social, to “coffee ‘n‘ donuts” after Mass, wherever groups of parishioners congregate.  (You can design them yourself with the clip art and WordArt functions of Microsoft Word.  And one of your teachers, the DRE or Faith Formation director, or the Youth minister probably has a “button maker,” if you ask around.  Or check with a company that makes inexpensive mugs and T-shirts for advertisers.)

Volunteer as a group to help out at whatever late-summer/early fall parish events are being planned – the picnic or the ice cream social, the “welcome back” event at your parish school, your fall festival or “Oktoberfest”...  Wear your buttons and your best smiles and be ready to answer any questions that come up.  People may know all about stewardship at your parish – may already pledge and give generously of their time and talent – and still not know the names and faces of the hard-working committee people who help make it all happen!

Divide up the list of parish ministries and commit to attending at least one meeting of one or more of them – preferably one you don’t know a lot about – just as an interested observer.  Identify yourself as a member of the stewardship committee (and wear your button!) and just listen to see what connections can be forged.  What are they doing that the parish-at-large doesn’t know about, and how could that good work be made more visible?  What could the stewardship committee do to highlight and enhance their efforts?  Who among them might be good “new blood” for the stewardship committee or interested in helping with the next “Time & Talent” fair?

Commit to spending one hour (or one additional hour) in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, praying in particular for those in your parish who have not yet heard and answered the call to stewardship and discipleship.  They’ll be blessed by your prayer – and so will you!

And be sure to take time to relax, recharge, and give thanks for the fun, friends, and fair weather of these last few days of summer.  That’s good stewardship, too!